There was some significant improvement seen from Gavin Wimsatt this season, as the Rutgers football quarterback took some developmental steps in his third year of college football. There were also moments of frustration and regression throughout the season.
And for [autotag]Kirk Ciarrocca[/autotag], in his first season as offensive coordinator with the Rutgers football program, the ups and downs from Wimsatt were to be expected.
Wimsatt threw for 1,651 yards with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions, marking the first time in his career that he had more touchdowns thrown than interceptions. He also had 488 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, a number always glossed over when talked about his development.
The source of concern for Wimsatt was his diminished play come the Big Ten schedule, where his turnovers went up and his completion percentage went down.
“I think Gavin is a guy that’s come a long way since January. He has improved every day,” Ciarrocca said on Monday during a press conference ahead of next week’s Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl.
“I think Gavin, if he was sitting here right now, would tell you that he needs to be more consistent with it, but like any young quarterback, he had some highs, and we had some lows, and then we had where we were just kind of in between that with it.
“For me it’s normal growing pains that you see in a young quarterback. The important thing is that he just keeps working hard and keeps learning from his mistakes and moving forward. He has a ton of ability. So we just need to see how he continues to grow.”
Wimsatt completed 47.8 percent of his passes this year, a career high. But it was still a disappointing number. He threw an interception in each of his last four games.
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The completion percentage, Ciarrocca said, is “I don’t think that’s really relevant” when compared to other factors. And in his first year as the Rutgers offensive coordinator, there is no doubt that Rutgers did a better job as a unit of moving the ball.
The mentality from head coach Greg Schiano, according to Ciarrocca, is “the whole idea is to win the game on Saturday.” Wimsatt’s job is to get that done.
“Offensive football is the ultimate team game, and there’s 11 guys that are totally interdependent upon each other. That’s why when you see really good offensive football, it’s a beautiful thing to watch, but one guy is a little off here or one guy is a little off there, I mean, it can be ugly to watch, hard to watch sometimes,” Ciarrocca said.
“So I wouldn’t say anything is one particular player’s fault that we played a certain way or how we did it. I think that as an offensive coordinator – I think one of my strengths is I look at what the strengths and weaknesses are of the players that we have and try to mold things around their strengths and limit their weaknesses.
“Then you also try to think about what’s the whole team? I think coach (head coach Greg Schiano) is one of the best I’ve ever been around at being able to assess an opponent and have a picture for how he feels like the game needs to go.
“I always relate it to a boxing match. It’s going to be a boxing match. How do you want the fight to go in order to give yourself the best chance to win that particular fight? Do you want to pin this guy against the ropes? Do you want to dance around the ring?”
Rutgers, bottom-two in the Big Ten in 2022 in nearly every significant offensive category, was ninth in the Big Ten in total offense this past fall.
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For perspective, Rutgers had the second-toughest schedule in college football this season.
