Saturday, December 29, 2012

One quote sums up Rutgers' loss in last night's Orlando Bowl

“Gary is our starting quarterback. He is the guy that has earned the job and earned the right to be in the game, and certainly nothing I saw from him made me feel like I should make any change.” -- Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood on Quarterback Gary Nova
Was Kyle Flood watching a different game? Gary Nova looked scared, was throwing off his back foot all night, and should have thrown six interceptions rather than one -- if the Virginia Tech defensive backs had any hands.

Wasn't Kyle Flood on the sideline during last year's Pinstripe Bowl during which Greg Schiano's switch to Chas Dodd helped lead to a victory over Iowa State? (I would have loved to have heard Greg Schiano's thoughts as he watched from his box in the Citrus Bowl last night.)

I feel very sorry for a defense full of seniors who played a brilliant game against Virginia Tech, scoring a touchdown, holding the Hokies scoreless for three quarters (until a Nova interception set up the first score in the fourth), and keeping them out of the endzone in OT when the Hokies had a first down at the three. Khaseem Greene and crew are a great defense who deserved just a little bit of support on the other side of the ball.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

It's officially "The Orlando Bowl" in the BeatVisitor dot com style guide

I'm under no contractual obligation to mention the corporate sponsors of bowl games (or the people putting their corporate name on Rutgers Stadium), so in all future posts about Friday's game, I will use the words "Orlando Bowl" or "The Orlando Bowl", because to call this Friday's game against Virginia Tech the Blockbuster-CarQuest-MicronPC-VisitFlorida-Mazda-ChampsSports-RussellAthletic Bowl is simply too depressing.





Thank God we played in the St. Petersburg Bowl before Mr. Beef O'Brady got his hands on it.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Keep Calm and Chop Virginia Tech

Here it is, the last poster of the 2012 Rutgers football season in honor of the Scarlet Knights' bowl game in Orlando against the Virginia Tech Hokies on December 28th:
You can get an original image at
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-vatech/


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Keep Calm and Chop Louisville

It would have been great if Rutgers and Louisville had entered this Thursday's game both 11-0 and highly ranked. It still would have been wonderful if they both went into the game 10-1.  With both of them losing today, there may be a possibility that they will both drop out of their top 25 BCS rankings, but the stakes are exactly the same between these two 9-2 teams as they would have been if they had both been 11-0.
If Rutgers wins, we'll be the sole Big East Champions and going to a BCS game. If Louisville wins, there will be a 3- or 4-way tie of 2-loss teams, including Rutgers, sharing the title, but Louisville will almost certainly go to the BCS game.
Get you own original image or pdf at
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-louisville-2/

Use the #ChopLouisville hashtag this week if you're on Twitter.

Time for Rutgers to go 1-0 again this week.

Quite the scary mascot.



