Home away from home: Antioch’s Kaliakmanis feels comfortable in New Jersey

Rutgers might seem like a random spot to land for a Chicago-area quarterback who transferred from Minnesota.

Antioch High School graduate Athan Kaliakmanis and his brother Dino are the only Illinois natives on the Rutgers roster.

Actually, though, it's home, at least for the family as a whole. Both parents, Alex and Colleen, grew up in New Jersey. Alex was a wrestler at Seton Hall.

“My family grew up in Old Bridge, which is about 30 minutes from the football stadium,” Athan Kaliakmanis said. “I have family all over Jersey. My parents went to high school together. I came here a lot growing up and I'm excited to be here.”

When the family took trips to New Jersey, what was the highlight?

“The ocean, for sure,” he said. “I'm an ocean guy. I grew up on a lake, but I love the ocean.”

At Minnesota, Kaliakmanis took the field early, getting his first start as a redshirt freshman for a whiteout game at Penn State. He was the Gophers' full-time starter last season and threw for 1,800 yards.

But this being the modern era of college football, the next step was the transfer portal. In this case it seemed to be by mutual agreement, and that's where another New Jersey connection came into play.

Kirk Ciarrocca was offensive coordinator at Minnesota when he visited Antioch to watch Kaliakmanis throw, then made a scholarship offer on the spot. After recruiting Kaliakmanis, Ciarrocca actually left Minnesota for two years, then returned in 2022 when Kaliakmanis first became the starter. Then Ciarrocca departed to become OC and quarterbacks coach at Rutgers, so this season is a reunion of sorts between coach and QB.

“I was super fortunate to have a lot of schools look at me, but I was pretty much set in stone once I met coach (Greg) Schiano, saw coach Ciarrocca again,” Kaliakmanis said. “I really bought into the culture right away. That was really it. I closed the door once I met them. I just had a really good experience here.”

Rutgers had a returning quarterback in Gavin Wimsatt. Schiano declared Kaliakmanis the starter in the spring, and Wimsatt transferred to Kentucky.

“It was very, very good competition,” Schiano said at the time. “When you get into those things, it can get dicey. These guys … they were great together, they supported each other. Athan clearly won the job.”

So far this season, Kaliakmanis has thrown for nearly 1,000 yards in five games. The Scarlet Knights suffered their first loss of the season at Nebraska last week but pulled out narrow wins against Washington and Virginia Tech. With a strong run game powered by Kyle Monangai, expectations are higher at Rutgers than they've been, probably since joining the Big Ten. Those expectations took a hit, though, with Saturday’s 42-7 loss to Wisconsin.

Kaliakmanis talked about what it was like to walk into the locker room trying to make a positive impression on new teammates.

“I wanted to show the guys that I am who I say I am right away, and show them I am a hard worker and I'm willing to do what it takes to win,” he said. “That's what I did, I put my head down when I first got here and I just worked.”

At the start of last season, there was talk that Kaliakmanis could end Minnesota's long drought of never having a quarterback drafted into the NFL. NJ.com published a three-part series this fall on why Rutgers had such a hard time developing quarterbacks.

Past results don't preclude future success, but it is quite a coincidence that Kaliakmanis has now played for two programs starving for some quarterback success.

“Honestly, I don't even think about it,” he said. “I just think about what I'm doing now, living every day and appreciating the moment. Because one day, I won't be able to do it any more, I won't be able to play.

“It's just living in the moment. I don't think about being drafted or anything like that. Those are future goals, but that's not something I live for or train to do. I try to live in the present and just focus on that.”

Rutgers doesn't play Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State this season but is getting a heavy dose of the best of the rest in the Big Ten. The Scarlet Knights visit USC in two weeks. In November, Kaliakmanis is set to face his former team, as well as Illinois in New Brunswick.

“I'm really proud of our team and the things we've been through so far,” he said. “We know there's always room for improvement. We're never satisfied.”