Rutgers Scarlet Knights starting QB for Week 6: Who is Greg Schiano's QB1 for game against Nebraska Cornhuskers?
Coach Greg Schiano's Rutgers Scarlet Knights (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) will travel to Nebraska and take on Matt Rhule's Cornhuskers (4-1, 1-1) on Saturday at Lincoln Memorial Stadium. This will be the seventh time these two will face each other in their history. All six previous matchups were won by Nebraska, with the latest coming in Oct. 2022, a close 14-13 win for the Huskers.
Athan Kaliakmanis has started all four games for the Scarlet Knights. Under him, the Rutgers are undefeated and they look forward to not changing that fact when they take the field on Saturday.
Will Athan Kaliakmanis continue to start for Rutgers in Week 6?
With no injuries to report, Athan Kaliakmanis is expected to start and take the majority of snaps for Rutgers on Saturday.
"I'm very excited about Athan," Schiano told the media in June when he announced the starting quarterback. "I think he's doing a really good job - and again, it doesn't count until we do it in games, but I'm confident that he's going to be the right quarterback for Rutgers. So yeah, I'm encouraged."
In case Kaliakmanis suffers a setback, Rutgers has Colin O'Sullivan and Rocco Rainone in their wings waiting for an opportunity.
Athan Kaliakmanis' performance in the first four games of the 2024 season
In Week 1's 44-7 win to Howard Bison, Athan Kaliakmanis threw for 147 yards, including three touchdowns on 15 of 24 pass attempts. He also rushed for 43 yards on six carries.
The following game, in a Week 2 blowout win over the Akron Zips, Kaliakmanis threw 14 of 23 passes for 230 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
After observing an open week in Week 3, Athan Kaliakmanis helped his team register a close 26-23 victory over Virginia Tech. He threw for 269 yards on 16 of 25 attempts.
Against the Huskies last week, in a 21-18 win, he threw for 115 yards on 14 of 24 passes, including one touchdown.
"I thought he that be played really well. It was nuts out there tonight," coach Schiano said of Athan after win over the Huskies. "There was a lot of things to fix and a lot of things going on. But I thought Athan was a cool customer out there and delivered some really good balls.
"That is a yoked up front. I mean, they are physical. Hats off to Steven [Belichick] and his staff. They gave us a lot of problems blitzing, running through linebackers, playing through different fronts, mixing it up. I thought they did a good job. But the offense and Coach [Kirk] Ciarrocca, they found a way to score enough. That was really big."
Greg Schiano's expectation would be more from Athan Kaliakmanis who knows how to defeat Nebraska, with him having done it with Minnesota in 2022.