Rutgers' Quarterback Crisis: Why Homegrown Talent Has Evaded the Scarlet Knights for Years

Rutgers football has gone quite a long time since it has fully developed a quarterback from the start of their college career until its finish. According to Jason Kirk of The Athletic, it has been roughly 15 years since one of these quarterbacks was recruited and 12 since one actually played for Rutgers, as Gary Nova, who was a part of the 2011 recruiting class, is the most recent quarterback to have signed with the Scarlet Knights out of high school, start at least one season, and leave the school due either graduation or the draft. The only Power Four schools with a longer drought of a homegrown quarterback are South Carolina, Auburn, Kentucky, NC State, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia Tech, and Boston College.

This reality speaks to the Knights’ ability to/luck at developing and retaining quarterbacks over the years. The Chris Ash era was a disaster for any signal caller, as quarterbacks who showed flashes of talent like Chris Laviano and Artur Sitkowski never found their permanent footing with Ash at the helm. For example, Laviano threw for 2247 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2015 under Kyle Flood, but only 748 yards and 5 touchdowns in 2016 under Ash. Sitkowski showed some promise as he was thrust into action his freshman year, but that promise turned into anything substantial.

On the flip side, luck, or rather lack thereof, has a lot to do with why it has been so long as well. Sometimes prospects are just not as good as they seem coming out of high school and don’t work out, no matter the situation around them. Gavin Whimsatt was rated as a four-star coming out of high school and had the physical abilities to back it up, but never developed the soft skills necessary to make it work. Despite having a quarterback coach/OC like Kirk Ciarrocca, who is a proven QB developer, and one of the best running backs in the Big Ten at the time, Kyle Monangai, Whimsatt was never able to get everything to click and ended up transferring to Kentucky after losing a quarterback battle to transfer Athan Kaliakmanis. He also struggled to find his footing with the Wildcats before moving down a level.

While it is important to note that both the transfer portal and NIL have existed during this time, neither has been the driving force behind the quarterback departures in particular, although NIL most definitely has played a role in recruiting them. On top of that, both of these factors make having the possibility of having a homegrown quarterback in the modern day and future more difficult, but not impossible.

The hope is that with AJ Surace now competing for the starting job, the Knights can buck this trend and have a quality starter that they recruited out of high school finish out their career as a Scarlet Knight. For that to happen, Surace will actually have to win the quarterback competition against Dylan Lonergan, and Rutgers will have to find a way to retain him if he does start this season.