Beat Visitor

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

2012-01-11T21:04:00.000-05:00

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!

The Scarlet Knights leaving the dugout.

2011-12-31T11:45:00.000-05:00

Another short video from yesterday's Pinstripe Bowl victory. Here are the Scarlet Knights taking the field from the dugut on the third-base line (if there were a third-base line at Yankee Stadium rather than a gridiron):

Watch in on YouTube to see the full width.

"Hey Big E! Hey Big E! This one's for you buddy!"

2011-12-31T01:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a short iPhone video taken from my seat in section 122 of the trophy presentation at Yankee Stadium after the Scarlet Knights' 27-13 Pinstripe Bowl victory over the Iowa State Cyclones. You can see Jawan Jamison getting his MVP award and Greg Schiano dedicating the win to Eric LeGrand.

What "SI Curse" for appearing on the Sports Illustrated cover right before a big game?

(Here's the lo-res version I originally posted via Blogger):

Mohamed Sanu from Monument Park.

2011-12-30T14:44:00.001-05:00

Ready for some football.

A beautiful day for a bowl game!

2011-12-30T13:51:00.001-05:00

I hope you're all either here or on the way!

RU in NY yet?

2011-12-30T11:35:00.001-05:00

See you at Yankee Stadium

2011-12-30T08:34:00.001-05:00

I'm on my way.

Eric LeGrand on the next Sports Illustrated cover

2011-12-20T23:37:00.001-05:00

On Newstands Later This Week.

This fan choice of Eric LeGrand for the cover of Sports Illustrated's Pictures of the Year issue is an amazing honor for a great guy. It's wonderful to know that the rest of the country is as touched by Eric's story as those of us who bleed scarlet.

Unless I've missed something over the years, I think this will be the first chance since football began in New Brunswick in 1869 that the Scarlet Knights have a chance to overcome the so-called SI Curse.

Rutgers vs. Princeton

2011-12-20T22:17:00.002-05:00

This is not related to sports, but I was in the car over the weekend and heard the end of the "Nemeses" episode of This American Life, with this story, "A Tale of Two Jerseys" by Chris Gethard, which you can listen to at the 36 minute mark using the widget below, or read the transcript here.

I just ordered my tickets to the Pinstripe Bowl

2011-12-05T11:17:00.001-05:00

Let's make Yankee Stadium a sea of red on December 30th for the Scarlet Knights' bowl game against Iowa State.

Not exactly "The Birthplace of College Football", but it'll do.

I know there was some disappointment after the loss to Connecticut ending the regular season, but no one picked Rutgers to finish 8-4 this year (most "experts" picked us to finish last in the Big East), so let's cheer loudly for dear old R.U. to get their ninth victory of the year over the Iowa State Cyclones.

The Soccer Run is Over

2011-11-27T22:07:00.003-05:00

The Rutgers men didn't make the jump from the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight in this year's NCAA soccer championships.

They lost tonight to UCLA, the same team that beat them in them in the 1990 final game.

Congratulations to the Scarlet Knights on making to the third round this year.

What's at stake with UConn today.

2011-11-26T11:47:00.007-05:00

1) BIG EAST: A win in this season finale means that Rutgers will share the Big East crown with Louisville (which won yesterday) and maybe Cincinnati and maybe West Virginia. A tie between Rutgers, Louisville, and Cincinnati would give Rutgers the BCS bid, but all the Scarlet Knights can worry about is hucking the fuskies first (while rooting for Syracuse to lose to the Bearcats).

2) NATIONAL RANKINGS: Rutgers is at number 26 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, at 30 in the AP Poll, 29 in the Harris Poll, 30 in the ESPN Power Rankings... With a convincing win at Rentschler Field today, the Scarlet Knights should be ending the regular season in the top 25 in most, or all, of these polls.

After being picked by "everyone" to finish last in the conference this year, these are not insignificant accomplishments.

I'll be over on Twitter @BeatVisitor tweeting updates this afternoon.