The Rutgers-Pittsburgh game at Ketchup Stadium is starting on ESPN 2 right now, and I'm tweeting with @BeatVisitor over on Twitter.

~~~~~~~~~~
Halftime Update: Pittsburgh is looking like the team that was winning decisively against #1 Notre Dame a few weeks ago (before ultimately losing on a chip-shot field goal in overtime).  It's 21-0 Pitt at the half and Rutgers only has a handful of offensive yards on atrociously conservative play calling (PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT CONSERVATISM IS ALWAYS WRONG AND EVIL!). This is a bigger hole than the one that the Scarlet Knights found themselves in after sleepwalking through the first half against Temple before exploding in the third quarter. I'm hoping that Dave Brock is getting fired at halftime and replaced at Offensive Coordinator with a kid who plays Madden aggressively.
~~~~~~~~
Final Score: Pittsburgh 27- Rutgers 6, and it wasn't that close.
It still all comes down to next Thursday against Louisville in Piscataway, just like we knew it always would.
~~~~~~~~~
Further Update: UConn beat Louisville in triple overtime a minute ago, so Rutgers clinches at least a share of the Big East title.  If they lose to the Cards they could end in a four-way tie of two-loss teams (Louisville, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Cincinnati), but if they win on Thursday, they will own the title and a trip to the Orange Bowl outright. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

It's Official

 Rutgers will be joining the Big Ten as its 14th member, with a target date of 2014.  
Here's the picture that was tweeted by Athletic Director Tim Pernetti right before the official announcement at 2 this afternoon.
Here's the Official Announcement from Rutgers and the Big Ten.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

The Updated BCS Map for 18 November 2012

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-1, 5-0) are still the only team from the Northeast among the 25 colleges in the BCS rankings announced tonight. Ohio has gained color once again with the Kent State Golden Flashes moving into the BCS picture at number 23.

Geographical Distribution of the 25 ranked BCS football teams on 11/18/12.

Rutgers at 18 in the BCS Standings

As shown one minute ago on ESPN:
As seen on TV, 18 November 2012.

Keep Calm and Chop Pitt

The Scarlet Knight players and coaches need to keep only one thing on their minds this week, going one and oh against the Pitt Panthers, who may be the most unpredictably dangerous team around, looking hapless one week and dominating (though somehow losing to) the Number One Fighting Irish the next. 
Rutgers needs to expect to see the latter at a half-empty Ketchup Stadium in Pittsburgh at noon on Saturday. All thoughts of the Louisville matchup and  BCS Bowls and Big Ten invitations need to be erased.  All that matters this week is the need to Chop Pitt.  Here's your poster:
Original poster may be downloaded at
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-pitt/

Lucky Member 13 of the Big Ten

Here are a few links about the reports today that Rutgers and Maryland may soon be invited to become the 13th and 14th members of the Big Ten [sic, of course, but no more ridiculous than the fact that the so-called "Big East" will soon include teams from San Diego, California and Boise, Idaho]:
  • "Maryland, Rutgers to Join Big Ten?" from SI.com, giving the basic AP story that is available all over the web this morning.
  • Video on ESPN.com on the possibility focusing more on Maryland than Rutgers, but bringing out important points about the Big Ten giving up on Notre Dame after the Dame picked the ACC. Also noting that Maryland and RU are both AAU academic institutions, Land Grant universities, in states contiguous to the current Big Ten, and in large TV markets the Big Ten Network would like to break into. The way Andy Katz descibes it in this video, you wonder why the Terrapins and the Knights aren't already playing the Wolverines, Buckeyes, and Nittany Lions.
  • "Rutgers coach Kyle Flood is mum on possible move to the Big Ten" from NJ.com quotes Coach Flood, who echoes the feelings of all long-time Scarlet Knights fans: ``I’ve heard a lot of things over the last eight years and I’ve come to realize that the best thing for me to do is the not react to it. Those types of decisions I leave up to Tim Pernetti and the athletic department. I know they’re going to make sure that regardless of what happens, we’ll be in a good place.’’  He needs to concentrate on only one thing, making sure the 9-1 Knights are 1-0 again this week against Pitt.
  • Steve Politi's take on the change on NJ.com puts the case for the change in its best light, and includes the following quote from former AD Bob Mulcahy: "The Big Ten is the dream scenario. That’s what I always felt. I felt the combination of land grant universities and research universities, plus athletics, Rutgers would fit right in.
Also, it's hard to imagine a more natural rivalry than the one that could develop between the state universities of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Keep Calm and Chop Cincy

Don't tell the players how big tomorrow's game at Nippert Stadium is -- that a win keeps the Scarlet Knights (8-1, 4-0) all alone in first place in the Big East and a loss creates a three-way tie between the Bearcats, Cardinals, and R Team.
Don't let them know.
Tell them to keep calm and try to go 1 and 0 again this week.

Get your copy of the poster from

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Updated BCS Map as of November 12

The Northeastern United States still has only one representative in this week's updated map of the 25 teams included in BCS rankings of November 12, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights:

Geographic distribution of 25 BCS-ranked teams on November 12, 2012.


Tuesday, November 6, 2012

The 1869 Targum Article About America's First College Football Game

Today's the 143rd anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game between Rutgers and Princeton (and Notre Dame is making a big fucking deal about their 125th anniversary this year).

About a dozen years ago I was lucky enough to receive as a present the book that you see to your right. If the gift-giver who stumbled on it in a used book store had been a loyal son of Rutgers rather than a graduate of Boston University, he never would have passed this treasure along to to me. It's long out of print (it doesn't even have an ISBN number); it was published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Rutgers in 1966. This little (250-page) book consists of about 40 short chapters or anecdotes about our alma mater (including the one retyped below). Rutgers University Press also published a larger, more official title, Rutgers: A Bicentennial History, by Richard P. McCormick, chairman of the History Department in 1966 and a professor of mine in 1973 (and the father of the former President McCormick).

The details of the game reprinted below are a little like reading the details of a cricket match (if, like me, you don't know all the rules of cricket), but here's the first-hand report of the first intercollegiate game of "foot-ball" played on American soil; here it is exactly as reported first in the Targum in 1869, and as reprinted in Aloud to Alma Mater, edited by George Lukac, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1966, pages 67-69.

Enjoy! But remember, there will be a pop quiz on this information later this year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Birth of Intercollegiate Football
