Artur Sitkowski and Rutgers Football Have Hit Rock Bottom

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After an embarrassing loss to a mediocre Maryland squad, freshman QB Artur Sitkowski and the Rutgers football program have officially hit rock bottom.

Over the first few months of the college football season, I’ve watched Rutgers football program from a distance. Having covered the school for SBNation in the past (and being from the New York-metro area) the program matters to me, no matter how many times people laugh. Today, though, Rutgers drove me over the edge. After five straight weeks of checking their scores on Saturday and seeing losses, they dropped their sixth consecutive game to a mediocre Maryland team. Surprisingly, the worst part wasn’t the final score (34-7). Instead, it was the stat line of Rutgers quarterback Artur Sitkowski — 2-for-8 for eight yards with four picks.

Please, let that sink in for a second: Two completions, eight yards, and four interceptions…against Maryland.

Ever since I’ve been seriously following Rutgers football, they haven’t been good at the quarterback position. For the most part, it’s been a mish-mosh of Giovanni Rescigno, Chris Laviano, and a few others. This year, however, it was supposed to be different. The team actually won three Big Ten games last year (including a win over Maryland) with Gio under center, and a true freshman, Sitkowski, had won the starting job over him out of camp. A true freshman winning the job, you’d think, meant the kid could BALL.

After seven games, it’s clear he cannot.

Sitkowski has started all seven games for Rutgers this year and although he seems like a great kid, he’s been atrocious. Turnovers are his biggest issue (15 interceptions) and it’s not like they’re Favre-like interceptions where he’s hitting big plays every now and then. No, this guy is just flat-out inaccurate (49.7 percent completion rate) and he’s only notched three touchdowns through the air.

Rescigno has come in relief a few times for Artur but that hasn’t been great either. Do I think Gio is the better option? Yeah, probably, but he’s been beaten out three straight years for the starting gig (2016 by Laviano, 2017 by Kyle Bolin, and this season by Artur Sitkowski); obviously, he’s not a guy with undeniable talent. Gio is merely serviceable (seven passing touchdowns to eight interceptions in 312 career attempts) and that’s a problem in the Big Ten.

There is no quick fix to this. The program started a rebuild with current head coach Chris Ash in 2016, yet he’s turned the program into Blowout U rather than a respectable team. Yes, they haven’t had a real quarterback in a while (I really wish Joe Flacco‘s brother, Tom Flacco, didn’t leave) but the staff hasn’t done them (0r anyone) any favors. It’s time to tear things down and launch a new regime. I hate firing coaches but all confidence is lost for the current rebuild, like from everyone.

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Rutgers needs better players and that comes from recruiting. My plan would be to make a splashy head coaching move like Arizona State did with Herm Edwards. You know, drum up some interest, a few positive headlines to get people excited. From there, it would (hopefully) trickle down to snag better recruits — maybe even a capable quarterback. Or, who knows, maybe a quarterback-whisperer-type coach can save the young Sitkowski.