10/21/2020 football Edit

Quarterback battle remains ongoing with two frontrunners

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

The Rutgers quarterback battle is ongoing as both redshirt sophomore Artur Sitkowski and redshirt junior graduate transfer Noah Vedral are listed as co-starters on the first official depth chart of the 2020 season which was released on Monday.

Sitkowski and Vedral are separated by “or”, and it is unclear when a starter will be named.

“My use of or you know, is for several reasons,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. “It could be injury, it could be competitive. It could be not certain. I won't go into in depth what the "ors" are. They are what they are. We'll find out at game time.”

SIGN UP FOR PREMIUM NOW AND GET 30 DAYS FREE — CLICK HERE FOR MORE!!

The quarterbacks, throughout the summer and now the fall, have been competing for the starting gig, and Sitkowski and Vedral have jumped up to the top of the chart as expected.

“First off, at all the quarterbacks, this is a really good group. I mean, they're together. They help each other. They're competing, but really a tremendous group of guys. And led by coach Gledeson, you know, he's not only coordinating the offense, but he's coaching the quarterbacks. And I think he's doing a tremendous job. There's a reason that it's Art and Noah as the or because they've kind of established themselves as the top two.”

Behind them are redshirt freshman Cole Snyder and true freshman Evan Simon. Redshirt sophomore Johnny Langan is also in the room.

“But it's not a huge drop off. I really thought Cole did a very good job. I mean, he's a good quarterback. And, you know, when you look at Evan, he’s a young guy, but I mean Evan is going to be a real good player as well,” Schiano said. “I'm encouraged by what we saw. And the two guys that are on the chart as an or they're both really, really good quarterbacks in my opinion. The job they've done in their preparation has been very good.”

Senior wide receiver Bo Melton has been catching passes from all of the signal callers, and he chimed in on the competition.

“Really all of the quarterbacks have been doing pretty good,” Melton said. “Both Sitkowski and Vedral stand out at the end of the day. Both have great arm strength and they both are competitive. That’s really it for the quarterbacks.”

Protecting them on the offensive line has been senior guard Nick Krimin, who is encouraged by what he’s seen from the quarterbacks as well.

“You know, Art and Noah have been doing a great job as well as the other quarterbacks. I’m excited to see kind of who is out there this weekend, but the competition has been great and everybody has been doing a great job,” Krimin said. “The offensive line has been doing an awesome job too with whoever is back there.”