Rutgers football: Gio Rescigno, freshmen vying for quarterback as spring nears

PISCATAWAY - Rutgers has 13 spring practices left, including the Scarlet-White Game on April 14. By the end of it all, third-year Scarlet Knights head coach Chris Ash would like to have a starting quarterback in place.

Ash, of course, knows a luxury like having your quarterback depth settled before everyone reconvenes in August, will be easier said than done.

There is the incumbent, Gio Rescigno, to consider. A once-intriguing sophomore, Johnathan Lewis, is in the mix, as are two early enrollees, four-star Artur Sitkowski, an Old Bridge native, and three-star Jalen Chatman.

In Ash's perfect world, one of the four steps up and takes control of the job. In an even more-perfect world, that player not only takes control of the job, but keeps control of it. Kyle Bolin failed to do the latter last fall, eventually ceding the position to Rescigno.

"We're going to have a depth chart, for sure, at some point as we go through 15 practices," Ash said after Rutgers' first spring practice on March 6. "We'll figure out who's one on the depth chart coming out of spring, but that doesn't mean he will be the starter for the first game.

"We will have some sort of a depth chart that says one, two, three based on these 15 practices."

Rutgers, 4-8 last fall, including 3-6 in the Big Ten, has practiced twice, took time off for spring break, and will conduct practice No. 3 on Tuesday. On Tuesday, select quarterbacks and offensive coordinator John McNulty are scheduled to speak to reporters for the first time this spring.

Tuesday will mark a still-early point in spring ball, but it could shed some light on a pecking order, or at least what McNulty is thinking. The 49-year-old Pennsylvania native is beginning his second stint as Rutgers' offensive coordinator, having held the position in 2007 and 2008 under Greg Schiano.

McNulty is Rutgers' ninth offensive coordinator in nine years, following Jerry Kill's retirement in December. That bears the question, is it a positive or negative for Rescigno to have to deal with a fifth offensive coordinator?

"He has to keep improving and not get frustrated," Ash said. "Stay upbeat, stay positive, keep learning, keep improving every opportunity that he gets. Gio is such a high-character individual, that there's no issues with that. He'll do that, but those are always challenges.

"You're going through another O-coordinator, another system, to get frustrated, to get down a little bit, to think 'Oh, he we go again.' The good thing is, from last year to this year, there are a lot of similar concepts, and we're going to build on them. We have a lot more we have to work through, but there are a lot of similarities also."

The most-intriguing part of this quarterback situation is the presence of Sitkowski and Chatman. Sitkowski, specifically, gives everyone something to think about. A big, physical presence under center at 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, he has been viewed by many as the latest quarterback of the future at Rutgers after spending his senior year of high school at IMG Academy.

The fact Sitkowski enrolled early and is going through spring practice only feeds the notion that, when Rutgers opens on Sept. 1 against Texas State, he can be the starter.

One thing at a time, though. Let's see what everyone has to say on Tuesday. Then, let's see what the depth chart looks like, whenever Ash decides to release it.

"That's obviously the advantage they get, they get six months of training before we start training camp," Ash said. "If we've done our job, and they've done their job, they should look a lot different."

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