By Keith Sargeant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

During his final season as the Tennessee Titans' quarterbacks coach, John McNulty mentored Marcus Mariota, the No. 2 overall NFL Draft pick in 2015, who ended up starting 12 games as a rookie.

Keep that in mind as McNulty evaluates the biggest decision looming over the Rutgers football program this offseason.

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Is McNulty willing to hand the keys to his offense to a true freshman? There are two early enrolled freshmen in spring camp — Artur Sitkowski and Jalen Chatman — competing with a sophomore (Johnathan Lewis), two walk-ons (Tom Flacco and Rob Nittolo) and a redshirt senior (Giovanni Rescigno) with 12 career starts under his belt.

Sitkowski, Rutgers' most highly touted quarterback recruit since now-New Orleans Saints backup Tom Savage, appears to have every chance to defy college-football norms and start as a true freshman.

But what is McNulty's comfort-level to start a true freshman this fall?

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McNulty was asked that question following the Scarlet Knights' third practice of spring camp Tuesday.

"If he’s the best guy, he plays,'' the Scarlet Knights' new offensive play-caller told NJ Advance Media. "It doesn’t mean Artur or Jalen are the guys (but) if they’re the better guys and they can handle it, they’re going to play. They’re here now so that’s a tremendous advantage for them. Both of those guys are very mature, football-smart, talented guys. So if they can handle the job ... then that’s who we’ll have to go with in fairness to the team.''

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media

If Sitkowski lives up to the recruiting hype — 247Sports.com ranked him as the nation's 14th-best pro-style QB after he reportedly held scholarship offers from 26 Power-5 Conference schools – there's no telling how long he will be in college, McNulty conceded.

"To me guys are on five-semester plans in college football for the most part,'' McNulty said in a reference to players thinking about leaving early for the NFL Draft after their junior seasons. "Not so much the quarterbacks, but if they’re really good they are. Maybe they stay for the five years but there’s not a lot of that. So I don’t have any reservations about (starting freshmen).''

Here are other highlights from McNulty's first interview of spring camp:

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Art Sitkowski on winning Rutgers' QB job: 'That's the goal coming in here'

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

'Wholesale' changes to the offense

For Gio Rescigno and the rest of Rutgers' fifth-year seniors, they're on their fifth offensive coordinator and that means they're now learning their fifth offensive system. While some of Rutgers' past offensive coordinators talked about the importance of maintaining a level of familiarity with the previous system by re-installing some of the staple plays or keeping the terminology the same, McNulty said he had no intention of doing that.

In fact, McNulty said, "We just went out and changed everything.''

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While he conceded that it's not easy for Rutgers' veteran players to adapt to another new system, he said he "tried to simplify it as best'' as he could.

"We tried to shorten things,'' McNulty added. "But we’ll be able to run the different tempos and everything with what the terminology is. Really haven’t kept anything that’s been here. Just kind of wholesale put a new deal in. So it’s been difficult for those guys, a lot of work, a lot of grinding, a lot of film, drawings (on the) iPads. But they’ve adapted pretty well.’’

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During his last stint as Rutgers' offensive coordinator, McNulty took over the play-calling responsibilities from Craig Ver Steeg midway through the 2006 season and then handled the full-time duty the following year.

It meant McNulty had to do his best to adapt his own style to the system Rutgers already had in place.

"When I was last here I kind of morphed a system that was already here into my own deal,'' he said. "The terminology stayed the same so I had to relate everything, which was fine. But starting from scratch so to speak, there was no reason to (keep Jerry Kill's playbook).

"I always felt thought that, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t one guy (the offensive coordinator) just learn (the previous system)?’ But really I don’t know what there was to learn. I just thought, this is what we’re going to run and … it’s all different so I just felt we had to just start from scratch. And I give them credit. They’ve done a good job with it.’’

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Early impressions

After taking off for spring break, Rutgers returned to the Bubble for its third spring-camp practice Tuesday.

Since he was hired just before the spring semester started in mid-January, McNulty had a chance to work with his charges for the five weeks prior to spring camp.

"We were able to do some work out there in February and at the end of January,'' McNulty said. "You can’t have balls out there but with towels and you can line up and kind of get the bones of the system in without having to hit anybody.''

