Rutgers football: Handicapping the Scarlet Knights quarterback battle
By Ed Stein
As Rutgers football prepares to begin camp for the 2019 season, the Scarlet Knights will have a quarterback battle as the main attraction. EWB handicaps the contenders.
The 2018 season was tied for the second-worst record in Rutgers football history. After an opening day win over FCS school Texas State, the Scarlet Knights dropped 11 in a row. Going winless in the Big 10 was bad enough. They also got blown out by 41 points at Big-12 cellar-dweller Kansas and by 29 points at home against MAC school, Buffalo.
Out of 129 FBS teams, the Scarlet Knights offense was among the worst performers.
- 129th Offensive points per game – 13.5
- 129th Passes intercepted – 22
- 128th Offensive touchdowns – 17
- 127th Total offensive yards – 3195
- 127th Yards per play – 4.14
- 123rd Passing yards per game – 132.2 (six of the seven teams below them run the option)
It takes a good quarterback to help a team succeed. A man his teammates can look toward to lead the offense. That guy didn’t show up in the Scarlet Knigts’s offensive huddle last year. Among 128 qualifiers, Rutgers QB Artur Sitkowski was dead last in ESPN’s Total Quarterback Rating. That’s why his job as the RU starting quarterback may be coming to an end.
There is hope. This summer some new blood enters the Rutgers locker room. True freshmen Cooper Heisey, and Cole Snyder, freshman transfer Johnny Langan from Boston College as well as graduate transfer McLane Carter from Texas Tech have come into the program. They join holdovers Sitkowski and redshirt freshman Austin Albericci as the quarterbacks in coordinator John McNulty’s offense.