Greg Schiano, Rutgers Scarlet Knights Recently Crippled by Inexperience

How valuable is an experienced quarterback?

...Just ask the winless Indianapolis Colts.

For the record, experience helps at all levels, ranging from the $2.5 million dollar pro to the starting halfback at Joe Schmo High.

In the Rutgers Scarlet Knights’ case, inexperience continues to rear its ugly head year in and year out.

For the past three seasons, head coach Greg Schiano has thrown a raw teenager into the fire.

In 2009, it was Tom Savage, taking over for Mr. Natale. Last season, Chas Dodd replaced Savage midway through the season, and this year, freshman QB Gary Nova took over for Dodd.

Before this freshman infatuation began, Schiano had two long term QBs in Ryan Hart and Mike Teel.  Both were able to keep their starting jobs, thanks to a little bit of trust and experience (plus the supporting cast around them was key).

In Hart’s last year under center, he had the luxury of handing the ball off to Ray Rice and Brian Leonard, while throwing to Tres Moses and Tiquan Underwood (2005 was also the first year RU went to a bowl in many years).

His successor, Mike Teel, also had the luxury of having Ray Rice, Brian Leonard, Tim Brown and Kenny Britt. Teel finished his career by leading the Scarlet Knights to three straight bowl wins.

Since then, however, the lack of experience has stumped Schiano and the Knights.

Tom Savage helped lead the Scarlet Knights to a 9-4 record. The discrepancy is that RU's schedule was incredibly favorable, and when the Knights played a better team, they lost.

In 2009, RU had wins against Army (5-7), Florida International (3-9), Maryland (2-10) and FCS teams Howard (2-9) and Texas Southern (6-5).

Even with a weak schedule, a 1,000-yard rusher, Tim Brown and Mohammed Sanu—Savage was only able to complete 52 percent of his passes and had a TD to INT ratio of 2:1.

In 2010, Savage was replaced by Chas Dodd for seven of the final eight games of the season.

In Dodd’s first two starts, he came away with three-point victories over UConn and Army. In Dodd’s final five starts, he lost to five different Big East foes.

Dodd finished 2010 with less passing yards per game, less passing yards for the season and less touchdowns than Savage had the year before.

Rutgers’ record also dropped as it went from 9-4 to 4-8, last in the Big East.

This season has been same story, different freshman quarterback.

Right now, since Gary Nova took over, he is on pace for roughly 1,800 yards passing, 16 TDs and 13 INTs.

Reviewing the past few seasons, you can see a trend of how the Scarlet Knights are regressing.

Year after year, the QB shuffle hurts the offense. The quarterbacks and receivers lack chemistry and regularly fail to gain familiarity.

I’m not saying coach Schiano is clueless; after all, these moves are made to put the team in the best position to win. It just comes with an extreme learning curve and can be too much for these kids.

If Rutgers wants to get back to headlining the Big East, it needs experience and familiarity within the offense.

The years of Hart and Teel are done. It’s just unfortunate, because that seems to be the last time the Scarlet Knights were successful.

So, in the mean time, here’s to you, Gary Nova. Start while you can young fellow because next year, who knows where you’ll be.