On Saturday, November 6, Princeton sent twenty-five picked men to play our twenty-five a match game of foot-ball. The strangers came up in the ten o’clock train, and brought a good number of backers with them. After dinner, and a stroll around the town, during which stroll billiards received a good deal of attention, the crowd began to assemble at the ball ground, which, for the benefit of the ignorant, we would say, is a lot about a hundred yards wide, extending from College Avenue to Sicard Street. Previous to calling the game, the ground presented an animated picture. Grim looking players were silently stripping, each one surrounded by sympathizing friends, while around each of the captains was a little crowd, intent upon giving advice, and saying as much as possible. The appearance of the Princeton men was very different from that of our own players. They were almost without exception tall and muscular, while the majority of our twenty-five are small and light, but possess the merit of being up to much more than they look.
Very few were the preliminaries, and they were quickly agreed upon. The Princeton captain, for some reason or other, gave up every point to our men without contesting one. The only material points were that Princeton gave up “free kicks,” whereby a player, when he catches the ball in the air, is allowed to kick it without hindrance. On the other hand, our practice of “babying” the ball on the start was discarded, and the ball was mounted, in every instance, by a vigorous “long kick.”
Princeton won the toss, and chose the first mount, rather oddly, since it had been agreed to start the ball against the wind. At three p.m. the game was called. The Princetonians suffered from making a bad “mount” or “buck” as they call it; the effects of which were not remedied before the sides closed, and after a brief struggle, Rutgers drove it home, and won, amid great applause from the crowd. The sides were changed, Rutgers started the ball, and after a somewhat longer fight Princeton made it a tie by a well directed kick, from a gentleman whose name we don’t know, but who did the best kicking on the Princeton side.
To describe the varying fortunes of the match, game by game, would be a waste of labor, for every game was like the one before. There was the same headlong running, wild shouting, and frantic kicking. In every game the cool goal-tenders saved the Rutgers goal half a dozen times; in every game the heavy charger of the Princeton side overthrew everything he came in contact with; and in every game, just when the interest in one of those delightful rushes at the fence was culminating, the persecuted ball would fly for refuge into the next lot, and produce a cessation of hostilities until, after the invariable “foul,” it was put in straight.
Well, at last we won the match, having won the first, third, fifth, sixth, ninth, and tenth games; leaving Princeton the second, fourth, seventh, and eighth. The seventh game would probably have been added to our score but for one of our players, who, in his ardor, forgot which way he was kicking, a mistake for which he fully atoned afterward.
To sum up: Princeton had the most muscle, but didn’t kick very well, and wanted organization. They evidently don’t like to kick the ball on the ground. Our men, on the other hand, though comparatively weak, ran well, and kicked well throughout. But their great point was their organization, for which great praise is due to the Captain, Leggett ’72. The right men were always in the right place.
After the match, the players had an amicable “feed” together, and at eight o’clock our guests went home, in high good spirits, but thirsting to beat us next time, if they can.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Northeast Again Has a Representative on the BCS Map

Rutgers has again brought the Northeast back onto the BCS map this week, without running a single play.
Geographic Representation of the 25 ranked BCS teams, 4 November 2012.
Idaho, West Virginia, and Arizona dropped off the map this week, replaced by New Jersey, Illinois (Northwestern), and Ohio (Toledo is the third representative from this battleground state to rise onto the BCS rankings in 2012, after Cincinnati and Ohio).

Rutgers Back in the BCS Top 25

At number 23:
As Seen on ESPN at 8:30 on 11/4/2012.

Rutgers in the Polls

On this off week, The 7-1 Scarlet Knights (4-0 Big East) rose back up to 20 in the Coaches Poll and 24 in the AP Poll.


It's also interesting to see that the 8-1 Kent State Golden Flashes (5-0 MAC), the one team to beat the Scarlet Knights, won again and are very close to being ranked in both polls themselves.

Monday, October 29, 2012

"... this boardwalk life for me is through ..."

Could the namers of hurricanes have picked a more appropriate name than "Sandy" for a hurricane that seems to be aimed directly at the boardwalks of New Jersey?
Stay safe New Jersey!!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

This may be the last BCS map I post on BeatVisitor dot com

With the departure of schools from New Jersey and Ohio and the addition of more schools from Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Arizona, all is once again well with the college football world.

There may not be any more representatives from the Northeast threatening the football world's traditional southern and western tilt this year.


You can check out my entries from October 14 and October 21 to see how the BCS top 25 has changed this year.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The Wrong Way Kent State Video

This may be the most (in)famous video of the Kent State Golden Flashes in 2012.

Rutgers shouldn't count on getting this kind of help from next Saturday's visitors, but it's still fun to watch a player run more than 50 yards in the wrong direction:

The Updated BCS Map

There have been some minor geographic adjustments in the top 25 BCS rankings this week. Texas lost one of its teams, Iowa lost its sole representative on the list and Wisconsin and Michigan have entered the map (Ohio lost one, but gained another.)

The Northeast is still represented in the BCS rankings by only a single team, the #15 Rutgers Scarlet Knights.


Homeostasis in the BCS

The BCS rankings are being announced on ESPN as I write this, but only one number counts, and it hasn't changed from last week.

Rutgers is still #15:
BCS Standings as televised on ESPN 10/21/2012

Chop Kent Week Begins

The eighteen hours that Kyle Flood gives the Scarlet Knights to celebrate a win is complete, so we are now officially into preparation for the Kent State Golden Flashes. Previously unbeaten Cincinnati's loss yesterday to the Toledo Rockets show how dangerous is for a Big East team to overlook a one-loss MAC team.  We hope that that 7-0 Knights can keep their intensity and focus on being 1-0 each week to prepare for 6-1 Kent State.
Here's our little propaganda contribution to that effort:
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-kent/
You can get your own original pdf or png image by clicking on http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-kent/ .  And remember, if you tweet, to use the #ChopKent hashtag this week.  #ChopTemple was trending during yesterday's 35-10 win.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Beat Temple!

A Scarlet Knights fan at the Rutgers Temple game
in the open-ended Rutgers Stadium on Halloween 1998.



In ten minutes I'll be over on Twitter at @BeatVisitor and watching this revived rivalry between the Cherry and White Temple Owls and the Scarlet and Black Rutgers Scarlet Knights on SNY.

Go Knights!