Go Knights.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Update at the half: UConn 24--Rutgers 10. 21 of the Huskies' points came off turnovers deep in the Rutgers half of the field. In the first drive Juwan Jamison fumbled while being injured, but the good news is that he came back in the 2nd quarter with a taped ankle and scored the one Rutgers touchdown. Connecticut can't count on Rutgers handing them the ball with a short field three more times in the second half.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update at the end of the 3rd quarter (because I'm not sure if I'll feel like updating at the end of the game): UConn 40 -- Rutgers 10, and we can't blame it on turnovers this time. And at the beginning of the 4th quarter, UConn just downed another punt at the one-yard line, with Gary Nova making his first appearance at quarterback. My faith in miracles is starting to dwindle though.

~~~~~~~~~~
Final: UConn 40 -- Rutgers 22

Have you bookmarked your NCAA bracket yet?

2011-11-21T10:15:00.002-05:00

After beating Colgate in the first round and upsetting Boston College yesterday, the Rutgers men are now in the round of sixteen in this year's NCAA Soccer Championships.

Bookmark the bracket by clicking here.

Next Sunday, the 27th, they'll be playing the team that beat the Scarlet Knights for the 1990 championship, the UCLA Bruins. That final match was 0-0, with the Bruins winning on penalty kicks.

The Big East Tie-Breaker Formula

2011-11-19T16:50:00.008-05:00

So, if Rutgers beats UConn next week, the Scarlet Knights are assured of a share of the Big East championship. The only question will be, how many other champions will there be. Here's the current crop of contenders:

Big East Overall PF PA STRK

Rutgers 4-2 8-3 294 185 W3
Louisville 4-2 6-5 227 206 W1
Cincinnati 3-2 7-3 337 200 L2
West Virginia 3-2 7-3 368 268 W1
Pittsburgh 3-2 5-5 256 228 W1
Connecticut 2-3 4-6 224 235 L1

And here are the tiebreaker instructions:

All references to "rankings" refer to the BCS Poll released after the regular season is completed for all BIG EAST members.

TWO-WAY TIE
The winner of the head to head match-up will represent the BIG EAST in the Bowl Championship Series.

THREE-WAY TIE
A "MINI-CONFERENCE" IS CREATED AMONGST THE THREE TIED TEAMS

Scenario I:
All three teams have either a 6-1 or 5-2 record and have each won one game and lost one game against the other tied teams in the mini-conference. In this case, the highest ranked team amongst the three earns the bid. If two of the three teams are tied for the highest ranking, the bid is earned by the team winning the head-to-head match up.

Scenario II:
All three teams have 5-2 records, and within the mini-conference, Team A is 2-0, Team B is 1-1, and Team C is 0-2. Team A earns bid regardless of ranking.

FOUR-WAY TIE
A "MINI-CONFERENCE" IS CREATED AMONGST THE FOUR TIED TEAMS

Scenario I:
In the mini-conference, Teams A & B are 2-1, and Teams C & D are 1-2. The higher ranked of the 2-1 teams earns the bid. If the 2-1 teams tie for the highest ranking, the bid goes to the team that won the head-to-head match up.

Scenario II:
In the mini-conference, Team A is 3-0, Team B is 2-1, Team C is 1-2, and Team D is 0-3. Team A earns bid regardless of ranking.

So if Rutgers beats UConn and Louisville and West Virginia both lose a third game, it's simple, Rutgers goes to the BCS bowl, because Rutgers won the head-to-head meetings with Pitt and Cincy. But there are a lot of other ties where Rutgers does not win the BCS spot. We can't worry about that yet. We just need to huck the fuskies next week, as they say, and let the chips fall where they may.

It's Noon and Your Television Should Be On If You're Not at Rutgers Stadium

2011-11-19T12:04:00.005-05:00

I'll be tweeting updates to the Cincinnati game over at @BeatVisitor

It's already 7-0 Rutgers with 11'43" left in the first quarter.

The score came on a 12-yard Jamison run up the middle after Bearcat QB Munchie Legaux bit the turf and fumbled.

Let's keep it up Knights. Go RU.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the half: Rutgers is up 10-3, but there were too many lost opportunities after strong drives through the middle of the field. Penalties have been especially harmful, and Mohamed Sanu has been quiet. Dodd actually threw what could have been two touchdown passes to Sanu on the 23-play field goal drive, but you have to give credit to the Cincinnati secondary in breaking up both long plays.

~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of the 3rd quarter: The defensive star of a dominating defense is Khaseem Greene and the offensive star is Juwan Jamison, who has 170 yards and 2 touchdowns with a full quarter left. The only thing that keeps him looking exactly like Ray Rice today is the fact that he's wearing Brian Leonard's 23 rather than Rice's 27. The score is Rutgers 17- Cincinnati 3. Go Knights!

~~~~~~~~~~~

And at the final whistle: Rutgers 20 and Cincinnati 3. It wasn't that close. The defense was dominating (and helped by the fact that Munchie Legaux looked like an alumnus of the Tim Tebaux Passing Academy) and the Rutgers running game was dominating, led by Juwan Jamison's 200-yard performance. The passing game was effective, with Chas Dodd going 19/33 for 173 yards. Mohamed Sanu only had 4 of those 19 receptions, but Dodd was able to spread the ball around. There is no quarterback controversy in Piscataway going into next week's Connecticut game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations to all the Scarlet Knights on a very complete and satisfying performance

Is this the Rutgers Helmet for Saturday's game against Army?

