Rutgers will officially have another option to help turn around one of the worst passing “attacks” in the history of college football.
Late last month, Chris Ash confirmed that Johnny Langan, who transferred from Boston College to RU earlier in the offseason, had his appeal for an immediate-eligibility waiver denied by the NCAA. At the time, Ash also acknowledged that the player and the program would seek what is a very rare reversal from The Association; Thursday, that appeal paid off as Langan announced on Instagram that he will be eligible to play for the Scarlet Knights in 2019.
Including this coming season, Langan will have four years to use four seasons of eligibility.
Langan is now officially a part of a quarterback competition that includes 2018 starter Artur Sitkowski and a graduate transfer from Texas Tech, McLane Carter. Since this past weekend, Carter and Sitkowski have split reps with the first-team offense.
Coming out of New Jersey’s Bergen Catholic High School, Langan was a three-star member of BC’s 2018 recruiting class. He took a redshirt as a true freshman last season.
This past season, the 1-11 Scarlet Knights were dead last out of 130 FBS teams in passing efficiency at 78.8; the next-closest school was Central Michigan (85.2). They threw just five touchdown passes (tied with Navy for fewest in the FBS) while tossing 22 interceptions (most in the FBS; Cal was next with 20). Finally, their 4.5 yards per attempt — compared to Oklahoma’s nation-leading 11.3 — was tied with CMU for last in the nation in that category.
Sitkowski’s pass efficiency rating was easily the worst of any quarterback in the country with enough qualifying attempts. The only player even close was UTEP’s Kai Locksley at 90.9. In plummeting to the Mariana Trench of ratings, Sitkowski completed less than 50 percent of his 273 passes and threw four touchdowns versus 18 interceptions.