```````````
Halftime Update: A very sloppy first half by the Scarlet Knights with penalties, dropped passes, and two turnovers. The Temple Owls are up by 10-0.
Rutgers can't rely on 3rd-quarter magic every week if they intend to stay undefeated.

````````````````
Final Update: With a final score of 35-10 and a complete domination of the second half offensively and defensively (Nova touchdown passes to Wright, Jamison, Harrison, and Jefferson, a fumble return by Greene and even a blocked punt thrown in for a little special team balance), Rutgers' #15 BCS ranking probably won't suffer any damage.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Quote of the Day

“We don’t need the rowdy pep talks to get us going. He tells us exactly what he wants us to do, and we go out and do it. He tells us the visions that he sees for us before the game, and we go out and do it" 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

"Beat Visitor" makes another surprising appearance

Here's the first paragraph of an article appearing in Grantland today titled "Don't Look Now -- Rutgers is 6-0":
"I don't know who these two guys were, if they pictured themselves as historical reenactors or professional ironists, but they felt to me like fitting ambassadors for a college football program still trafficking on a 50-man melee with Princeton that took place in 1869. They were sitting along the rail in a corner of the end zone that could generously be described as "semi-vacant," and one of them appeared to be wearing a leather helmet, and together they were holding up a handwritten sign that read, 'BEAT VISITOR.'"
There's even a link to an Instagram image of the sign that's much clearer and closer than the one that I took from long distance at Saturday's Syracuse game.
See the white box above the R in the corner.

The article by Michael Weinreb after that first paragraph rehashes a lot of the old anti-bigtime-Rutgers-football arguments that we've all heard -- and been having -- for the past thirty years, but it's good to see the Beat Visitor "brand" getting another plug, even if it is being misunderstood by an outsider (Why can't one be an "historical reenactor", "professional ironist," and a simple bleeding-scarlet Rutgers fan at the same time? Or none of the above?). Any sign at a sporting event that elicits any thought at all is better than the normal arrangements of words beginning with large capital letters "E", "S", "P", and "N" designed to attract the network television cameras for ten seconds.

Carry On and Chop Temple (again, now with a more appropriate Queens College 1766 crown)

You can download an original image or pdf or make your own poster here, using the Keep Calm-O-Matic: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-temple-2/

Keep Calm and Chop Temple



You can download your own version (or make your own variations) here: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-temple/

Monday, October 15, 2012

The BCS Map at a Glance

Excuse the amateur Etch-a-Sketchy graphics, but I thought it might be interesting to see the density of all 25 BCS-ranked schools represented geographically. It's easy to see at one glance how strong the tilt towards the South and West:
The 25 BCS teams plotted on a map of the United States
(I'll add Alaska and Hawai'i when one of their schools is ranked).
Not to put more pressure on our #15 Scarlet Knights, but they are not only playing for the honor of Dear Old Rutgers, or the Garden State, or the New York Metropolitan Area. The Knights are THE team carrying the hopes of the Northeast in 2012.

Welcome the Owls to the Beat Visitor Sidebar

I know that I've been very remiss in cleaning up my sidebar links, doing little more than relegating a multitude of West Virginia football blogs to the dustbin of Big East history last season (should I delete our friends from Syracuse now, or wait until the end of the season?).

I know there must still be links that are outdated or blogs that are moribund (but, as Beat Visitor has shown you in the past, rumors of blog death can sometimes be greatly exaggerated). I'm putting off that major overhaul, but there was one glaring omission that needed to be rectified immediately. So, as we enter Owl Week (known as #ChopTemple week on Twitter), I have added Temple Football Forever to the list of Big East links to your right (unless, of course, you're reading this on a mobile device). I've also added the Philadelphia Inquirer Temple blog.

Welcome.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Initial BCS Standings Were Just Announced

Just announced on ESPN a few minutes ago, the undefeated Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the highest-ranked Big East team in the initial BCS rankings at number 15, higher than their AP (19) and USA Today (17) rankings announced earlier today.

Kudos for Khaseem Greene's Role in Yesterday's Syracuse Win

Here's a photo of Khaseem Greene being awarded his helmet sticker on ESPN for his 14-tackle, 1.5-sack, 3-forced fumble, and 1-interception performance yesterday in Piscataway.
In addition to the gaudy statistics of yesterday's Syracuse game, what I find most amazing about watching Khaseem Greene on the field is the strength and textbook form of his tackles. Runners do NOT move or fall forward once they are in his grasp.

In addition to his helmet sticker from Lou Holtz et al., he is also the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week, and there will be more well-deserved Conference honors to come.