2011-11-07T11:53:00.000-05:00

If so, which quarterback will be wearing it to start the game at Yankee Stadium? Gary Nova or Chas Dodd?

(Update: Greg Schiano announced this morning that Chas Dodd will be the starting quarterback versus the Black Knights next Saturday. After his performance at the end of last Saturday night's win against the USF Bulls, it shouldn't have even been a question, should it?)

A Pet Peeve

2011-10-29T16:54:00.001-05:00

I hate the way that televised football games have come to look more and more like video games and less and less like the game that we see from the stands. Here's a photo I took from the screen with 40 seconds left in the first half of today's Rutgers / West Virginia game:

Rutgers Stadium on ABC TV, October 29, 2011

It's bad enough when they add the yellow lines and the arrows and the team logos and other crap to our green fields, but black lines on snow? The fact that Rutgers is dressed in all black today makes it even more visually distracting, but if you look closely you will see that the black lines on the 20 and the 25 aren't even lined up with the white lines, which are still visible under the light snow. Tell ESPN and ABC that the experiment failed!

Time for the second half to start with Rutgers still up by a score of 31 to 21. As I said over on Twitter, I won't relax unless they have a 30 point lead with 30 seconds left. I'm signing off here, so look for me over at @BeatVisitor.

AND GO RU!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE at 7pm:
Same old story. West Virginia scored 20 unanswered points in the second half and the final was 41-31 in favor of the Mountaineers. I wasn't sorry that I was watching on television today. I've been in attendance at Rutgers Stadium for too many of the 16 straight losses, many of which seemed to be in bad weather (or maybe that was simply my post-game mood). I'm not sorry to see this team moving to the Big 12.

Versus West Virginia in the Snow

2011-10-29T15:20:00.001-05:00

I'm over on Twitter today at @BeatVisitor

I Almost Forgot What This Felt Like

2011-10-17T11:21:00.005-05:00

Back in 2006 and 2007, checking the web for the earliest online appearances of the AP and Coaches' Polls was almost an obsession, but it's a pastime that has fallen by the wayside for many fans of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (and certainly for this one).

However, if the Knights beat the Louisville Cardinals and move the 6-1 this Friday night, then be sure to check ESPN and SI on Sunday night, because they might just move onto one, or both, lists. They are currently knocking on the door of the Coaches' top 25 with 31 votes, placing them in 28th, and they have a tougher chance of breaking into the AP, with their 2 votes placing them in 35th.

A Great Moment from a Not-So-Great Era in Rutgers Football History

2011-09-06T12:04:00.007-05:00

Watch Saint Joe Paterno throw a meaningless touchdown for Penn State (#6/6) against Rutgers (Unranked) in the Meadowlands on September 23, 1995 with an 18-point lead and exactly a minute left in the game. Meaningless, that is, unless he was trying to cover the spread for his buddies in the mob. Not that we're saying he has any buddies in the mob. He's not even Italian, is he?
Anyway, watch Rutgers coach Doug Graber meet him at midfield and use an unprintable word (whose initials are "Bullshit") to describe Saint Joe's classless action.

I love the way that Coach Paterno seems pissed that the lesser mortal refused to genuflect during their post-game meeting.

I'm a traditionalist. Enron Field will always be Enron Field ...

2011-09-05T12:40:00.011-05:00

... and The Birthplace of College Football will always be Rutgers Stadium --or maybe "R House"-- in this blog (if I ever get back to football blogging here), but it will never be known by the name of a company I never heard of before this event . But then I'm a traditionalist. I still refer to "Busch Campus" as University Heights and that flat skyscraper above Grand Central as The Pan Am Building, no matter which insurance company paid for the current naming rights and for Snoopy's image.

As an independent blogger, I don't have to bow to any corporate interests by repeating the name of any company that pays to put their name on a stadium or bowl game or "kick-off classic", but why do the TV and radio networks bend over backwards to repeat the names of these corporate sponsors as often as possible. How much did that repetition contribute to the general feeling that Enron might have been something other than a simple criminal enterprise? Is it in the broadcasters' contracts to repeat these names without editorial comment? With all the dead air time in yesterday afternoon's and last night's lightning-delayed and -shortened "Friends of Coal Bowl" between West Virginia and Marshall, you would have thought there would be time to mention that if the corporate "Friends of Coal" sponsoring the game have their way, the West Virginia Mountaineers won't have any mountains left in their state

Believe

2011-01-07T17:38:00.001-05:00

Here's the ESPN Eric LeGrand video.

one more time in twenty ten -- Beat the Mountaineers!

