There was a time following the 2021 season when Illinois quarterback Art Sitkowski didn’t have full use of either of his arms. He was told by doctors to rest his right arm in a sling after shoulder surgery and his left arm was encased in a hard cast to repair a broken wrist.

Sitkowski suffered the broken left wrist near the end of the Illini’s dramatic nine overtime upset victory on the road against No. 7 Penn State in Beaver Stadium. Making the injury more painful for the New Jersey native though was that it looked like he had potentially secured the starting quarterback job.

Head coach Bret Bielema and then offensive coordinator Tony Petersen decided to start Sitkowski over Brandon Peters, who had been struggling since his return from a shoulder injury in the season-opener against Nebraska.

Sitkowski’s energy and command of the huddle helped him secure the starting position, but before the end of the game, it was Peters who was throwing the game-winning pass to wide receiver Casey Washington in the back of the endzone to lock up a 20-18 thriller.

“It was hard,” Sitkowski said of that late October day in Pennsylvania. “It was a really tough day. The best thing about it is that we won. That is the greatest thing. I’m sitting in the locker room and my arm is literally like this and I see Coach B walk through those doors and he’s happy. Coach Petersen (too). It was a great day, but it was a tough day.”

A few days later, it was revealed by Bielema to the public what everybody already knew just by looking at Sitkowski’s wrist. It was broken and the rest of his season would be over as he was scheduled for surgery. What was also revealed about Sitkowski though was a shock to everybody – including the Illini roster.

Sitkowski had been playing the entirety of the season with a torn labrum in his right throwing shoulder. The injury to his shoulder occurred when he was still at Rutgers but wasn’t properly diagnosed. When he transferred to Illinois in the summer of 2021, the Illinois team doctors were able to determine the full scope of the injury.

“They told me what was going on, what needed to be done,” Sitkowski said of his conversation with doctors about his shoulder. “Coach B gave me all the information I needed to make a decision and it was on me. I wanted to play, but we knew that I would need the surgery done to play at the level that I want to play at 100%. It was tough, but it’s something that I needed to be done.”

The resolve that Sitkowski showed during the weeks that the played through “pain” in his right shoulder is a great example of why he was able to win over many of his teammates and coaches a year ago.

Routinely, they spoke about how his energy helped motivate the offense and it increased a sense of belief among the roster that Sitkowski was the guy meant to be quarterback one last season.

Now, he’s greeted by a sticky note in his room every morning with a little doodle on it that keeps him motivated as he continues his rehab from the two offseason surgeries that have kept him from being a full participant in spring practices nearly five months after the first procedure.

“I have this mountain on my wall, and it says the best view comes after the hardest climb,” Sitkowski said. “So, I’m climbing that mountain. I can’t wait to see the view when I’m done.”

The current mountain peak that Sitkowski is attempting to climb is one that doesn’t allow him to throw the ball in practice. Instead, he has to work individually with wide receivers on his arm while throwing only a certain number of passes at certain yardage.

That means in practice, he has to go through mental reps while watching Syracuse transfer Tommy DeVito lead the offense through different drills.

“Obviously there is nothing like being out there with the live bullets,” Sitkowski said. “But when you are that close you do gain a lot of knowledge. Also, in the meetings rooms I’m gaining knowledge of the way Coach (Barry) Lunney coaches the quarterbacks, he’s coaching the entire room not just one person. Gaining those coaching points, those teaching points.

Control what I can control. All I can control right now is my preparation, my arm, my body and the rehab and everything in my lower half, core. Being in there as if I was there – I’m literally doing everything the same except throwing the ball.”

Still, that’s frustrating for a kid who is ultra-competitive and loves football as much as anything.

“It’s frustrating, it really is,” Sitkowski said. “I’m surrounded by really great people in this building, great coaches, great players, great support staff. They are keeping me positive. I know what the end goal is, and that’s to be ready for fall camp. I’ll be ready for fall camp.”

Sitkowski is in the early stages of what he called an “11-step process” that is all organized by Illinois’ team doctors. They determine how quickly he is able to return to throwing at 100% and how many yards he is able to throw the football.

“I want to go, go, go,” he said. “But (team doctor) Jeremy Busch does a good job of slowing me down. he knows me better than anybody else in this building mentally. He does a really good job.”

So, each morning Sitkowski will continue to wake up, look at the doodle on his sticky note in his bedroom and he’ll continue to remind himself of one thing.

“Just keep climbing that mountain,” he said. “When I get to the top it would be a great deal.”