~~~~~~~~~~
Update 10/15: Khaseem Greene has been named the mid-season "Defensive Player of the Year" in the Big East by CBSSports.com (with Coach honors going to Kyle Flood and "Best Game" honors going to Rutgers-Arkansas).

Another 10/15 Update: It's not a surprise, but it's now official that Khaseem Greene has also been named Defensive Player of the Week by the Big East and in ESPN.com's Big East Blog.

One More 10/15 Update: Athlon Sports has also picked Greene as Big East "Defensive Player of the Year" at the halfway point (with Coach Flood again receiving coaching honors, R.J. Dill being named "Newcomer of the Year," and Gary Nova the "Midseason Surprise").

A 10/16 Update: The weekly Chuck Bednarik Award from the Maxwell Football Club for the defensive player of the week has also been handed to Khaseem.

Another 10/16 Update: Khaseem has been named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Football Writers Association of America.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

"Beat Visitor" was in R House today

At the 23-15 victory over Syracuse at Rutgers Stadium this afternoon, I noticed the sign in the following picture.
All I had was my iPhone camera, so you can't read the letters in the square white box above the large block R in the corner near the student section, but it reads "BEAT VISITOR":
The extra point being attempted in this photo was not successful.

It wasn't me holding up the Beat Visitor sign (though more than one person on Twitter asked if it was). If it was you, let me know in the comments below, or at @BeatVisitor.

Six and Oh feels great, as does beating Syracuse in this last of many meetings since 1914.  I had so much fun at R House this afternoon, that I'm watching the game again on SNY Encore now.

Go Knights!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

"It Just Got Real..." The Scarlet Knight Life: Syracuse Week Video

What's most amazing to me about this video of the Scarlet Knight mascot in the Brower Commons enforcing his own Syracuse-week regulations -- even against Tim Pernetti -- is that the Commons looks the same here as it did in the seventies when I was eating there on a regular basis:

It's nature's way of telling you...

When I find the Scarlet and the Orange lining up against each other in my backyard, I know that it's finally really college football season!
Near Woodstock, New York, October 9, 2012
See you Saturday in Piscataway.  I just checked ScarletKnights.com and some tickets are still available to see the 5-0 Scarlet Knights take on their rivals from Syracuse.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Perfect Football Weather

The forecast for this Saturday in Piscataway is (according to Weather.com) sunny and 56 degrees with 0% chance of precipitation.  If that isn't the perfect weather to watch a football game on an October afternoon, I don't know what is.