2010-12-04T11:44:00.006-05:00

I'll be opening up http://twitter.com/beatvisitor in a few minutes and turning my television on to ABC to watch the Scarlet Knights play the Mountaineers in West Virginia. I have no predictions, but I can say for sure that if the Knights win today, it will be one of the most memorable games in the college careers of those young men wearing Scarlet -- Go Knights!

HALFTIME UPDATE: It's West Virginia 14 and Rutgers 7 at the half, but the Scarlet Knights get the ball to start the second half and they ended the first with momentum, having scored the last touchdown and then prevented the Mountaineers from scoring what looked to be their sure third touchdown with a sack by Antonio Lowery, a broken up pass in the endzone by Joe Lefeged, and a blocked field goal attempt by Charlie Noonan. The Mountaineers also had two possessions ended with fumbles, so it could easily be 35-7 rather than 14-7. The Scarlet Knights are still in this important game.

IT'S FINAL: The college football season of 2010 is over, ending with a 35-14 loss to the Mountaineers. As a longtime Rutgers fan, that 0-17 record in Morgantown is a lot more painful than the fact that the Scarlet Knights won't be going to a sixth straight bowl game this year.

The Football Season is FAR from Over

2010-11-26T21:14:00.003-05:00

This will be the first year since 2005 that the Scarlet Knights aren't going to a bowl game, but they still have one game remaining, a game more important than ANY bowl game other than a BCS bowl. If the Scarlet Knights can win next week and end their twenty ten campaign by starting to make up for the-game-that-must-not-be-named and for approximately 500 years of futility in Morgantown, then this season with its young players and its many injuries, will be at least a partial success and the mood will be much better going in twenty eleven.

This Morning's(?!) Game Against Louisville

2010-11-26T11:52:00.006-05:00

This is the first year since 2006 that I haven't received a package full of Rutgers football tickets in late August, so I didn't know until about half an hour ago that the 11/26 game against Louisville was an eleven A.M. start (that's 8 AM for those alumni and students who may live on the West Coast), on a Friday when all of the students are off and at home for the Thansgiving break. Has there ever been a more badly scheduled game? Not only are the students not in New Brunswick (or in the student section in Piscataway), but a large percentage of them aren't even awake yet. Has there ever been a more badly-scheduled Senior Day? It's now noon as I write this and the score is 28-0 Louisville with 8:25 left in the first half. If ESPN2 loses interest in broadcasting Rutgers games, can we go back to playing on Saturday afternoons?
I may say a few things over at http://twitter.com/BeatVisitor as this game continues, but probably not too enthusiastically.
FINAL UPDATE: It ended up 40-13 in Piscataway today, and West Virginia is well on its way to defeating the Pitt Panthers in Ketchup Stadium. So it's now official that Rutgers will not have the opportunity to go to a third-rank bowl game this year and it's almost official that Pitt will not be going to the Big East's BCS bowl. So here's the question. Which would be more satisfying for a Rutgers football fan: Appearing in a "Beef'O'Brady's Bowl" or beating the Mountaineers in West Virginia next weekend? Is it even really a question?

Tonight's Game versus the Bearcats

2010-11-20T20:33:00.008-05:00

I'm over at http://twitter.com/BeatVisitor commenting on the game there. It's Cincinnati 20 and Rutgers 17 with 10 minutes left in the 1st half.

Halftime Update: An Arena Football League game has broken out at Nippert Stadium, where it is currently 41 to 24 in the Bearcats' favor. The Rutgers offense has 260 yards and 24 points, which would have been plenty in any other game, but the Rutgers defense has given up 41 points and over 416 (in a half) yards to the bad guys.

Final Update: Cincinnati 69--Rutgers 38. The missed extra point at the beginning when it was RU 7-Cincy 6 was important in the end; it kept the Bearcats from scoring 70. Even so, it ended up being the highest scoring game in Big East history. There were bright spots on the offensive side of the ball; Rutgers scored on the first play from scrimmage in each half and the passing game was going well, but there were -9 rushing yards. The defensive game isn't worth mentioning, but it would have been nice if they put 11 men on the field rather than 8 or 9; there were large holes wherever the Bearcats ran or threw the ball.

Je m'accuse...

