Looking Forward to 2016.

2015 ended inauspiciously yesterday when Rutgers tried to sit on an early first half 31-10 lead over Maryland rather than play until the end of the game, with the inevitable result.

2016 began today when President Barchi fired Athletic Director Julie Hermann and Head Coach Kyle Flood. I won't say anything bad about either of them here, but I will say whom I'd love to see on the sidelines when football season starts again, so here's a poster and video meant to be seen by our brand new Athletic Director Pat Hobbs:

Keep Calm For The Seniors On Their Day at R House.

Leonte Carroo announced that he's definitely playing during his last chance to take the field at Rutgers Stadium this Saturday, so let's send him off with a victory (even if that means that Kyle Flood might have to think about switching from Laviano to Rettig at QB at some point earlier than the waning minutes of the fourth quarter).

We'll see you there to see off Carroo and the rest of the Seniors. We don't Fear The Turtle!

I don't exactly "Fear The Turtle," but you have to admit the way they can hide their heads & legs in their shells is more than little scary.

— Kyle Bobbleflood (@KyleBobbleflood) November 23, 2015

Scarlet Knights vs Black Knights this Saturday

We should be able to keep calm this week, but ...

Trying to stay positive...

See you Saturday at R House.

It will be nice if we can give up less than 48 points this week.

The Obligatory Weekly Optimism...

Even though Rutgers has a perfect lifetime record against the team in Maize and Blue, we're not feeling especially sanguine about beating the Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Saturday with our current QB and coach. But this is not the place for negativity, so here's your weekly Keep Calm and Chop poster for Michigan week.

The message is simple...

The teams and states are very evenly matched; the team colors are similar and even the current occupants of our Governors' offices are pretty even on both the Asshole and 2016 Presidential Loser scales.

Should never be allowed to wear
Rutgers Scarlet colors (or white pants).

Did not graduate from Wisconsin
(or anywhere else).

So, Keep Calm and Chop Wisconsin. The Knights have just one job this week.

Same Message Every Week During Rutgers Football Season...

...even when, or especially when, we're playing the number one team in the country at R House in front of a national television audience in prime time on Saturday night on ABC:

Just one thing to say this week...

Keep Calm and Remember 2004

September 4, 2004 was one of the more enjoyable days I've spent at Rutgers Stadium, especially as I was in a visitors' section next to the cannon in which the majority of fans were chanting "Go Green" and "Go White" at each other and expecting an easy victory.

Rutgers and Michigan State are currently 3-3 against each other lifetime. There's no reason this Saturday's rubber game should be a surprise if it goes to the Scarlet Knights. We have beaten top ten teams in R House before, and we can do it again.

20-7 over Kansas at the half

And I'm enjoying these throwback uniforms on which we can read the numbers from the stands.

Keep Them (and keep scoring in the second half).

Please buy a Rutgers student an alarm clock

#ChopKansas

Game Day at R House

See you all (except for @KyleBobbleflood) at Rutgers Stadium at noon as the Knights #ChopKansas.

Let's hear more "Upstream Red Teams" than "Rock Chalk Jayhawks" on Saturday...

Rutgers football players have never met the Kansas Jayhawks on a gridiron before this Saturday, so it's not only time to go one and oh this week, it's time to go one and oh lifetime against another new opponent.

I don't want to say anything negative against my beloved Scarlet Knights' 2015 season on this page, so I'll just say, Keep Calm and Chop Kansas:

See you all at Rutgers Stadium on Saturday at noon.

It hasn't been a good week for Rutgers Football, but...

...if we beat That Team From Pennsylvania in the B1G opener on Saturday, even without Coach Flood, it will take away a lot of the pain.

Game Day

See you at R House at 3:30!

Go Knights!

Your Second Keep-Calm-And-Chop Poster of 2015...

See you at R House on Saturday...

It All Begins a Week from Now...

So here's your first keep-calm-and-chop... poster of 2015:

I Jumped the Gun...

When Carli Lloyd scored at the three-minute mark of the Women's World Cup Final tonight, I tweeted that she was the best football player to ever come from Rutgers.

There's now no doubt about it. The best football player to ever come from Rutgers is Carli Lloyd.

— Beat Visitor (@BeatVisitor) July 5, 2015

I don't know what to add to that after she scored again at 5 minutes and 15 minutes. I don't know what to say about her now  except to confirm her place as the most important athlete to have played at Rutgers. What I don't understand is why her fellow Scarlet Knight Alexi Lalas is not even mentioning her Rutgers connection in the halftime discussion or in the postgame recap going on now.

This third Carli Lloyd goal is still unbelievable... https://t.co/d6Gb1Y5Pso #RUWorldCup

— Beat Visitor (@BeatVisitor) July 6, 2015

Not to be judgmental, but...

... how rich and/or idiotic does a person need to be to pay an extra $2,500 to $3,500 for a parking space closer to Rutgers Stadium? That's significantly more than my yearly tuition when I was on the banks (and riding my bike to games).

I'll be back in the RAC parking lot in September.

Finally, an improvement to Rutgers' transportation system...

I can't decide whether to take the zipline or the unicycle between the RAC parking lot and the Stadium for the first game of the season:

Good Luck to the Rutgers Women in Storrs

Watch the Rutgers women's basketball team react to their NCAA tournament selection:

Radiolab's "American Football" Episode

If you're looking something to listen to in this long season between football seasons, I highly recommend listening to episode 4 of the 13th season of WNYC's Radiolab. No, they don't mention Rutgers football in this history of the early sport, but the Carlisle Indian School history is fascinating, as are the other stories in this show.


If you can't listen to the embedded player up above, then click this link to get to the episode's home page.

In news from central Pennsylvania...

Under Penn State's variable pricing policy, it has been announced that the most expensive 2015 games at Happy Valley will be for the games against Rutgers and Michigan. Here's hoping that the fans in blue and white spending $100 to $200 for tickets on September 19 leave early to beat the traffic and feel they didn't get their money's worth from TTFP. And that the visiting fans wearing scarlet stick around until after the game ends to sing 'On the Banks of the Old Raritan' with a happy team.

Hudson River Ice

It's still a few months until we see football at Rutgers Stadium again.

The Perfect Rutgers Road Game for 2015

Today, with half a winter and a full spring and summer between us and the resumption of Rutgers football, we just got some great news about the 2015 season. The game between the Scarlet Knights and the Black Knights will be moving from the evil field in the Bronx to one of the best football locations in the nation, Michie Stadium at West Point.

I'll be there with my traveling companion. I hope it's better weather than the cold rain and snow mix we had in 2007. Other than being cold and wet, I remember that game for Ray Rice's 243 rushing yards and watching James Gandolfini mingling with the cadets on the sidelines. There were tons of empty seats in the wet upper deck that year, but let's fill it with scarlet in 2015.

Congratulations to the Kemoko Dragon

Kemoko Turay was named today to the Football Writers' Association of America 14th Annual Freshman All-America Team.

We can't wait to see what he will do for the Knights as a sophomore starting on September 5th.

A Rutgers Championship!

The football team may not be playing in the National Championship game between Ohio State and Oregon going on in Texas right now, but someone from Rutgers is going to Disney World.



The Rutgers Cheer and Dance team just won the "Cheer On Your Disney Side" contest being run by ESPN and Disney tonight, beating out the other finalists Auburn, LSU, and Santa Monica. The program wins a hundred thousand dollar grant and a trip to Disney World. The past few weeks have been rough for the SEC.