Gavin Wimsatt has made two starts in his young career. The redshirt freshman quarterback first started in September against Wagner, and then he made his first start against a Big Ten foe on the road in Minnesota this past weekend.
And as the Rutgers football team returns home to face No. 4 Michigan at 7:30 p.m., Wimsatt will again be taking the snaps for the Scarlet Knights. The keys are now in the student-athlete's hands.
"Gavin is going to be our starter," head coach Greg Schiano said on Monday.
Wimsatt took a hard hit in the fourth quarter versus the Golden Gophers. He did not come back in the game. However, both Schiano and Wimsatt said that he is OK.
"I feel good," Wimsatt said at the conclusion of Tuesday's practice. "Went through the process. I'm good. On to Michigan."
"He's doing well," Schiano added. "I think he's going to be fine."
Wimsatt went down with an ankle injury earlier this season in the away game at Temple. He missed a handful of games, and played for the first time since then this past weekend. The Owensboro, KY. native said that was really the first time he was hurt since his freshman year of high school.
"Injuries are always frustrating, especially when you want to be out there playing and trying to help your team," Wimsatt said. "The biggest thing for me was just trying to get healthy and make sure I can help my team with anything."
A week ago, Wimsatt posted on Instagram a picture of himself with the caption "Patience". Many fans worried about the worst. At that point he didn't know he was going to start against Minnesota, and the social media post was mainly about coming back from his injury.
"At that point I did not know. It was more just for me about my injury," Wimsatt said. "I wanted to be out there obviously. Patience was a big thing for me. It more was more about my injury than anything else."
Wimsatt completed 6-of-17 passes for 68 yards. He also threw an interception and fumbled the ball.
"I watched him pretty closely because we have a really young quarterback in there," Schiano said. "I felt he looked comfortable. I don't think he looked out of place. I felt that he ran an operation, and then he made some really good throws. And then he made a mistake and then he made another mistake that were two turnovers.
"But he shows why we're excited about his future. That's what I thought I could come away with Saturday was, it's a matter of time, I do believe that, and I think it's a when, not an if. You've just got to keep going. You know, we are building something here, and he's a big part of it but so are a bunch of other guys that are working their tails off, so just keep moving."
No matter if he was coming off the bench or knowing he was going to play and start, Wimsatt said you have to have the same mindset and be ready when your number is called. Wimsatt flip-flopped earlier in the year with Evan Simon and even Johnny Langan at times play-by-play or series-by-series.
"It's good. Got to have the same mindset and make sure we all get good reps in and still practice hard," Wimsatt said. "You just got to come ready every day, and work hard, and make sure you know everything inside out and just get comfortable with the scheme."
Wimsatt is adjusting to interim offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile's playbook and style.
"Obviously there's a lot of stuff you need to work on. So, that's what we're here practicing for. Just trying to get better every day," he said. "It's been good. We've been getting better every day. We've been working hard. All the guys are always communicating. So, we're just trying to get better every day."
Nobody expects Rutgers to beat the Wolverines on Saturday night at SHI Stadium, but the Scarlet Knights will give it their all and hope for the best.
"Yeah, Michigan's definitely gonna be a good challenge," Wimsatt said. "They have a great defense. They're a great team. We're just working every every day to get ready for the challenge Saturday."
Coming into the season, there was a question whether Wimsatt, Simon, or returning starter Noah Vedral would be the guy. The plan ultimately was when reading the tea leaves that Vedral was going to start and the staff was going to develop Simon and Wimsatt for the future.
But Vedral got a hand injury in training camp, and the plan changed.
"We didn't have choices. It wasn't like we had choices. At the beginning of the season, Noah was out. Some have told me it was the worst-kept secret in Eastern football. At that point, we had two quarterbacks, which neither one of them was ready to take the reigns, so we were going to let them both get experience and see how it went. Then Noah started to re-enter the picture. He had experience but he physically wasn't ready. Again, you don't want to put anybody out there exclusively until they are ready to do it otherwise you can really harm a guy's development.
"So when you kind of mix it up a little bit, no one is really the guy that didn't do it well enough. Or, when you win, oh, look at that, they put it together enough to win. There's a science to me in developing guys and when to bring them along and you know, obviously we have made that move and by what I said to you, Gavin starting, that kind of tells you what time we feel it is now."
Now that he has been at Rutgers for a year or so now, Wimsatt said things have slowed down for him and he's gotten more comfortable.
"I'm more comfortable as a leader, just talking to the guys. I get advice from them too," Wimsatt said. "A lot of things have slowed down. It just goes with me being more comfortable. My teammates have helped me with that.
"It's been amazing. Definitely a learning experience. I've been here for about a year, and a couple of months now. I've earned a lot of things. I feel like I've been here forever now even though I just turned 19. Really just getting comfortable with guys."
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When you drive past the practice bubble next to the stadium, there is a tent with photos of several Rutgers student-athletes. One of them is Wimsatt. The tent has been there essentially for months, even before he started a game.
Being a four-star recruit comes with expectations, and Wimsatt is taking it all in stride.
"I try to just focus on me and my team," the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder said. "There's always gonna be people either congratulating you or maybe saying negative things, but either way, I gotta come here with same mindset every day and get better with my guys. They're here to help me get better. My team is behind me. I know they got my back."
Wimsatt arrived to Rutgers last fall after playing in a few high school games as a senior. He skipped basically his whole last year at Owensboro. There's a belief that he came to Piscataway because of an NIL deal, but Wimsatt said otherwise.
"NIL really didn't have a part of my reason for coming here," he said. "I came here because of coach Schiano and I wanted to be a part of Rutgers early. Getting that development early was a really big, big thing for me. NIL didn't really have a part."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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