2010-11-15T19:42:00.008-05:00

... or mea culpa (mea maxima culpa) for those of you who don't understand French. It is totally my fault that the Scarlet Knights are back to their form and record of a decade ago. I just read that the Syracuse Orange beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a close game two days ago. If I had followed the pattern of the last four years I would have been at every home game at Rutgers Stadium this year and I would have been religiously following Rule #12 and its corollaries. And the Scarlet Knights would have, of course, won.
So blame this fan who moved out of state (to a place that makes New Jersey look like... well, not to belittle the Garden State ... look like "New Jersey") for last Saturday's 13-10 home loss to the Orange. If I had been singing the school songs and screaming until my vocal cords bled, then my team would have won. Don't blame Coach Schiano or any of the student athletes who are proudly wearing Scarlet. I haven't read any comments on the interwebs about last Saturday's game, but I'm sure that the normal lineup of moaners, whiners, nitpickers. and Sunday morning quarterbacks are busy moaning, whining, picking nits, and backseat coaching and quarterbacking, as always. Those assholes are welcome to blame me, if they can find me. They can comment below too, knowing that I won't read their comments.

Hey Coach!

2010-11-09T10:12:00.001-05:00

I'm thinking this might work against Syracuse on Saturday:

Wednesday Night Bull Fight

2010-11-03T18:31:00.007-05:00

I'll be over at @BeatVisitor on Twitter tonight during the game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and South Florida Bulls. After last night on Twitter under my alias watching far too many Republicans gloating and avoiding questions during the midterm elections, it may be hard to watch a close or losing game tonight. It's 7-7 as I hit Post on this entry on the strength of two long punt returns. It's time for the Knights to start pulling away.
This is the third game in a row that Rutgers is playing in an ugly half-full professional football stadium. Pittsburgh and USF don't have excuses because they don't have stadiums of their own, but it's a shame that the last Rutgers "home game" had to be played in that pit at the Meadowlands.

A must-see video

2010-10-23T12:46:00.002-05:00

Watch this Eric LeGrand video during halftime. It shows not a player, but a person and his families.

Today's Game

2010-10-23T11:28:00.005-05:00

Rutgers is off to a nice 7-0 start at Ketchup (or Catsup?) Field in Pittsburgh with Charlie Noonan's interception and Joe Martinek's TD run. I plan to be over at Twitter (http://twitter.com/BeatVisitor)for most of the game.

Believe

2010-10-20T20:59:00.006-05:00

In honor of Eric LeGrand, here's the "BELIEVE" sticker that the Rutgers players will be wearing on their helmets during Saturday's Pittsburgh game in place of the normal Big East logos above their face masks.

We'll all be thinking of #52 at noon on Saturday.

In tonight's replay of last Saturday's Army game on SNY, there was no replay of the kickoff during which Eric LeGrand was injured, nor any of the injury's aftermath. That was understandable, and I wasn't looking forward to seeing it, but why didn't they show Chas Dodd's 4th quarter 53-yard completion to D.C. Jefferson? There were so few offensive highlights for the Scarlet Knights that they didn't need to cut the longest Rutgers play from scrimmage, especially when they took the time to show every false start and every sack given up by the Scarlet Knights in the very ugly first three quarters.

Eric LeGrand

2010-10-18T15:21:00.002-05:00

If you haven't already done so, send Eric LeGrand your best wishes through This Link on ScarletKnights.com

No more need to vote in our latest poll.

2010-10-11T12:26:00.004-05:00

We won't take the poll away before Saturday. You can still register your feelings in the Chas Dodd and Tom Savage quarterback question if you want, but the word is out this afternoon that Greg Schiano is not going to keep the Rutgers football fans waiting until game time on Saturday for an announcement.The starter will be Chas Dodd. You can read more at Brian Bennett's ESPN Big East Blog.

Before Everyone Jumps on the Chas Dodd Bandwagon..

2010-10-10T16:51:00.003-05:00

... remember the heroics from another freshman quarterback in the final seconds of last year's Scarlet Knights' victory over the Connecticut Huskies (with, of course, an heroic assist from a great senior receiver, Tim Brown):

Greg Schiano and Joe Lefeged on Rutgers' #1 APR (but why does this video only have 18 views?)

2010-10-10T10:13:00.004-05:00

Here's a short segment on WNBC news with Bruce Beck talking to Greg Schiano and Joe Lefeged about Rutgers' #1 national ranking in the NCAA's 2010 Academic Progress Rates, and the importance of the student part of the student-athlete mix on the banks of the old Raritan River.

I'm sharing this here not only to show Joe Lefeged's part of the interview (he's more than just a long list of blocked punts, interceptions, forced fumbles and hard hits), but because it deserves MUCH more than the 18 views that it has on YouTube in the last four days since posting. Embedding here at Beat Visitor Dot Com should give it at least 4 or 5 more!

