Rutgers football: Handicapping the Scarlet Knights quarterback battle
By Ed Stein
Runner-up
Artur Sitkowski – As previously mentioned, his 2018 was nothing short of horrid. The question is how much of it was his fault. Granted, the Knights were tied for the least amount of sacks allowed in the conference, but that doesn’t mean Sitkowski didn’t feel the pressure. Still, his accuracy and decision making was awful last season.
The Rutgers starter completed a mere 49.1 percent of his passes. Equally as horrible was his 4.2 yards per passing attempt. As Vin Scully would say statistics should be used the same way a drunk uses a lamppost, for support rather than illumination. Anyone who watched Sitkowski play in 2018 is far from surprised by his miserable statistics.
This is a new season and arguably the talent surrounding him will be better. Is it enough to compete in the Big 10 on a consistent basis? Probably not. Should Sitkowski be the Rutgers quarterback again in 2019, he will be in relatively the same position he was in 2018, minus some of the deer in the headlights. Sitkowski will be forced to make plays and so far he hasn’t shown that he has the ability to do so.
It’s almost not fair to the young man. Maybe if Sitkowski had two or three years to sit and learn the college game, he would have been a serviceable Big 10 quarterback one day. He’s got the build (6-5, 225 pounds) and arm strength to play college football. However, he greatly lacks in most every other area it takes to be successful.
Some of Sitkowski’s failures have to fall on head coach Chris Ash for putting his quarterback in a position where he couldn’t succeed. In the end, Sitkowski will ride the bench in 2019 and that’s probably the best thing for his future development.