MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin can win the Big Ten championship on Saturday. Yet there remains a giant what-if hovering over this Badgers season.

What if quarterback Joel Stave had been named the starter back in mid-August? Would he have still developed the "yips" that caused him to miss the first four games? And would Wisconsin be playing not just for a Big Ten title this weekend vs. Ohio State but also a playoff berth?

STAVE "YIPS" TIMELINE Here is a timeline of Joel Stave's battle with the "yips," a mental block that made it difficult for him to complete even a simple, short pass. Aug. 22: Wisconsin decides to start Tanner McEvoy over Stave at QB for the opener against LSU. Stave's yips begin right after that decision. Aug. 30: Stave throws several erratic passes during warmups before the LSU game and does not play. Wisconsin blows a 17-point lead as McEvoy throws for only 50 yards with two interceptions. Sept. 2: Wisconsin releases a statement in the morning from head coach Gary Andersen saying Stave will be shut down with a shoulder injury. That night, Andersen retracts the statement and says Stave isn't hurt. Stave tells reporters that he has a mental block. Sept. 30: Stave meets with reporters and says the yips have passed. Oct. 4: Stave makes his 2014 debut, replacing McEvoy late in the first half at Northwestern. He throws three interceptions as Wisconsin loses 20-14. Oct. 11: Stave makes his first start of the season in a 38-28 win over Illinois. It's the first of seven straight wins for the Badgers behind Stave, who has thrown for seven touchdowns and just one interception as the starter. -- Brian Bennett

It's an intriguing question. Perhaps the Badgers don't blow a 17-point second-half lead in the opener against LSU if Stave could have helped provide some semblance of a passing threat. Maybe they don't lose to Northwestern on Oct. 4, when a clearly rusty Stave tried to lead a comeback despite throwing three interceptions.

We'll never know the answer, of course, and neither Stave nor Wisconsin are all that interested in revisiting the past. They'd rather talk about what came next, and how Stave might now be playing the best football of his career.

"It's one hell of a journey, when you go back and start looking at what that young man has been through," Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen said last week. "And he overcame it himself, which is the greatest thing."

Stave will tell you he didn't get through those difficult weeks alone. He leaned heavily on his family and friends, though initially he kept his struggles to himself. He has admitted the mental block that prevented him from delivering even a short pass with any accuracy began right after Andersen anointed Tanner McEvoy as the starter. This despite the fact that Stave had started all 13 games the previous season and by all accounts had outplayed McEvoy earlier in training camp.

His older brother, Bryan, remembers talking with Stave right after Andersen informed the team of his decision.

"He was obviously disappointed, but he seemed pretty upbeat like nothing was really bothering him as much as it," Bryan Stave said. "But I know how competitive he is, so I knew things were killing him inside."

Still, Bryan said Stave's family didn't really know about the throwing problems in the preseason. The issue first started to become public when Stave looked erratic in pregame warmups before the season opener against LSU. The Tuesday after that loss is when Andersen announced Stave had an injured shoulder, before retracting that hours later as Stave told the media about his mental hurdles.

It was a bizarre series of events, to say the least, and the following day his parents, Bryan and his sister Rachel convened an emergency meeting in Madison. They went out for a late-night dinner and talked about his situation for about two hours. The family's message: we love you, no matter what.

"We let him know that for us, it's not about football," said Karl Stave, Joel's dad. "It's about making good decisions and being in a good position to be productive in life. Football is great, and we support him there, but we wanted to make sure he understood there's much more than that for us."

Karl and Barb Stave made sure all three of their children -- Rachel was a diver for Wisconsin before injuring her neck last year -- became well-rounded, active people. They didn't allow video games or have cable TV in their Greenfield, Wisconsin, home. Joel and Bryan both play the piano and guitar, and Joel is majoring in civil engineering, just like his dad. Though playing sports was a huge part of their children's lives, it was supposed to be just one facet of them.

"It's one hell of a journey, when you go back and start looking at what that young man has been through. And he overcame it himself, which is the greatest thing."

So Stave's recovery centered on making football a game again, not a pressure point. A couple of hours after he sat out Wisconsin's Week 2 win against Western Illinois, he and his brother returned to Camp Randall Stadium to throw the ball around. Bryan, who's a good athlete in his own right, said he sailed a pass from the 42-yard line through the field goal uprights. Joel congratulated him, then backed up five more yards and ran to his left before zipping a throw between the uprights and into the stands.

"He threw it about 60 yards on the run and made it look like it was nothing," Bryan said. "So I knew then that there was nothing physically wrong with him. He just had to get back to having more fun."

Stave also threw with his best friend from high school back home on the Badgers' bye week, and he would get in extra tosses every day after practice with receiver Jordan Fredrick.

"I knew at some point I was going to come out of it and I was going to be fine," Stave told ESPN.com. "I had to always have that mindset that I'm fine, that it's just a game and that I was going to be better for having come through this."

Wisconsin has used a two-quarterback system since Stave returned against Northwestern, bringing McEvoy in as a running option. But Stave has started the past seven games, and the Badgers have won them all. He has thrown seven touchdowns with just one interception during that span.

The past two games may have been his finest moments. At Iowa, he converted several key third downs in a 26-24 win, including a third-and-13 pass to Melvin Gordon and a 12-yard scramble on third-and-8 to salt the game away.

Wisconsin QB Joel Stave is having fun again. Need proof? Look at the wins and the TD passes. Jeff Hanisch/USA TODAY Sports

Last week in the de facto Big Ten West Division championship game, Minnesota all but dared Wisconsin to pass the ball by playing their safeties close to the line of scrimmage. Stave went 11-for-18 for 215 yards and two touchdowns while also drawing some pass interference penalties against one-on-one coverage down the field.

Andersen said Stave is "probably as comfortable since we've all been here together" in his reads and understanding of the protection scheme.

"He is seeing the field very, very well," Andersen said. "I'm not an offensive guru, but I look at him and I think he's a very talented quarterback playing out there right now and doing a very nice job."

Stave's teammates respect the work he put in to get back on track. Center Dan Voltz called him "the hardest-working player on the team, day in and day out." Right tackle Rob Havenstein said Stave was the team's "savior" against Iowa and he "has really stepped up as the leader of this team." Running back Corey Clement said Stave's confidence "is skyrocketing right now."

Improbable as it sounds, Stave will be the closest thing to a star quarterback in the Big Ten championship game, as Ohio State will have a first-time starter in Cardale Jones. Stave was redshirting as a freshman when Wisconsin beat Michigan State in the 2011 game and was out with a broken collarbone when the Badgers beat Nebraska in Indianapolis in 2012. So he's really looking forward to this moment.

"They're a top 5 team and kind of a brand name," he said. "Being able to play a team like that for a championship is everything you want."

The what-if question may always linger around this Wisconsin season. But the reality of what happened with Stave is pretty important to remember, too.

"It was definitely a life lesson for him," Karl Stave said. "There are disappointments in life. But you've got to battle through it, and the sun will come up the next day."