Gavin Wimsatt (born October 29, 2003) is an American football quarterback for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights of the Big Ten Conference. He attended

Owensboro High School Owensboro High School is a public high school located at 1800 Frederica Street in Owensboro, Kentucky, United States. The school's digital newspaper is ''The Digital Devil''. Owensboro High School is one of only 33 high schools in Kentucky to be l ...

and has played with Rutgers since the 2021 season.

Early life

Wimsatt was born on October 29, 2003. He attended

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

, gaining the starting quarterback job as a

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

in 2019. That year, he helped them have a record of 12–2 before losing in the state playoff semifinals to Frederick Douglass, earning second-team all-area honors from the '' Messenger-Inquirer'' while totaling 2,792 passing yards and 31 passing touchdowns, along with 564 yards and 12 scores rushing. He completed 54.7% of his passes on the year and only threw for 10 interceptions, and began receiving offers from major

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

teams afterwards despite having only started for one season. Wimsatt was also active in playing basketball and running

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

, contributing to Owensboro's regional runner-up team in the former. As a junior, Wimsatt led his team to a 12–1 record and an appearance in the state championship, being named first-team all-state by '' The Courier-Journal'' as he completed 176 of his 295 passes for 2,349 yards and 27 touchdowns, additionally running for 443 yards and six touchdowns. '' The Owensboro Times'' named him the state's offensive player of the year and Wimsatt became highly recruited, being ranked the best college recruit from Kentucky, the third-best dual-threat quarterback nationally and the 89th-best player overall. He did not play basketball as a junior, having left the team to focus on football, but continued competing in track, and helped Owensboro win the regional team title while also being the individual region champion in the triple jump. Prior to the start of his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

season, Wimsatt announced his commitment to play college football for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights of the Big Ten Conference, being the highest-ranked quarterback prospect in the team's history. He appeared in three games in 2021, going 46-for-80 passing for 581 yards with six touchdowns before abruptly leaving to enroll early at Rutgers. He finished his time at Owensboro High School having thrown for 5,304 yards and 62 touchdowns.

College career

Wimsatt became eligible immediately at Rutgers and made his debut in their eighth game of the 2021 season, playing one snap against Illinois, on which he threw a 13-yard completion for a first down on fourth down. He played his second game two weeks later against Indiana, recording three rushes for 20 yards. He briefly appeared in Rutgers' loss to

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

on November 20 and saw his most extensive action against Wake Forest in the

Gator Bowl The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in Jacksonville, Florida, operated by Gator Bowl Sports. It has been held continuously since 1946, making it the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised natio ...

. Against Wake Forest, Wimsatt completed 7-of-16 passes for 30 yards with an interception while running four times for 38 yards. He finished the season with nine completions on 21 pass attempts for 45 yards and 68 rushing yards off nine attempts. Wimsatt began the 2022 season as a backup, totaling five pass completions on nine attempts with an interception in the first game of the year. He made his first start the following week in the Scarlet Knights' 66–7 win over Wagner, going 4-for-11 for 63 yards passing while running six times for 62 yards. He also threw his first career touchdown pass in the game. It would be one of six starts in eight appearances on the year for Wimsatt. He posted his first start against a Big Ten opponent on his 19th birthday, October 29, completing 6-of-17 passes with a interception in a loss to Minnesota. Wimsatt had his best game of the year in a one-score loss to

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

on November 12, posting career-highs with 20 pass completions on 34 attempts for 236 yards with two touchdowns. The following week, he threw for 122 yards and one touchdown in a loss to nationally-ranked Penn State, before closing out the year against Maryland. He finished his sophomore season having completed 65-of-145 passes for 757 yards with five passing touchdowns. Entering fall camp as a junior, Wimsatt was named Rutgers' starting quarterback for the 2023 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wimsatt, Gavin 2003 births Living people American football quarterbacks Players of American football from Kentucky Sportspeople from Owensboro, Kentucky Rutgers Scarlet Knights football players