Rutgers Football: It’s been a frustrating spring for the Scarlet Knights
By Ed Stein
This spring has been a mixed bag for Rutgers football. There have been as many ups there are downs. Coach Chris Ash has a big job ahead of him.
No one ever said moving to the Big 10 would be easy for Rutgers football. However, the Scarlet Knights still remain far behind the competition curve. For everything that goes right, something seems to go wrong. That unfortunate pattern continued throughout the spring.
Spring Fallout
Spring practice concluded last week with the Scarlet and White Spring Scrimmage. While head coach Chris Ash was positive in his comments to nj.com, he wasn’t exactly glowing either.
"“The true test — and I get it — it’s when we play games,’’ Ash said. “I’m not going to sit here and proclaim anything about our football team right now after 15 spring practices. We’ve got a lot of work to do this summer. We have a lot of work to do in training camp when we put the pads back on.“But I like the direction that we’re going, and I like the way these guys show up to work every day.’’That sounds like, “we aren’t that good, there is plenty to do before the first game, but we work hard and will get better.” If you are a Rutgers football fan, how happy are you with that?"
Ash enters his fourth season as the Scarlet Knights coach with a record of 7-29 overall, and 3-24 in Big 10 Conference play. It’s not how he imagined his first head coaching job would go.
Quarterback issues
Even though Ash supports sophomore quarterback Artur Sitkowski, he has little real choice. Johnny Langan transferred back home to New Jersey after transferring in from Boston College this semester. He still has not been cleared to officially play for Rutgers by the NCAA this season. The school is awaiting a waiver from the NCAA.
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Even so, Langan didn’t really get a chance to show what he could really do as a mobile dual-threat quarterback in the spring game. Obviously, Ash didn’t want him to take unnecessary hits, but we have little idea as to how he can help the team.
It’s Sitkowski’s job and Ash isn’t going to declare the job open if he doesn’t know if Langan will be eligible in 2019. Still, the incumbent often looked like a deer in the headlights last season against aggressive Big 10 defenses. There is stability at quarterback, but it’s below average right now. Over Ash’s tenure, Rutgers has not completed over 50 percent of their passes in a season. That won’t improve much with Sitkowski running the offense.
Transfer portal
The other up and down situation for Rutgers football is with the transfer portal. While they didn’t lose as many players like Penn State’s 17, they still lost six players. Two of them were important pieces of the offense, tight end Travis Vokolek and guard Jonah Jackson. Considering the Knights offense was last in the conference, (almost 33 percent behind 13th place Michigan State) those are serious blows.
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Key players coming into the program include linebacker Drew Singleton from Michigan, tight end Matt Alaimo from UCLA and Langan. With a little luck, Rutgers will have a “push” on spring transfers.