Joel Stave attended Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin, where he was a three-year letter winner in football and track and field and two in basketball.

He was honorable mention all-state by the WFCA, first-team all-region, all-suburban, all-conference, and second-team all-area as a junior.

all-state honors, unanimous conference player of the year, first-team all-conference and second-team all-region as a senior.

Stave left Wisconsin as the school's all-time winningest quarterback with a 31–10 record as a starter.

In his career with the Badgers, he started 41 games (third-most by a quarterback in school history) and went 22–6 (.786) as a starter against Big Ten opponents, setting school records for wins and winning percentage in conference games.

Stave was injured on October 27 against Michigan State missing the rest of the regular season and the 2012 Big Ten Football Championship Game.

Established new career highs in completions (24), attempts (29) and touchdown passes (3) against Tennessee Tech on September 7.

In winning his final game of his collegiate career Joel Stave was named Holiday Bowl Offensive MVP and captured the title of winningest quarterback in Badgers history with 31 career wins, surpassing Brooks Bollinger's record set in 2002.

Stave finished his career at Wisconsin as program's all-time leader in wins as a starting quarterback, with 31.

Stave, a civil engineering major, also finished All-Academic Big Ten four times, breaking a record previously held by Drew Brees.