PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers football may have failed to find the end zone for a second straight game, but head coach Greg Schiano believes that Saturday’s performance was the best of quarterback Gavin Wimsatt’s college career.
In a 27-6 loss at No. 12 Penn State, Wimsatt finished the game 10-of-16 for 131 yards with an interception. He rushed the ball 17 times for 31 yards. It was an improvement over the week before, where Wimsatt and the entire offense struggled to move the ball in a 22-0 loss at Iowa.
The one knock against his performance would be the turnovers. All three Rutgers turnovers (two fumbles and one interception) had some level of involvement from Wimsatt.
Asked on Monday about his confidence in Wimsatt, Schiano fully embraced his 20-year old quarterback.
“Very high. I felt Gavin played his best game as a Rutgers player on Saturday. Just you know, we played against the No. 2-ranked defense in America. They lead the in addition in sacks. Gavin stood in there, delivered the ball well,” Schiano said.
“The thing that glares (are) the three turnovers.
Well, the one, as I said, the guy beat him to the back of his drop, so I’m not sure what he’s supposed to do there. The second one was on a mesh and I’m not going to get into the particulars on that. And then the interception is a tough one. They kind of got us and they did a good job. Could we have avoided it? Sure. But they are on scholarship, too – they are a good team. But from an execution standpoint, Gavin played his best game as a Rutgers player against Penn State.
“Now what I’m hopeful for is now we go do it again and take a little step in the Maryland game, because if he does that, we’re going to be in a good place.”
Rutgers is 6-5 (3-5 Big Ten) and hosts Maryland (6-5, 3-5 Big Ten) on Saturday afternoon at SHI Stadium (3:30 PM ET, Big Ten Network).
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It is an important game for Rutgers and Schiano, as a win would guarantee the program’s first winning season since 2014. It would add further validity to the rebuilding effort now in its fourth year under Schiano.
The rebuild is very much tied to Wimsatt and his development. There has undoubtedly been so growth here from Wimsatt, even as the offense has struggled a bit during this three-game losing streak. Penalties, miscues and turnovers have haunted Rutgers during this stretch.
And against three straight-ranked opponents, those types of mistakes ended up being too costly.
Schiano saw in Saturday a step forward after four straight games where Wimsatt’s completion dropped week-to-week.
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“I think he’s really beginning to understand the preparation necessary and he’s always been a guy that prepares, but to play quarterback at this level, I don’t think anybody understands unless they have done it or they have coached it. It’s really, really detailed and there’s so many things you have to make split-second decisions on. You know, most people can’t do it on a video game, forget do it live when you might get smashed in the back of the head,” Schiano said.
“So I think it’s underestimated. I’ve said it so many times, and I think people just, oh, he’s saying that to protect the quarterbacks. To me, it’s the most difficult thing to do in sport, and some would argue, if you have to pitch a whole game — yeah, but no one it trying to hit you in the back of the head when you’re pitching. You have to do all this stuff and over guy in the other-colored jersey is trying to keep you from doing it. Some of them by hitting you, some of them by covering the guys you’re throwing to, some of them by trying to trick you.
“So I think playing quarterback is a tremendous responsibility, a tremendously huge job and I think Gavin is getting better at it every week.”