Athan Kaliakmanis, the starting quarterback at Minnesota last season, will be visiting Rutgers football this weekend. For a Rutgers quarterback room that lacks depth, it is an understandable development out of the transfer portal.
Rutgers Wire can confirm the news, which was broken on Tuesday night by 247Sports’ Allen Trieu.
This offseason, Evan Simon entered the transfer portal. Simon saw spot starting duty last year and served as Gavin Wimsatt’s back-up this year. His departure means that after Wimsatt, the only other scholarship quarterback currently on the Rutgers roster is Ajani Sheppard.
Three-star quarterback A.J. Surace is expected to sign with Rutgers this month and join the program in January.
As for Kaliakmanis, he would bring some strong experience to Rutgers. Last season for Minnesota, he completed 53.1 percent of his passes for 1,831 yards. He had 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
He is a pro-style quarterback and not a dual-threat like Wimsatt.
[lawrence-related id=32914,32912]
Kaliakmanis was recruited to Minnesota by then-Golden Gophers offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, who is now the offensive coordinator at Rutgers. Ciarrocca turned a Rutgers offense that had struggled for much of the last decade in the Big Ten into a unit that was viable and functioning.
Rutgers will have QB transfer Athan Kaliakmanis and brother Dino Kaliakmanis, a WR, on campus in the near future. (VIP) https://t.co/nPQ9gsJvew pic.twitter.com/4ebR6Y6it4
— Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) December 13, 2023
Kaliakmanis had his best performance of last season in Minnesota’s 49-30 loss at Purdue. He was 18-of-42 for 292 yards with three touchdowns.