Report: Rutgers Quarterback Art Sitkowski to return to Rutgers Football

Attrition on a college football team is guaranteed every year. Throw in back to back winless conference records plus coaching instability/uncertainty and even the starting quarterback might leave. Sophomore Quarterback Artur Sitkowski who was the 2018 starter and started two games in 2019 prior to the coaching change put his name in the transfer portal last week.

In the first newsworthy item for the Rutgers Football team since ... just yesterday ... it’s been reported (first by Scarlet Nation) that Sitkowski has removed his name from the transfer portal and will return to the Rutgers Football team. This coincided with Greg Schiano addressing the team today for the first time. I mentioned in the long and short term impacts of this hire that resolving the status of players either already in the transfer portal or those thinking about it would be one of the first orders of business for RU’s next head man.

I didn’t want to do too much speculation in last week’s post about what players would surely stay or go until we knew who would be coaching this team. It is true that since players including Art put their names in the portal, the university could in fact revoke their scholarships; but that determination would be made by the new staff. So technically Art or anyone else who removes his name could still have to follow some Rutgers specific process, but I suspect we’ll see him (likely all of them who do choose to return) on the sidelines in 2020 with no further complications.

The state of the quarterback position on the current Rutgers roster I would not definitively say is at “Big Ten level,” one of a series of topics we will dive into position by position in a subsequent article or possibly even podcast. For the offensive skill positions specifically, it’s important to find out what offensive scheme Rutgers plans to run moving forward. Sitkowski and true freshman Cole Snyder are a better fit in a pro-style, but both possess enough athleticism to be serviceable in some versions of spread or “air raid” if Schiano and his staff go in that direction. Johnny Langan is a power-running quarterback who needs some more tuning with his throwing to be effective against Big Ten competition long-term. No news on whether McLane Carter will petition for a 6th year of eligibility.

Regardless, having a quarterback with experience who tossed for over 300 yards in a game this past year against a Power Five team is surely an asset. Before he elected to redshirt, Sitkowski was showing signs of significant growth since his struggles as a true freshman in 2018. If he can continue on what was a reasonable growth path, Rutgers may not be desperate for a quarterback for the first time in a while.

A press conference is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 am to introduce Schiano as the Rutgers Football team’s next head coach.

Plenty of roster updates, season wrap ups, and expectations moving forward will be covered here at onthebanks.com.