If you were Greg Schiano . . .

2010-10-09T14:50:00.002-05:00

... who would you have as your starting quarterback against the Black Knights of Army next Saturday? Chas Dodd or Tom Savage?
Vote in the poll to your right; we're sure that Greg will be reading and taking note of our results.

2010 Began Tonight

2010-10-08T22:05:00.003-05:00

How strange to watch true freshmen Chas Dodd and Jeremy Deering come on in 2010 the same way that freshmen Tom Savage and Mohamed Sanu stormed onto the scene in 2009. It's time to forget about the Tarheel and Green Wave disappointments. Rutgers is now 1-0 in Big East play and the year began tonight. Did the Dodd era start too?
It's going to be interesting to see the competition between Savage and Dodd for the starting quarterback position (and the competition between Sanu and Deering for the designated Wild Knight) as Tom Savage's hand heals and the year goes on. It's nice to see a quarterback who seems to love throwing the ball down the field, especially late in the game with the pressure to come from behind, but I don't know if I've ever seen a QB see that the short screen wasn't going to work so he threw for the 52-yard touchdown as his second read. Congrats to Chas Dodd for passing for 322 yards and 2 long TDs in his first start. Twenty Ten started tonight with his come-from-behind 27-24 victory over the UConn Huskies.
Go Knights!

It's Good to Be Back

2010-09-02T21:43:00.004-05:00

It wasn't too impressive a first half, but we weren't beginning the season against Cincinnati this year and there was plenty of time to turn things around, so it was fun to listen to the Scarlet Knights come together in the second half and end up dispatching Norfolk State by a respectable score of 31-0.

Because I'm not living within an easy drive of Piscataway this year I didn't renew my tickets. These weeknight games are extremely hard for me to get to, but I do hope to catch a couple of Saturday games at R House (or R New Guest House in the Swamps of East Rutherford) and I hope to be able to write more in a Beat Visitor blog that's been more than a little moribund lately.

Rutgers Professionals

2010-09-02T21:13:00.004-05:00

Did anyone else notice that the Rutgers women who play in Madison Square Garden are in the running to win the WNBA championship?

Flipping around last night I caught the last five minutes of the NY Liberty's win against Indiana and 3 of the 5 Libertariennes on the court throughout the end of the game that clinched a spot in the East Finals were Scarlet Knights (there's no such thing as an ex-Scarlet Knight): Cappie Pondexter, Essence Carson, and Kia Vaughn. Coach Stringer was in the stands lending her support. The only thing wrong with the picture was the color of the uniforms.

2010 Begins Tonight

2010-09-02T19:17:00.004-05:00

Not that there's been a big clamor for information, but the rumors of the death of the Beat Visitor dot com Rutgers football blog have been exaggerated.
Tonight's game is the first home game at Rutgers Stadium that I've missed since I was traveling for business during the 2007 Navy game. I'm now living outside of the Garden State for the first time since 1981 and my new internet service provider has not reached an agreement with the Evil Friggin' Disney Empire to show ESPN 3 (reduced from 360), so I'm only "watching" tonight's game against Norfolk State on GameTracker and listening to it on WCTC dot com. With the Knights only leading by 3-0 with 7:01 left in the first half (San San Te just missed his 2nd of 3 field goal attempts), I don't think I'm missing a lot by not being down in New Jersey tonight.
But here's the real question for both Rutgers and the Big East (other than why the Scarlet Knights aren't leading by at least three touchdowns): Why schedule a game for a Thursday night if it's not going to be on television?

Video of Yesterday's Upset

2010-02-15T19:40:00.004-05:00

This video of the sights and sounds of Georgetown's loss at Rutgers on Valentine's Day was posted by The Hoya Online.
Enjoy.

Rutgers 71 -- (#8) Georgetown 68

2010-02-14T17:54:00.005-05:00

Congratulations to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on their victory over the nationally-ranked Georgetown Hoyas in the game that just completed at the RAC, otherwise known as the Louis Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway, NJ.

Despite my doubts voiced last month, it seems that there is a men's team playing the game of basket-ball on the Banks of the Old Raritan.

Congratulations!

Revisiting the 1869 College Football Season

2010-02-10T14:53:00.004-05:00

I've mentioned The Unbalanced Line here before because I think it it without a doubt the most historically aware college football blog; this seems appropriate, since the writer's home team is the team that plays its home games at West Point (and, occasionally, Yankees Stadium).
I've been busy with work and other things, but today's unexpected snow day from work has allowed me to slow down and reconnect a little with blogs and Twitter. Wandering around the interweb, I discovered that T.U.L.'s most recent post from yesterday -- "Year by Year: 1869 Season" -- is of special interest to all fans of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

The Twenty Ten Rutgers Football Schedule Has Been Posted

2010-02-10T14:02:00.006-05:00

The times of most games are still to be posted, but in 2009 and 2008 it took until the middle of April to get this basic information about the names of the teams on Rutgers' football schedule.

