Rutgers Quarterbacks. Number 7, Tom Savage

It's hard to imagine the presence of a high-school junior making more of an impression on a college football stadium full of people, but on April 17, 2008, the news broke that a highly-recruited quarterback from Pennsylvania had decided to play his college football on the Banks of the Old Raritan (here's a link from the New York Post of 4/17/08). One day later, on Saturday, April 18th, Tom Savage walked into Rutgers Stadium for the Scarlet-White Game.

Click on this and you can even read Tom Savage's nametag.

No announcement was made as he entered R House, but by the time he had made it halfway to his seat, the word had spread and everyone was looking at the kid in the Phillies cap and applauding. Click on the picture to see it full size. Look at the direction into which all of the sunglasses are pointed. Even the cheerleaders are shielding their eyes from the sun to see who has dared to direct the pre-game attention away from them.
Fast forward a year and four months and the talk about Tom Savage being redshirted in 2009 seems to have been replaced by talk about his bid for the starting quarterback job this year Check out these Star-Ledger articles from Tom Luicci yesterday, "Rutgers freshman quarterback Tom Savage draws comparisons to John Elway," and "Rutgers' second scrimmage: Freshman Tom Savage makes his bid to be the starting quarterback," from which the following quote is taken:

"Tom has a good level of composure for a young guy. More than I expected," Schiano said.

And everyone (including Coach Schiano) has expected a lot.
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Finally, I just have to say that "Tom Savage" still strikes me as an almost mythical name for a college football quarterback. It could be the name of a lead character in a series of inspirational books for boys in the 1930's: Tom Savage and the Stolen Cannon Caper, Tom Savage Tames the Wild Mountaineer, Tom Savage Cages the Bearcat . . . etc. And his number, Seven, they don't get any luckier.