Transfer Bio Blast: Gavin Wimsatt

The spring transfer portal window has been closed for nearly a week, but that does not mean that the free agent activity has slowed down. College football programs are still hosting transfers on visits and attempting to lock up commitments to fill remaining roster holes. Kentucky is once again telling us without telling us that they are shopping in the QB market.

New offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan inherited a position room with only two scholarship quarterbacks in February. After making a push for UCLA transfer Collin Schlee, the Wildcats hosted a Big Ten transfer on Monday.

Rutgers quarterback Gavin Wimsatt was a late entrant into the portal after losing a QB competition to Minnesota transfer Athan Kaliakmanis during spring practice. Now the redshirt junior is looking for a new home.

Kentucky could provide that home. Wimsatt is currently visiting Kentucky and could give the Wildcats another player to add to the quarterback room at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility.

Blue-chip QB recruit

Gavin Wimsatt was a star quarterback in the class of 2022 playing at Owensboro (Ky.) High. The multi-sport athlete (basketball and baseball) became the starter as a sophomore in 2019 and led the Red Devils to the state semifinals throwing for 2,729 yards and 31 touchdowns. Wimsatt threw for 2,075 yards and 26 touchdowns as a junior in the COVID-19 shortened season in 2020 leading Owensboro to the state championship game.

After that season, Wimsatt saw his recruitment blow up. The prospect became a consensus four-star recruit and received an Elite 11 invite. That ultimately led to a commitment to Rutgers in April of his junior season despite a huge push made by Kentucky for the in-state prospect.

After playing three games for Owensboro during his senior year, Wimsatt left the program after getting enough coursework done to graduate early and enrolled at Rutgers in September after reclassifying to the 2021 class.

Experienced Big Ten starter

As a true freshman in 2021, Gavin Wimsatt saw action in four games and was able to preserve his redshirt. The young quarterback played 37 total snaps but showed some pop as a rusher in the Gator Bowl 39 yards on four attempts.

Wimsatt returned to Rutgers as a redshirt freshman in 2022 and started six games splitting time with Evan Simon and Noah Vedral under offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson. The Scarlet Knights struggled scoring only 17.4 points per game. Wimsatt finished the season with 757 passing yards (44.8% completion rate, 5.2 yards per attempt) with five touchdowns and seven interceptions. However, Wimsatt did show some pop as a rusher with 152 non-sack rushing yards on 6.6 yards per rush.

After the season, Greg Schiano brought in former Minnesota offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca to call plays at Rutgers. Wimsatt would start all 13 games for the Scarlet Knights in 2023, but the results were similar.

The redshirt sophomore was a very effective rusher (581 non-sack rushing yards with 11 touchdowns on 4.9 yards per rush) but struggled as a passer finishing the year with 1,735 passing yards, 6.0 yards per attempt, nine touchdowns, eight interceptions, and 47.8 percent completion rate.

In the offseason, Rutgers brought in a transfer, and Wimsatt lost his starting job during a spring position battle. The transfer became a free agent with 21 career starts (1,205 snaps), 2,537 career passing yards, and 28 total touchdowns.

Scouting Notebook

Gavin Wimsatt brings a ton of starting experience to the table and his ability to run the football potentially gives him a high floor as a power conference backup. There is still some upside with the quarterback with two years of eligibility remaining, but some drastic growth is needed as a passer.

Here is my scouting write-up on the Big Ten transfer.

Gavin Wimsatt (6-3, 225) played in a primarily shotgun offense at Rutgers under offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarocca in 2023 that included a high volume of RPO actions. A team captain at just 19 years old, Wimsatt struggled with three-level accuracy last season on tape. Looks like he aims the ball on short passes around the line of scrimmage and misfires on slants. Better at pushing the ball downfield showing some good touch and ball placement on throws up the seam and down the sideline. Has velocity to drive the football down the middle. Footwork is erratic and leads to misfires on all three levels. Has pocket awareness and good athleticism allowing him to extend plays. Still raw as a pocket passer. North/south runner on zone read concepts who does a good job of reading blocks and getting downhill. Long strider with some breakaway speed. Can provide a legit threat as a change-of-pace runner with the ability to execute multiple gap scheme runs.

Kentucky wants to get back to running the football. New offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan has talked about how important it is for the quarterback to provide some value as a rusher. There is no doubt that Gavin Wimsatt can provide that, but a ton of development as a passer in the pocket will be needed for the transfer.

Wimsatt projects as a power conference backup who can provide a short window high floor to the offense thanks to his running ability. The redshirt junior has starter-level tools as a passer but must develop better accuracy quickly as constant misfires can make him turnover-prone and prevent an offense from playing on schedule.