Lot of questions as Rutgers prepares for opener
Just over a week into training camp, the two biggest questions surrounding Rutgers are who’ll be the starting quarterback against Texas State and how will the investigation of credit-card fraud impact the roster.
Three quarterbacks are vying for the starting nod in senior Gio Rescigno, sophomore Johnathan Lewis and freshman Artur Sitkowski. Six players were left off the roster amid the credit-card fraud investigation.
Redshirt junior linebacker/safety Malik Dixon, senior defensive back Kobe Marfo, sophomore defensive end C.J. Onyechi, redshirt freshman cornerback Edwin Lopez, redshirt freshman defensive back Naijee Jones and redshirt freshman linebacker Syhiem Simmons did not appear on the official roster distributed by the team. Simmons announced his intent to transfer via his Twitter accounting, tweeting a picture of his scholarship release form Friday.
With eight practices, including the first of three scrimmages Saturday, the answers to the quarterback and legal questions haven’t changed since Rutgers opened up camp on Aug. 3
In a five-minute opening statement before taking questions at the team’s Media Day, Rutgers coach Chris Ash said the quarterback competition is still in the evaluation process while he awaits the results of RUPD’s investigation into credit card fraud. With the second of two scrimmages this Saturday, Ash hopes that after the scrimmage he and offensive coordinator John McNulty will have seen enough to name a starter.
“It’s based on what the remote say,” Ash said, referring to practice film. “When you hit play on the remote, who’s consistent, who’s making plays? There’s a feel component of it too. Who do we feel like the rest of the players on the football team and specifically he offense, do they really believe in who they trust, who they’re going to rally around, we haven’t really gotten to that point, no.”
Rescigno has the most experience with seven career starts, tossing seven touchdowns and six interceptions. Lewis appeared in seven games last year, throwing two touchdowns and running for four more. However, Lewis, a former threestar recruit from St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City had accuracy issues, completing just 14 of 38 passes and throwing four interceptions.
Sitkwoski, another instate three-star recruit, has impressed since arriving as an early enrollee in January. A native of nearby Old Bridge, Sitkowski is a big-arm talent with prototypical size at 6-foot-5, 224 pounds, spent his senior season at IMG Academy in Florida,
“If he ends up being the starter, there’s obviously going to be some good days and some bad days, and hopefully they’re not all on Saturday’s. Hopefully the bad days are in practice and you learn from them,” McNulty said, adding, “I don’t think when he starts playing he’s going to win every game. I don’t think that’s realistic. It kind of goes with the territory. If we didn’t feel like an 18-year-old guy that’s a freshman legitimately wasn’t ready to take on this responsibility then we can’t play him. That’s part of the evaluation. It’s not just how far he can throw the ball. It’s the mental makeup and your ability to handle the job. As a rookie or a freshman, you could ruin the kid. That’s part of the evaluation.”
Which puts Rescigno and Lewis in a position of competitors simultaneously mentoring a wonderkid fans hope is a program-changing quarterback for Ash, who was 2-10 with a 0-9 Big Ten Conference record in his first season and 4-8 overall and 3-6 in the league last year.