2010 Rutgers Football Schedule (with games at R House in Bold)

Thursday, September 2 Norfolk State
Saturday, September 11 at Florida International
Saturday, September 25 North Carolina
Saturday, October 2 Tulane
Friday, October 8 Connecticut (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)
Saturday, October 16 Army (New Meadowlands)
Saturday, October 23 at Pittsburgh
Wednesday, November 3 at USF (ESPN2, 7 p.m.)
Saturday, November 13 Syracuse
Saturday, November 20 at Cincinnati
Friday, November 26 Louisville (National TV)
Saturday, December 4 at West Virginia (National TV)

Though we'll miss the exciting Texas Southern rivalry, it's nice to see that there is only one second division football team on the schedule this year, and it's great to see that the Green Wave team that will be visiting us at Rutgers Stadium on October 2nd will be visiting from New Orleans, and not driving west on Route 18 from Long Branch High School.

Good Luck to Jourdan Brooks!

2010-01-25T13:51:00.004-05:00

The best of luck to number 39, Jourdan Brooks, who is transferring from Rutgers to Morgan State.
He had a number of important runs for the Scarlet Knights, but the most memorable run at R House may have come in the 2008 blowout of the Louisville Cardinals when his 60+-yard run was ended with one of his dreadlocks on the FieldTurf. Let's go to the video:
I hope he gets a lot of carries for the Morgan State Bears, where he should see a number of successful runs.
Good Luck Jourdan!

Today Beat Visitor dot com is rooting for Jamaal Westerman's team

2010-01-24T16:22:00.008-05:00

Ignore the cartoonish lettering (doesn't it remind you of the Simpsons?) and the apostrophe abuse (hey, at least they didn't paint one in "Jet's"), but here's an example of some playoff spirit painted on the side of M + S Grocery on West End Court (yes, the ugly street on which Bruce Springsteen wrote Born to Run) in Long Branch. I just took this photo on the way to the store.
The game is on my static-filled radio and the GameCast and the Jets are up 17-13 over the ~~Baltimore~~ Indianapolis Colts late in the second quarter of the AFC Championship game as I write this.

J! - E! - T! - S! Jets! Jets! Jets!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
update @ 6:15pm: OK, so the Jets fell one game short of the Super Bowl (or half a game short) by losing to the Colts by a final score of 30-17 this afternoon, but they had a great run and should be proud of their 2009-2010 season when the sting of today's loss fades.
Two New Jersey teams with true rookie quarterbacks now have a lot to look forward to in September 2010.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
update on February 10: On this snow day wandering around on the internet, I discovered that this picture was actually reproduced on Apostrophe Abuse! I'm so proud.

College sports don't end on New Years Day? Who Knew?

2010-01-24T12:13:00.004-05:00

This morning I opened a Scarlet Letter yearbook from the era when coaches were required to wear plaid sport jackets and I found evidence, between pages on major Rutgers sports like football and ultimate frisbee, that there was once a men's team playing the women's sport of "basket-ball" on the Banks of the Old Raritan.

Who knew?

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

2010-01-10T14:00:00.004-05:00

I'm not near a television, so I didn't see it happen, but it's great to see the stat line after the first quarter in Foxboro, Massachusetts with Ray Rice having 94 yards and two touchdowns for the Ravens after fifteen minutes of play.As I typed this and uploaded the picture of Ray from ESPN's splash page, I just watched Ray go over 100 yards on NFL GameCast with his 8th rush of the game at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. As I said in my headline, this success could not be happening to a nicer guy. He continues to make everyone with any connection to Rutgers extremely proud and happy that we shared some time with him on the Banks of the Old Raritan.
Run Ray Run, as they used to say on the t-shirts in Rutgers Stadium.

25 Football Teams that are not the Rutgers Scarlet Knights

2010-01-09T10:52:00.005-05:00

Really, who cares? None of the teams on the following list wears a block R on their helmets or sings "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" after their games, but since I have religiously filled out the fifteen previous BlogPoll ballots this season, here is my sixteenth.

As always, you can click on the thumbnail on the upper right to check out the scribbled logic behind these rankings.

See you in April for the Scarlet-White Game!

