With the success, albeit from a limited sample size for freshman quarterback Gavin Wimsatt this past Saturday comes an interesting dilemma for Rutgers football. How does the program develop Wimsatt for the future while ensuring that he in fact does have a long future at Rutgers?
Wimsatt has now appeared in one game following Saturday’s win at Illinois. Despite appearing in just a single play (albeit, an influential one), the freshman now has three appearances left without burning his redshirt. Were he to appear in all of Rutgers remaining regular season games, that would make five appearances for Wimsatt (Rutgers has four games left on their schedule, all in the Big Ten). In that scenario, he would not be eligible for a redshirt and would have just three seasons left at Rutgers.
It makes for an interesting scenario for Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano. They want to develop Wimsatt and bring him along the right way. But with four games remaining (not including any bowl game), it means that Schiano has to be very specific with what to do with his true freshman’s developmental plan.
This is, of course, assuming that they want Wimsatt to get that redshirt.
“Yeah, it’s something to think about. I don’t know exactly what to tell you on it,” Schiano said when asked about Wimsatt on Monday.
“I kind of have an idea what my thinking is, I’m probably not going to share it. But yeah, there’s something it’s something you have to consider for sure. With every player not just Gavin.”
The advantage of not burning his redshirt would be that this year could be an important one to develop Wimsatt fully, giving him potentially four years as the starting quarterback at Rutgers. That would be a luxury that Rutgers hasn’t had in quite some time.
Wimsatt is a four-star quarterback and was ranked the No. 1 player in Kentucky according to Rivals.com. He played three games in high school at Owensboro then shocked the college football world by graduating early and immediately enrolling at Rutgers.
So while Schiano is not saying much, ideally Wimsatt can get some reps this season to continue his maturation and growth. But if Rutgers is able to limit him to just three more games, it would certainly be ideal from a foundational perspective for the program.