RFootball HC Chris Ash: 'Art will still be our quarterback'

Artur Sitkowski will remain Rutgers’ quarterback on Saturday when the Scarlet Knights take on Northwestern at noon on Saturday at HighPoint.com Stadium in Piscataway.

Despite throwing four more interceptions against Maryland over the week to bring his tally up to 15 picks on the year -- the most in college football -- head coach Chris Ash, stood by his true freshman signal caller.

Sitkowski threw for just eight yards and completed just 2-of-16 passes against the Terrapins as he struggled and regressed mightily from the previous two games.

“Art will still be our quarterback," Ash said Monday. "He's got to player better. He threw for 270 yards or close to it last week. He had a bad outing, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to change the quarterback. We need him to play better like he did the week before.”

Sitkowski has had his share of bad throws this season whether he’s missed open receivers or thrown the ball into double or triple coverage with no chance. He’s also stared down his pass catchers. But Ash reiterated that his and the offense’s problems in general haven’t all been because of the 6-foot-5, 224-pounder who’s connected on just three touchdowns through the air.

“It’s the nature of the position. When you sign to go to school here everybody is excited. But, you also have to take the bad. If you don’t ply well criticism is going to come. When the offense has turnovers and doesn’t score points the quarterback gets blamed. Art understands that.

“...We’ve got to protect the football. Again, it’s not just the quarterback. I know a lot of people want to blame the quarterback. There are some things he needs to do better like making better reads, but there are some other things within the offense that we have to do better to help the quarterback out and it starts with run game. We need to start the game off sustaining drives, getting first downs, and help the quarterback. All 11 guys need to work together. We’ve got to things fixed in a hurry so we can have more consistency and score points.”

To go along with his eight passing yards, Sitkowski also finished with negative seven yards rushing. He tallied just one total yard of offense. Statistically, it was the worst passing game since Rutgers had five yards in 2016 against Michigan.

With the constant poor performances from Sitkowski this year, offensive coordinator John McNulty talked about worrying about Sitkowski and his mind as a person and not just as a player and said he was aggressive and pressed especially early.

“No. 1, you have concern for me as a person and his psyche and general well-being.” McNulty said. “It’s one thing when you get paid $10 million dollars, it’s like, too bad. But when it’s an 18-year old kid, certainly this is the hardest part that comes with (being a student-athlete). He’s grown into it quickly. You have to put it in your back pocket, forget it, and move on. I told him hey listen, ‘Mike Teel went 27-12 here and criticized him every day in the paper’. It’s part of the job of being the guy.

“I did think in the game early he was very vocal and aggressive like ‘I want to make something happen’.”

McNulty also mentioned that Sitkowski needs to have somewhat of better awareness of his surroundings and to move his eyes.

“He was a little bit restricted at times but I think there were other times he clearly should have moved in the pocket, and create space with just subtle movements to give himself a little more time and space to throw it or move on to the next guy rather than get stuck and feel like ‘I have to get this out’,” McNulty said. “I think it’s just for the feel for the pocket and whether that’s pushing up or moving right to left to go on to your next read or get the ball out.”

Rutgers hasn’t had the same offensive play-caller for more than an year since McNulty as the Scarlet Knights have had a new one nine years in a row. Combine that with injuries and not executing and it’s hard to find any kind of identity especially when the schemes and playbook differs from year to year as well.

“We’ve got to really try and establish an identity of who are and what we can do and get good at something,” said Ash, who spent more time in player meetings this past week. “It’s been kind of a spin the dial with the o-line and tight ends. We’ve got to get consistent with our lineup and our plays so we can develop our guys.”