Why Greg Schiano named Gavin Wimsatt Rutgers football's starting QB ahead of training camp

INDIANAPOLIS – There’s no quarterback mystery for Rutgers football going into training camp this year.
Gavin Wimsatt will be the starter.
Coach Greg Schiano made the announcement during an interview with local reporters ahead of Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday.
“I've known that for a while,” Schiano said. “I thought now would be a good time to make the announcement. I'm excited. I think Evan has done a really good job, too, so we have two guys that have experience, not a lot but some, but Gavin has worked really hard and I think Kirk Ciarrocca has formed a really strong bond with all of our quarterbacks both with relationships and football-wise through spring football and all of our summer stuff we've done. Now is the time, we need to get ready to play."
With Wimsatt atop the depth chart, Evan Simon will be his backup and true freshman Ajani Sheppard will be third.
Wimsatt was limited to eight games last season because of injury. He finished 65-of-145 passing (45 percent) for 757 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Wimsatt struggled at times with his accuracy and decision-making, but Schiano is encouraged by the continued progress the quarterback made throughout the offseason working with Ciarrocca.
“I could see it in spring practice,” Schiano said. “I think a lot of it has to do with how Kirk has developed the whole room. Gavin is very comfortable with the way he's being developed. I just saw him getting better and better and better. Until the game's live, it's not, but you have to do that first. I'm excited to see his progress when we get into a game. We've got a lot of time between now and then, which is great."
Wimsatt joined the program early in the 2021 season after opting to skip his senior season at Owensboro High School in Kentucky. He played in four games that season, making his debut against Illinois by completing a 13-yard pass on fourth down to extend a game-winning drive.
Still, continuity has been mostly absent since Wimsatt arrived at Rutgers.
That’s changed – and the Scarlet Knights are hoping it stays that way.
“His career has been nothing but disjointed,” Schiano said. “He plays three high school games, gets here the first week of the regular season, you're not learning. It's probably the worst way to learn, in retrospect, because you're learning bits and pieces but you're not understanding the basis of it. We did things to get him into special meetings, but the reality is you're getting ready for a game that week. Then the injury that occurs the second year was awful.
“Again, we have to be smart when we run him because those are big men falling on you,” Schiano said. “We have to pick our spots, but that held him back a ton. Look, I'm excited. The one thing he has is that he has experience living away from home, being a college student. He has that behind him and now can focus on being a Big Ten quarterback."
Schiano still made it clear that Wimsatt has to play well to keep his status as the starter.
"I'm not doing it to try to manipulate a situation," Schiano said. "He's earned it. You earn it at our place. You can unearn it. Those are the facts, people don't like to here, but that's the reality. You build equity. You have a bad day, that's OK, you have that equity. It's like having money in the bank. You have it for a rainy day. You don't want to limit the supply either so you have to compete every day at our place. I think that's true for most programs."