"We went up there two years ago, and it was not a very good environment," said Bearcats senior safety Haruki Nakamura, recalling a 44-9 loss. "They're pretty brutal fans. Their student section is very proud of their program -- very loud, very hostile. I mean, it's one of those atmospheres we were yearning for at the University of Cincinnati."
"Pretty brutal." "Very proud." "Very loud." "Very hostile." Isn't this exactly the way we want every visiting player to feel about their visits to R house? Is there any reason we shouldn't cultivate the famous (or infamous) attitude demonstrated by the fans at a professional football field a little ways south of New Brunswick in Philadelphia? A lot is written in the national press about Rutgers being a satellite of New York City, but everybody who has ever gone to school on the banks of the Raritan knows that there's also a whiff of Philly cheese steak in the air in Central New Jersey. A number of us finished high school in South Jersey and rooted for the Eagles before we went to the school we sometimes called "Rutgers North" to differentiate it from its satellite campus in Camden.
The last time the Bearcats were in Rutgers Stadium in 2005, the atmosphere seemed fairly good-natured to me (& certainly not as brutal, loud, and hostile as it can sometimes become). It wasn't quite sold out. And there was only one student section in one corner of the Stadium. Now it's always sold out. And there is a second student bleacher section behind the goal line at what was the "open" end of the field until last November.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. And Go Knights!
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