Welcome to the first installment of the Rutgers Fall Preview Series. In the FPS we will take you position by position to give the rundown of who is battling for the starting position, how the position shook out over the spring, and where the position will be trending over the summer as we head towards the fall. Today the Scarlet Insiders bring you inside the battle to be the 2016 starting quarterback for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. It’s a position that will see it’s fair share of change over the summer, so let’s take a look.

Chris Laviano looks to hold off yet another challenge this summer

Where the position was before the spring:

After an up and down season that saw starting quarterback Chris Laviano throw for 2,247 yards, 16 TDs, and 12 INTs, new head coach Chris Ash and offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer decided to blow up the pro style offense and reopen the quarterback competition. Laviano, Hayden Rettig, and Giovanni Rescigno were given equal status to show what they could do in a new high tempo spread attack. Laviano came into the spring with collegiate experience and some mobility, while Rettig came in with superior arm talent and Rescigno had the most experience as a dual threat quarterback.

How the position shook out over the spring:

Almost immediately Giovanni Rescigno fell out of the race, leaving Rettig and Laviano as the two to battle over the starting position. Both showed some bright spots over the course of the spring, culminating at the 2016 Spring Game where both QBs showed some positives running the high tempo no huddle offense (also, some praise has to go to Mike Dare, who although not a fit for the offense showed poise and a great arm during the game). However those positives were also matched with plenty of negatives, such as Laviano being inaccurate on screens to Rettig running the offense at a less than optimal pace and being erratic in his ball placement. So while it did appear that Laviano came out of the spring in the lead for the position, neither quarterback did enough to fill the coaching staff with confidence just yet.

Heading towards the fall, and the arrival of the dual threats:

This summer sees two quarterbacks who fit what the Rutgers coaching staff want in their QBs enter the picture as true freshman Tylin Oden and TCU graduate transfer Zach Allen arrive on the banks. Zach Allen was an intriguing prospect out of high school in Texas who eventually signed on with TCU. Due to depth chart issues (such as being behind all world QB Trevone Boykin) he chose to transfer after completing two passes during his collegiate career. A dual threat, Allen immediately enters the QB race with the opportunity to immediately seize a sizeable share of reps during fall camp. Tylin Oden was a highly sought after prospect with 9 Power Five offers to his name who flipped to Rutgers after originally being committed to Louisville. Possibly the more talented of the two dual threats, Oden is young, raw, and probably needs a year to develop his body. However he has put on some weight onto his frame since signing day and if he shows enough during the summer he may be pressed into action. Chris Laviano will start out the race as the number one, but the question becomes will his locker room leadership and experience fend off these new challenges?

Prediction:

It’s hard to see how the quarterback position will shake out at Rutgers. Laviano is still out front as of now, and that makes it two coaching staffs in a row that have placed him over Rettig. However, while he is mobile for a pro style quarterback, he is nowhere near what the staff has had during their times at Ohio State and Houston in terms of mobility. Enter Allen and Oden. With his time at TCU, even as a backup QB/WR, he comes in with experience in one of the best coached offenses in collegiate football. Offensive Coordinator Drew Mehringer comes from Houston where that program saw a QB who also spent time at wide receiver breakout in Greg Ward, Jr., and Allen is hoping that lightning strikes twice. Freshman Tylin Oden comes in with a tremendously high ceiling, but the youngster may still be too raw to take hold of the position during his first summer at Rutgers. So with that said, our prediction at the Scarlet Insiders is that Chris Laviano and Zach Allen will be named co-starters sometime during the summer, with it possibly being a gametime decision for the opener for Washington. Tylin Oden will be the third string quarterback behind those two. Do not be surprised if more than one QB sees significant reps this season.