The Rutgers quarterback competition is finally over. According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, the Scarlet Knights have named fourth-year quarterback Dylan Lonergan their starter, beating out third-year QB AJ Surace in what Thamel described as a close battle.
On3's Pete Nakos confirmed the same news through his own sourcing, reporting Rutgers has landed on the former Alabama and Boston College transfer as QB1.
Lonergan's path here has been a winding one. He arrived at Alabama as a four-star recruit but barely saw the field behind Nick Saban's depth chart, appearing in just three games over two seasons. He transferred to Boston College last year and immediately took over as the Eagles' starter, throwing for 2,025 yards and 12 touchdowns across 10 games. That stint ended with another trip through the portal, and this time it landed him in Piscataway.
He beat out Surace, a former four-star recruit out of Notre Dame High School in Trenton, N.J., who has thrown just 9 career passes in three seasons at Rutgers. Head coach Greg Schiano had kept the competition open all through camp, but the staff ultimately went with the more experienced arm.
Per Thamel, Lonergan will make his Rutgers debut against UMass on Sept. 3, then get a Friday night trip back to Chestnut Hill to face his old Boston College team on Sept. 11 -- a scheduling quirk that turns Week 2 into an instant statement game.
Lonergan is a transfer from Boston College and Alabama, and he started nine games at BC last season. Rutgers plays at Boston College in a Friday night game on Sept. 11. Lonergan has thrown for 2060 yards and 12 TDs in his career, including 390 yards and four TD at Mich St.
It's a fast circle back for a quarterback who was BC's guy just a few months ago, and it sets up one of the more interesting subplots of the early Big Ten slate: a transfer walking right back into the building that handed him a starting job a year prior, this time trying to beat it.