Rutgers football: Three takeaways from Spring Game

Another spring semester has come and gone for the students on the banks and with it came the annual Rutgers football Scarlet vs White spring game. The Scarlet team came out on top after a run from Children Specialized Hospital Patient Tommy Marcketta broke a 24-all stalemate giving the Scarlet team the win 30-24. Aside from Marcketta’s running skills, several other things were on display for the Scarlet Knights during the contest.

First and foremost was the quarterback duel. Incumbent Gavin Wimsatt versus incoming transfer Athan Kaliakmanis. The second was the punting woes of the Knights. The third is the seemingly drastic improvement of the wide receiver core. All three were on prominent display on Saturday. 

Rutgers Quarterback Duel

Starting off with the quarterback duel, it was clear that while Wimsatt is the better all-around athlete, Kaliakmanis is the better passing quarterback. Wimsatt, last year, was not known for his accurate ball placement and only completed 50% of his passes. Wimsatt still showed the same issues of overthrowing his receivers, something that he gained a notorious reputation for last season.

Kaliakmanis did a little better in this department, completing around 58% of his passes and throwing two touchdowns to Wimsatt’s one touchdown. Kaliakmanis also had the longest completion of the afternoon, throwing a 42-yard bomb to Nasiem Brantley. Where Wimsatt was outperformed with his arm he redeemed with his legs scoring two touchdowns on the ground, one on a 37-yard run for a score. Now Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has a choice, go with the better athlete or the better quarterback.

The main issue here is that Wimsatt still shows the same issues that he has had since his first time stepping on the field for Rutgers football. When he was recruited, Wimsatt was expected to be the first generational talent at quarterback that Rutgers has seen in a long time. Three years in and two years as a starter and Rutgers football fans have not seen anything close to what they were expecting out of him.

Now he is competing to keep his job because the consistency is not there for him. It is hard to see him not taking the first snaps under center during the season because he is the incumbent starter but if he does not find great consistency in the first slate of games, he will not be taking snaps under center for very long.

Special teams struggles

Next are the punting woes. Yes, this should be a major topic of discussion especially when talking about the Scarlet Knights. The Knights coaching staff had a luxury with its last two punters being the best in the nation at what they do. After what we saw on Saturday, they will need to get used to a world without Adam Korsak-type talent quickly. Rutgers will now need to be more consistent on offense because their luxury of being able to flip field position whenever needed is now seemingly gone. 

Wide Receiver help?

The final thing to note about the Rutgers football spring game is the drastic improvement to the wide receiver core. Nasiem Brantley, who could not play last year because of NCAA restrictions, had himself a day with four catches for 73 yards and a touchdown. Junior Nasir Montgomery and transfer Dino Kaliakmanis, the brother of Athan, made some spectacular grabs to bring in some short touchdown catches. Famah Toure rounds out this new and improved group with some solid plays on the deep ball during the game.

Couple these with fifth-year senior Christian Dremel, who was Rutgers’ leading receiver last year in the slot and you finally have a Rutgers receiving squad worth talking about and, if you dare to say it, one with a little depth to it as well. This is something that Rutgers football fans haven’t seen in a long time.