Rutgers football, throughout its recent history, lacks a quarterback that fans can point to as a shining star of his era. They have seen some relatively good and consistent quarterback play from guys such as Mike Teel, Gary Nova, and Ryan Hart but none of these names are what someone can label as a star. The issue is that with the exception of Teel, none of the other quarterbacks proved that they were good enough to be drafted during their time on the banks.
Another issue is that Rutgers has cycled through many quarterbacks in the last 14 years who weren’t even close to becoming NFL-ready talent. In fact, Rutgers had multiple quarterback carousels since their last bowl win making half of their quarterbacks take a starting snap not even ready for college talents.
The best quarterback in terms of NFL-ready talent since 1999 was arguably Tom Savage, who famously left the team and transferred to Pitt after two seasons because of disputes with then and current head coach Greg Schiano. Savage was the only one of these quarterbacks to appear in an NFL regular season game and he did not even graduate from Rutgers, making it unclear if it was Rutgers or Pitt who better prepared him for the NFL. The fact that he was the only one shows the struggle of Scarlet Knight quarterbacks moving on to a higher level, something that can be a damning statement about their development in college.
Recent Quarterback struggles
The most recent example is the failure to develop Gavin Wimsatt into a consistent college quarterback. Wimsatt, who was recruited to Rutgers by former offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson, was a four-star high school recruit. He was also the highest recruit that Rutgers had landed at the position. Now after just two seasons of playing and only one as the solo starter, Wimsatt will be moving on to a different school as he entered the transfer portal after losing the starting job to Athan Kaliakmanis.
Kaliakmanis himself, however, has already started his development at Minnesota before transferring to Rutgers. In essence, he was already a proven Big Ten starter at another school before coming to Rutgers. Rutgers did not develop him out of their own system, he was taken from another system in the hopes that he would be a better fit on the banks after their attempts to develop their own starter from within had failed.
The one positive in this area for Rutgers is that now they seem to have an offensive coordinator who can develop talent at a Big Ten level. Kirk Ciarrocca, despite not being able to salvage Wimsatt’s development, has proven that he can develop starting quarterbacks in the Big 10. He has proven that by being the coach that developed Kaliakmanis at his last school.
Before coming to the banks of the Raritan to be the Knights’ offensive coordinator, Ciarrocca was in Minnesota twice and Penn State as their offensive coordinator. He played a role in the development of Kaliakmanis himself, and he played a major role in convincing him to come to Rutgers. His other success stories are Sean Clifford at Penn State and Tanner Morgan at Minnesota. Both of these men became solid options for their schools at quarterback, partly due to Ciarrocca’s teachings.
Oh yeah and that Tom Savage guy mentioned earlier? The only Rutgers quarterback to appear in an NFL regular season game in modern Knights history? Turns out what time he did spend on the banks he spent under Ciarrocca during his first stint at Rutgers. Even if Savage did not graduate from Rutgers he still received pivotal development from Ciarrocca during his freshman and sophomore years. So at the very least Knights fans know they have someone who has proven they can develop Big Ten quarterback talent in their corner.