Rutgers football: Art Sitkowski mature beyond his years as debut arrives

Josh Newman | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption WATCH: Rutgers names Art Sitkowski starting quarterback True freshman quarterback Art Sitkowski will start for Rutgers when it opens the season Sept. 1 against Texas State

PISCATAWAY - In hindsight, the postgame scene after the Scarlet-White Game on April 14 offered a beneficial look at the psyche of Art Sitkowski.

The early-enrollee from IMG Academy, by way of Old Bridge High School, was the star of the night, throwing for 280 yards and three touchdowns, but also two interceptions. Already hyped as the eventual starter for the Scarlet Knights, that hype was only cranked up in the minds of many after the game. He helped himself, there was no denying it.

Upstairs in a second-floor meeting room at the Hale Center, in walked Sitkowski, and he wasn't happy. He started talking, almost begrudgingly, basically stating his displeasure with his performance. The way Sitkowski's mind works, he didn't play well. Instead, under the unorthodox scoring system that night, his two interceptions were worth 12 points to the defense, contributing to a 132-all tie.

He closed the night, after a live scrimmage whose score and particulars will be lost in time, by sternly saying that "we gotta win games here."

Four-and-a-half months later, Sitkowski will be just the third Rutgers true freshman quarterback since World War II to start a season-opener when the Scarlet Knights oppose Texas State (noon Saturday, Big Ten Network).

Sitkowski is the guy, and he is being asked to be the guy at the age of 18. Now, more than ever, everything he does, everything he says will be dissected. There will be bumps in the road, and how he reacts will say a lot about him. To that end, how Sitkowski carried himself after the Scarlet-White Game should tell people one thing.

This kid wants it, bad.

'I knew he was a high-level player'

John McNulty has seen some things.

The 50-year-old Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, native is beginning the first season of his second stint as Rutgers offensive coordinator. In the nine seasons between Rutgers jobs, McNulty was an NFL assistant. Four of those nine years were spent as a quarterbacks coach, including 2015 with the Tennessee Titans when Marcus Mariota was a rookie.

Comparing any college freshman to an NFL player is fruitless. The point here is, McNulty knows what he is looking at when it comes to quarterbacks.

"I knew that he was a high-level player, you could just tell by some of the throws that he made," said McNulty, who did not recruit Sitkowski, arriving as offensive coordinator in January after Jerry Kill retired. "His size, his quick release, his arm strength, all those things. He has those qualities, but you’re also looking for guys that really love football, live to play the position, and he is definitely that.

"With Art, it’s really his life, so to speak. He does well academically, he’s a social guy, he does stuff right, but other than family, football is a large priority in his life. This is what he has based his life on. He wanted to have a good high school career, he wants to have a good college career, a good NFL career. That is how he put himself together over the years, and that comes through when you talk to him."

By any metric, Sitkowski passes the eye test. Rutgers is listing him at 6-foot-5, 224 pounds. At that size, he has a real presence about him, whether that be under center or when he walks in a room. He has a big arm, as evidenced in that Scarlet-White Game, while teammates have raved about his football IQ. McNulty and Ash have both indicated multiple times since spring practice that Sitkowski has the tools to be very good.

Football mechanics and long-term projections aside, the most-impressive thing about Sitkowski might just be how he carries himself. Including the Scarlet-White Game, Sitkowski has met the media three times, twice in the spring and once this summer. Each time, he has been well-spoken, mostly with a smile, and sounds like someone more mature than his age.

Sitkowski is well-schooled in terms of dealing with the media. He has something to say, and he will answer your questions, but he will not give away too much. Sitkowski isn't likely someone the Rutgers athletic communications staff will have to worry about, nor will anybody else for that matter.

"I’ve seen him with parents, our players, our staff, strangers that walk in the building," McNulty said. "He is a very confident, personable, outgoing guy that wants to portray a positive image of being the quarterback of this team. He is on a different level. He understands what he wants to do, and that is how he carries himself.”

“There’s a feel component of it, too," Ash said earlier this month, before Sitkowski was announced as the starter late last week. "Who do we feel like the rest of the players on the football team, and more specifically the offense, who they really believe in, who they trust, who they’re going to rally around?"

Has Ash figured out QB problem?

For a variety of reasons, Ash has yet to find himself a quarterback, either short-term or long-term.

Chris Laviano was his opening-day starter in 2016, but he was ineffective and Gio Rescigno eventually took over. Ash brought in Louisville graduate transfer Kyle Bolin in time for training camp last summer. Bolin was voted a captain and won the job, but he, too, was ineffective and Rescigno took over again.

TCU quarterback transfer Zach Allen never made a dent. Dual-threat quarterback Tylin Oden was once viewed as the potential future at the position under then-offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer and his power-spread scheme, but he was gone after a year.

Sitkowski represents the latest chance for Ash to figure out the most-important position on the field.

"If we didn’t think an 18-year-old guy wasn’t legitimately ready to take this responsibility, then we wouldn’t play him," McNulty said. "That’s just part of the evaluation process. The mental makeup of a kid is huge if you’re going to hand him this job. If you’re going to play a rookie, or a freshman, and you’re afraid of ruining the kid, that is something you have to think about."

Fair enough. Everyone is going to find out something about Sitkowski's mental makeup and whether or not he can handle things rather quickly. After Texas State, Rutgers is at third-ranked Ohio State, which, despite the Urban Meyer fiasco, should be in the neighborhood of a four-touchdown favorite at Ohio Stadium.

If Sitkowski can emerge from that experience better than when he started, Rutgers fans should believe that Ash picked the right guy.

"We're not asking Art to go win games," Ash said. "We're asking him to protect the football and to get the football in the hands of other players that can make some plays that can put points on the board. That's what it is."

Staff Writer Josh Newman: jnewman@app.com; @Joshua_Newman