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Rutgers Football QB battle to get tighter after a week of practice

In a year of uncertainty, one this is for certain, another Rutgers football quarterback competition is underway.

Grad transfer Noah Vedral, who made his way to Piscataway from Lincoln, NE., is pitting his talents up against the likes redshirt sophomores Artur Sitkowski and Johnny Langan, redshirt freshman Cole Snyder, freshman Evan Simon, and redshirt freshman transfer Peyton Powell.

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The Scarlet Knights have only been practicing for a week, and in full pads for only five sessions. Up to this point, head coach Greg Schiano said everybody has been working, but the reps are going to be cut down for certain individuals starting this week.

“We've been getting all of them work right so there's a lot of them. It's hard to do,” Schiano said on Monday. “We will start to tighten the repetitions and kind of focus them more as we move forward starting on this week. So, when I'm done with you guys, we have a meeting as a staff. The players are off today. So we have a meeting this afternoon, which will be heavily based on personnel decisions moving forward. We had all the practices in spider pads and then we've had five practices in full pads, which is a different game when you start playing. We'll make them some initial direction decisions and whether or not a guy gets more reps. It's not training camp, and that is a big difference. You don't have them all day.”

Speculation arose from the fan base as Langan not only changed his number from No. 17 to No. 21, but positions as well. However, Schiano indicated that is not the case.

“I can tell you that Johnny changed his number because he wanted to change his number. It wasn't due to anything other than that,” Schiano said.

Nothing is set in stone, but Powell is a candidate to shift positions as well, namely wide receiver or defensive back given his athleticism and lack of playmakers there.

“As far as positions, I'm gonna hold off until there's a roster and the depth chart,” Schiano said.

No starter for Oct. 24th’s game at Michigan State is going to be named any time soon, but the quarterbacks are all battling for the job.

“I can tell you those guys are really, that whole group of quarterbacks, are trying to understand coach (Sean) Gleeson's system, which they've been doing since we got here. But now they have to execute it with people trying to fit in,” Schiano said. “It's a little different than executing it in a desk chair over a WebEx. We've had our steps. We've had the WebEx team and then we were the notepad team, then we were a spider team and then only Wednesday we started to call them the real football team. So it's been working progress, but guys are working and as a coach that's really that's really all you can ask for.

“Guys are given incredible effort and I don't mean just in on the field, they've been training, because we have to continue to train in the weight room. They're doing a great job in the meeting room and certainly with the biggest challenge of COVID-19. They've been doing a really good job at battling that. I've told them that's our number one opponent right now. It's not really on our schedule. And when you get on that plane and you don't have your best players, it's gonna be tough. So we really, really are working hard to stay healthy and to stay clean, but it's a huge challenge.”

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.

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