So why are there still some tickets available at ScarletKnights.com for the game between the 5-0 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (19/20) and the Syracuse Orange?

If I can drive down early from Exit 19 on the NY Thruway and my son can come down from Exit 25 (a location more Orange than Scarlet) to root for the Knights, then no RU fan in the State of New Jersey has any excuse to not be in a seat at R House by noon on Saturday for the match between these two schools competing for Big Apple bragging rights.

(And the students should remember to set their alarm clocks to wake up before 2 in the afternoon.)

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Rutgers and Kansas State in the news.

There's an article in the Washington Post this morning, "Long way from dark days, Kansas State and Rutgers surge into position for memorable seasons," about the Scarlet Knights and the Wildcats, their 4-0 starts, and their current national rankings.

The writer of the article dares to look ahead in a way that this writer dares not:
"Rutgers’ next five games line up like this: home against UConn, home against Syracuse, at Temple, home against Kent State and home against Army. It doesn’t take much of a leap of faith to project the Scarlet Knights getting to 9-0, and bringing back memories of 2006 when they went 11-2 and stunningly slipped into the national championship conversation for about a week.
"Can Rutgers and Kansas State stay undefeated heading into November? It won’t take a miracle."
When I see the names of these two schools in one sentence, I think back instead of forward. I think of my first trip to Texas with my son, my first bowl game, and the Scarlet Knights' 37-10 win in the 2006 Texas Bowl. This 46-yard TD run by Ray Rice was only one of many highlights:

Monday, September 24, 2012

Tweet Number 1766

Some people look at big round numbers as significant, but I just noticed that my latest tweet as @BeatVisitor was tweet number 1766! There's no number of any more significance for those of us who spent any time On the Banks, or for a blog and Twitter account dedicated to the team that plays in The Birthplace of College Football.
Tweet number 1766 of @BeatVisitor
If I had realized that I was up to tweet 1766, maybe I would have written it about something more uplifting that drunken Arkansas fans.

"Rutgers Drunk"

The title of this blog post doesn't refer to your intermittent correspondent's time in that noisy college town on the banks of the Raritan River when the drinking age was 18; it refers instead to a euphemism for a state of extreme intoxication referred to in an Arkansas Razorbacks' blog that I stumbled upon this morning.

The writer in Arkansas Expats talks about names for different types of inebriation and their anecdotal origins. There's "Grandma Drunk" (something about taking someone's Grandma to a sports bar) and "Kentucky Drunk" (following a 2007 Arkansas football loss to that basketball powerhouse that caused the writer's brother-in-law to go on a legendary bender), and now there's this suggestion:
"...And following the debacle I witnessed Saturday night inside Razorback Stadium, "Rutgers drunk" should be a deserving candidate as well.
"The only problem is that right now there isn't enough booze in the world to numb the anxiety, angst, or apoplectic rage that comes with a preseason Top Ten team posting a 1-3 record in its first four games, including losses to members of he Sun Belt and the Big East. Whiskey worked wonders for helping us temporarily forget watching Andre Woodson march a basketball school up and down our football field, but it falls way short of medicating properly a loss to freaking Rutgers."
Here's hoping that the liquor stores and bars in and around Storrs, Connecticut also need to do some serious restocking of their shelves on the week after Rutgers' next game on October 6.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

2012 Home Opener

I'm watching my first Rutgers game of the year today (on SNY, not in Piscataway) and I'm tweeting as @BeatVisitor.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Rutgers Needs to Protest Penn State's Punishment!

Today, the NCAA did not go far enough. They vacated all of Penn States victories back to 1998, thereby leaving all of the Nittany Lions' victories over the Scarlet Knights intact, including this shameful final 1995 performance at the Meadowlands in which Joe Paterno ran up the score in the final seconds to cover the spread for his gambling buddies.
Be sure to watch the video for the pleasure of watching Saint Joe Pa get cursed out by Doug Graber at midfield, with some inappropriate language making it through the network filters.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Pittsburgh won't want to see any Scarlet uniforms again soon.

Tonight:
The Rutgers men just beat the Pittsburgh Panthers 62-39 for their first Big East road win of the season in Pittsburgh.

Last night:
The Rutgers women beat the Pitt Panthers 63-39 in their Big East road opener in Pittsburgh.

So much for home court advantage.

Go Knights!