Broc Rutter has grown from prep star at Neuqua Valley to record breaking and national title winning quarterback at North Central. Now he’s an NFL QB.
Broc Rutter
If you have followed the journey of Naperville quarterback Broc Rutter, you know he’s one of the fiercest competitor the community has ever produced.
If you haven’t followed the Neuqua Valley and North Central star, here’s a perfect story to bring you up to speed.
Jeff: We go to Feed My Starving Children every year and we take the team and we break them into teams and they have their sections. If you’ve not been there before, they have their sections and their different countries. So we have a competition when we go, we always want to make everything a competition, and we want to know who’s going to pack the most boxes and Broc gets there and he already has a game plan. He’s already put a game plan together on how we’re going to attack packing the most boxes for these kids in impoverished nations, it’s really a lot of fun to see that play out in different ways — how competitors show that. But that’s how he is.
Broc Rutter Signs with San Francisco 49ers
Chance would have it that, not only did Rutter bring a perfect game plan into the charity event, he had the perfect game plan for making it to the NFL.
You know, the classic roadmap of starting two year in high school, head to a division one program, transfer to division three a year later, crush records for four years and cap that collegiate career by winning the national title.
Broc: It’s been surreal, different and cool not just for me but for the school – getting all this national attention that they deserve and it’s really a credited to my teammates and coaches for what they do and how they run the program at North Central
And now the Rutter’s GPS has a new destination plugged in. The National Football League. Turning his record breaking collegiate career into a job in the NFL, the QB has signed with the San Francisco 49ers.
Bill: We’re incredibly excited as a Neuqua valley football staff. Obviously as his coach, personally with offensively and working through all of that with him has been incredible. And then to follow his journey through Indiana State and back at North Central. That’s incredible itself. It’s been fun.
Rutter’s Football Journey
Rutter’s journey, for our purposes, begins at Neuqua Valley. Starting his junior season, he led the Wildcats to the three seed in the 8A IHSA playoffs, before bowing out to eventual State Champion Naperville Central in the third round.
Bill: It’s really his leadership that really kind of drew me to Broc from the start. He was a three sport athlete in high school and the football piece I knew really early that he was special. Just being able to do the things he’s able to do with the football. But really the leadership part is what separated himself. He got people around him to play better in any sports that he was playing.
Rutter parlayed a strong senior year into a scholarship opportunity with division one program, Indiana State.
A Sycamore for one season, Rutter quickly reopened his collegiate choices, and transferred to North Central. Becoming the all-time leader in every passing statistic in school history, Rutter led the Cardinals to a title game win over UW-Whitewater this past December, breaking the D3 passing yards record in the process.
The NFL Draft Process
Even with all those accolades, the NFL draft, and subsequent free agency brought uncertainty.
Broc: The way the draft was falling, there wasn’t a lot of quarterbacks going. So we kind of knew it was going to be with free agency and we were honestly okay with that. So many people told me and my agent told me, it’s almost better to be a free agent than drafted in the 7th round because he pick where to go, the best fit and I think I found a great fit for me.
Jeff: I think it’s THE perfect fit for him, I really do. They were interested in him. They liked him a lot and they’ve watched him for quite a while and they a ton of meetings with him virtually. So I think there’s a comfort level for him and they’re looking for a guy who’s going to fit into their culture, they got a great culture out there obviously. They’re looking for someone to fit in, go out there to compete, but also be there to support the other quarterbacks that are there currently. And you’re not going to find a better guy than Broc.
Broc: The whole organization — Kyle Shanahan, Shane Day (the QB Coach) they’re really good at developing quarterbacks. And their system doesn’t ask quarterbacks to do things that I can’t do. They don’t ask them to run a lot. It’s a lot of drop back, play action stuff so it’s great for me, it should fit my game really well.
What is Next for Broc Rutter?
The next step for Rutter is to study. Equiped with only an iPad with game tape and a playbook, studying now will help get the first-time pro up to speed when the NFL resumes team workouts.
Broc: It’s still kind of unknown for now, it’s up in the air. We got some iPads that have their plays and film on it, the playbook and they’re able to film their meetings and record them so we can go back and watch them and take notes and study. It’s definitely going ot be a challenge this year but I’m looking forward to just attack and dive into the playbook and the film and just not make any excuses when camp does come around and I’m not ready, I promise I’ll be ready.
In the meantime, Naperville watches on, as it’s homegrown football star departs in hopes of striking gold out west in San Francisco.
Reporting for Sports Story Sunday, I’m Kevin Jackman