It helped give the Scarlet Knights a leg up on what to expect from McNulty's new scheme.

"We’ve put a lot of stuff in,'' he said. "I’m actually impressed by how quickly and how well they’ve been able to pick it up. For as much as we’ve thrown at them — today was a third-down day and a lot of new stuff — I think they’ve done a really good job of picking it up. The fact that they’ve been exposed to a number of systems, they’ve seen some of the concepts and the terminology in the past and I’m really impressed.

"Sometimes obviously the execution isn’t what you’re looking for but all it takes is one guy who is a half-step off or so because it’s the first time he’s doing something. They work extremely hard. There’s a lot of football-smart guys. There’s a lot of leadership, I think, from the older guys that have been here that are hungry to win and have success. And it’s kind of trickled down through. Then there’s a lot of young talent that’s pushing. So it’s all working together pretty well.''

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Why did Rutgers linebacker Trevor Morris change jersey numbers?

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Separation in the quarterback depth chart?

No, McNulty hasn't determined his starting quarterback just yet. But he said the depth chart is "starting to separate itself out.''

"Those (quarterbacks) have a tough job right now with six people,'' McNulty said. "Because some periods they get two reps each (in) a 12-play period. If it’s 18 (plays), they get three each. So you’re in there, and if one of them is a run, they feel like ‘I’ve gotta complete this pass regardless …’

"But I think I have a pretty good idea of where we’re headed. Right now we’re staying consistent with the reps. Our plan was to complete the first five practices more or less equal. After that I think we’ll have enough on tape to say, ‘Hey guys, I’m going to start leaning this way.’ Now it can change. But I think we’re going to start to separate it out as we go.''

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'Hey, that's the quarterback'

Asked whether he'll be able to separate the depth chart enough to determine who the starter will be heading into training camp, McNulty didn't dismiss the possibility.

In fact, he quoted one of his mentors — former San Diego Chargers head coach Norv Turner — with this classic line:

"Norv Turner used to say, ‘You look at a guy who picks up a rock and throws it across the lake, you’re going to go, ‘Hey, that’s the quarterback,' '' McNulty said. "I think sometimes you can go out there and go, ‘Okay, we’ll take him.' ''

Still, that doesn't mean he's identified the best rock thrower ... yet.

"I know we have guys that can play the position, which is good,'' he said. "But there’s a lot of work left to do and we’ll see how it goes.''

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Best quarterback or best fit for his system?

Don't confuse McNulty for being a "system guy.'' In fact, he seems eager to implement his scheme into the Scarlet Knights' most physically gifted and game-ready quarterback.

"The system is pretty adaptable,'' he said. "We have all the gun-run stuff. We can run it with the quarterback, we can throw it deep, so to me it’s really the best quarterback and we’ll worry about adapting what he does best with the system.

"Even when we script it now I try to accentuate their positives as best as I can. I try to talk to the guys about, ‘Okay, these are the plays that you like … now you have to grow at some point and start getting them a little uncomfortable. But I think there’s enough in there that could fit all six of these guys.

"So we’re really looking for the best guy.''

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Feeding Blackshear

Rutgers' offense lacks proven play-makers. Raheem Blackshear, who averaged 6.1 yards per carry as a true freshman, is one of the few.

And that's why McNulty wasn't shy about the need to get the Scarlet Knights' 5-9, 185-pound sophomore tailback the ball at opportune times this season. That doesn't mean Blackshear will get the bulk of Rutgers' rushing load.

But McNulty said "we’ve just got to find as many ways possible of getting him the ball.''

Because the undersized-but-speedy Blackshear isn't your old-fashioned running back who can handle 20-to-30 carries a game, McNulty stressed the need to " keep him upright for 13 games.''

"I think we have a couple of home-run hitters on offense and he’s one of them,'' he said. "We’ve got to have him upright for the whole stretch. But in saying that we have to make sure he gets the ball X amount of times and give him a chance to put the ball in the end zone.’’

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Rutgers Pro Day results: How fast did Janarion Grant run?

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Todderick Hunt | NJ Advance Media

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.