This was early in the spring, before Artur Sitkowski would prove worthy of becoming the first true freshman to start in Week 1 under center at Rutgers in 17 years, and before Sitkowski would impress coaches and teammates alike with his advanced skill set and leadership qualities.
Isaiah Wharton was headed back to the practice facility after night class to watch film because the redshirt senior’s idea of fun was preparing for the upcoming season. The four-year starter walked into what he expected to be an empty locker room. But it wasn’t empty. Sitkowski, a highly regarded four-star recruit from IMG Academy (Fla.) and Old Bridge, N.J., was there. He had just gotten in a throwing session with wide receiver Jalen Jordan, the beginning of a hard-working trend for the young signal-caller.
“It showed me he wanted to play right away and was putting himself in position to do that,” Wharton recalled in a phone interview this week, as Rutgers prepared for Saturday’s season opener against Texas State at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, N.J. “That’s why he won the starting job.”
Sitkowski, the most heralded recruit of coach Chris Ash’s tenure, was always doing something extra after hours, as often as seniors like Wharton, a snapshot into how he landed the starting job over more experienced teammates Gio Rescigno and Johnathan Lewis. While there were concerns about going with someone so young, and Ash has admitted he doesn’t know how his young quarterback will deal with the pressure of gamedays, the 6-foot-5 Sitkowski’s maturity and ability outweighed such potential issues. His impressive performance in the spring game created a buzz — Sitkowski threw three touchdown passes, including a 75-yard bomb to receiver Bo Melton — and it only grew this summer, to the point it became obvious to Ash the young kid deserved the job.
“He’s got size, he’s got arm strength, and even more so than that, he’s a tremendous leader,” Ash said. “When you look at all those things combined, that’s really what went into that decision to start him.”
The hope is a new quarterback with a big arm that can stretch the field and a new offensive coordinator in John McNulty, who had the job back in 2006-08, when the Scarlet Knights put up record-breaking numbers for the program, can ignite an offense that was one of the worst in the country a year ago. The unit averaged 18 points per game, 11th-fewest in the nation. The defense, which features seven senior starters, was solid a year ago but far too often put in bad positions. The hope is it can be even better this year, led by an experienced defensive backfield headed by returning starters Wharton, Blessuan Austin and Saquan Hampton.
“We want to be the best secondary in the conference,” Wharton said.Rutgers improved last fall, in Ash’s second year, going from zero to three conference victories and two to four wins overall. Another leap is needed, especially after the credit card fraud scandal cast a negative light on the program and led to the departure of four players, including projected starting safety K.J. Gray. Sophomore receiver Dacoven Bailey was also dismissed from the team and the university in January after he was charged in late December 2017 with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Texas.
Reaching a bowl game, which would be Rutgers’ first since 2014, should be attainable, despite playing in the loaded Big Ten East against the likes of playoff contenders Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State.
“It’s a goal we would like to have every year,” Ash said. “We were very close last year to breaking through and getting a couple of other victories.
“This year we can’t just be close — we have to go do it.”