Rutgers football: 'No chance' Ash names QB before training camp

PISCATAWAY --Chris Ash will not have his starting quarterback in place by the time spring practice ends at Rutgers on the evening of April 14, but you could have guessed that on your own.

Sure, some of the six quarterbacks on the roster have and will continue to separate themselves as April wears on. There will be a depth chart later this spring, which will produce a presumed leader in the race start on Sept. 1 against Texas State, but Ash is going to take part of training camp to figure this thing out.

Ash meets with the media once a week during spring practice, so during that time, the quarterback situation is guaranteed to come up. On Thursday, the third-year Scarlet Knights head coach offered his most-definitive stance of the spring on the most-important position on the field.

"No chance, no chance. We're nowhere ready to do that," Ash said when asked to clarify whether or not he would like to have a quarterback in place at the end of spring practice. "We have so much to do offensively, and it starts at the quarterback position, managing the offense. Now, we're making a lot of progress. I'm really happy with the group overall. When you look at least year, (redshirt senior) Gio (Rescigno) was basically the lone soldier in spring practice, so we have a much-more competitive room. We've got play-makers in the room, the competition is great, the chemistry is great, but we have so far to go before we think about making a decision on who is going to be a starter.

"There will be no chance that a starter will be named after spring."

Ash may not name a starter after the Scarlet-White Game in 12 days, but if you listen to him closely enough, not to mention offensive coordinator John McNulty enough, you get the sense that there is a plan. McNulty has gone as far as to say he thinks he knows which way things are heading.

On March 24, Rutgers conducted a live scrimmage in front of fans and students at the practice bubble. On Thursday, Ash went out of his way to say that Rescigno, freshman Art Sitkowski and sophomore Johnathan Lewis all had good scrimmages.

"Not the other guys were bad, but those guys made some throws, did some things that were a little bit better," Ash said.

With those three names emerging, none of which come as a surprise, one main takeaway is Ash doesn't sound hesitant about starting Sitkowski, an Old Bridge native coming in with a lot of hype as a four-star recruit out of IMG Academy. Still, Ash will do his best to tone down that noise.

"We're not even talking about anything like that," Ash said. "We're so far away, figuring out how to consistently take the snap, let alone who's going to start and is there a leash on them. We've got a long way to go. Forget it, not even thinking about that. I don't mean to be rude, but we just have so much to do."

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