Artur Sitkowski: Rising Above the Ashes

By: Noah Benjamin Dobson | Written on 10.9.2019

PISCATAWAY – As about 18,000 Rutger fans watched, the football was hiked to player number eight – Rutgers Quarterback Artur Sitkowski. In seconds, he looked around the chaos of clashing golden and scarlet helmets and found an opening to Raheem Blackshear before three defense players tried to take Sitkowski out. Blackshear’s sneakers pounded against the artificial turf as he sprinted from four Boston College players while two-mile winds blasted against his face, and the heat of an eighty-degree sunny day engulfed his body. He passed the 30-yard-line to the 50-yard-line, making to the 10-yard-line and then - a loud echoing boom from the canon surrounded Rutgers Stadium - touchdown. It was a moment of celebration as Artur Sitkowski had made a career 74-yard-long pass, and at that moment with a score of 7-7, Rutgers was made a threat to Boston College.

Within the first half of the game, Sitkowski acting as a starter for the second time, had 0 sacks and a pass C-A-I record of 14-17-0. And toward the end, the sophomore from Old, Bridge, New Jersey, completed the game with a record of 304 passing yards.

Sitkowski’s improvement was a sign of a chance of winning against Boston College, and a sign of redemption for the team as a whole after their defeat to Iowa who beat Rutgers 30 - 0 on the road.

Rutgers Running Back Aaron Young acknowledged Sitkowski’s development, stating “He was really calm in the pocket and got to move the ball with just simple throws.”

Despite Sitkowski’s improvement, he is one man and in the end, the entirety of the Rutgers team as a whole did not rise from the ashes.

“What the f*** are you doing?” screamed a frustrated and irritated Chris Ash on the microphone to his team.

Twirling Rutgers flags of red and white would be replaced with yellow flags staining the turf. The team was cursed with eleven penalties, two injured players, such as Tyshon Fogg who took a helmet to the stomach, and consistent fumbles. The efforts of the Rutger players was not enough due to a lack of coordination, a tired defense and offense and major inconsistencies. This ultimately led to Boston College winning 30-16 and leaving Rutgers with a record of 1-2.

“The biggest thing is execution. Every single down, you know, we gotta do what we trained to do, what we learned in practice, what we’re show schematically, we gotta all put together on game day and continue to get better as a defense and an offense as well - we just gotta get better,” explained Tyshon Fogg about what went wrong in the game.

In his press conference, Rutgers Coach Chris Ash remarked on the failures in the game as well.

“At the end of the day we didn’t play well enough to win the game, and that’s my fault - that’s all on me,” stated Chris Ash.

“Penalties hurt and we had eleven penalties that killed drives,” Ash continued.

“If we gotten more touchdowns than field goals it would have been a different game,” said Chris Ash.

And though, Sitkowki felt he played well, he also thought he was far from perfect.

“Gotta do better in the red zone,” tiredly exclaimed by Sitkowski.

Yet, his teammates who reflected on the game, could only credit Sitkowski with amazing praise, like Isaiah Washington.

“He did great in my opinion, coming off a rough week in Iowa, looking forward I think he did really good, stated Isaiah Washington. “ He made some really good throws.”

Aaron Young also reflected on his plays with Sitkowski at the first start, stating that “I felt that we were moving the ball pretty well.”

Amongst his fellow teammates, Art demonstrates that there is still hope for a turn of events that could potentially fall in favor for the Rutgers team in the future and a slow development as a team as well.