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Boise State	3
3	Texas	1
4	Florida	2
5	TCU	1
6	Ohio State	1
7	Iowa	2
8	Cincinnati	5
9	Penn State	1
10	Pittsburgh	2
11	Virginia
12	Brigham Young	3
13	Oregon	5
14	Georgia Tech	3
15	Utah	4
16	Nebraska	5
17	LSU	3
18	Wisconsin	6
19	Mississippi
20	Miami (Florida)	4
21	Central Michigan	2
22	Southern Cal
23	Texas Tech
24	Navy
25	Oregon State	7
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Virginia Tech (#13), West Virginia (#17), Oklahoma State (#20), Stanford (#22), Houston (#25).

~~~~~~~~~
Update 11 January 2010:

OK, maybe I need to start proofreading. #11 on this final list should probably have been the 10-3 Virginia Tech Hokies and not the 3-9 Virginia Cavaliers. Though I love Charlottesville and I'm sure there was a least one Cavalier fan who was thrilled to see his team's name in a position high on the "Others Receiving Votes" list because of my carelessness, I'm sorry. Thanks to Brian Cook for singling out this error in the "Wack Ballot Watchdog" section of his Postseason Blogpoll wrapup earlier this afternoon.

Name That Tune.

2010-01-06T11:08:00.002-05:00

(once again, thanks to Wordle.net and their addictive little toy. Images of Wordles are covered by a Creative Commons license.)

The Visual State of Beat Visitor dot com on the Fifth of January Twenty Ten

2010-01-05T14:42:00.004-05:00

It's obvious from this picture that I need to use the word Rutgers with more regularity. Rutgers. Rutgers. Rutgers. Visit Wordle.net to try one yourself for your own site, or for a website that you visit regularly.
I was surprised by the words that popped up most regularly on my blog. But I'll fix that. Rutgers. Rutgers. Rutgers. Scarlet Knights. Scarlet Kinghts. Scarlet Knights. Football. Football. Football.
This cloud of words was created using the tools at http://www.wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed by a Creative Commons license.

The Quote of Day

2009-12-31T11:18:00.002-05:00

"The organization approaches the decision of whether to serve alcohol on a game-by-game basis, with input from the NJSEA [New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority]. With the late start of Sunday's game, coupled with this being the final regular-season and final game at the stadium, we feel it is prudent not to serve alcohol."
--New York Jets spokesman Bruce Speight

This is probably a good thing. Maybe the reactions from the upper-deck Jets fans will be a little more restrained and a little less beer-fueled when they hear me cheering for Bengal (and Scarlet Knight) Brian Leonard at Giants Stadium on Sunday night.

I should apologize in advance for my actions this coming Sunday. . .

2009-12-30T16:34:00.004-05:00

I'll be sitting way up under the press box for the last professional football game ever played at Giants Stadium on Sunday night. And most of the time (between shivers and the sound of my own teeth chattering) I'll be cheering for the gang in green to beat the team from Cincinnati with the tiger stripes on their helmets, but there will be one exception. If number 40 from the Bengals touches the ball, I'll be rooting for the visitors, even though number 40 usually only touches the ball in key third-down situations.

"I get pumped up when I get a first down," Leonard said. "To me, it is a touchdown. I see those sticks, and I feel like I've got to get past those sticks. And if I get past those sticks, guys seem get pretty pumped by it. It's my job; I've just got to make the extra effort to get it."
Read more in this article from The Daily News

So, apologies in advance to any Jets fans sitting around me in the cold on Sunday night, but my loyalties to Brian Leonard run deeper than loyalties to any mere professional sports corporation, or its playoff aspirations.

Wear Red to the Game!

For sports bloggers who have considered e-suicide when the football season ends.

2009-12-30T15:16:00.005-05:00

You have to admit that it's sort of cool that the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is crashing from overuse today, in this festive week between Christmas and New Year's Day.
You might have to wait until after the holidays to off your Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn selves.

Once a Scarlet Knight, Always a Scarlet Knight.

2009-12-30T10:40:00.006-05:00

Congratulations to Ray Rice for his election to this year's Pro Bowl for his work with the Baltimore Ravens.
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Ray up in Toronto at the International Bowl during his last game wearing the R on his helmet.

Do you have a favorite memory of Rutgers Football in the naughties??

2009-12-26T13:05:00.005-05:00

Is your favorite moment at R House in the naughties the predictable Pandemonium in Piscataway moment that followed the battle of the unbeaten Big East teams on November 9, 2006?
Or was your favorite Scarlet Knights' football memory that first bowl victory against Kansas State in Houston in December of that year? Or the respectable appearance they made against Arizona State in their first bowl appearance in decades a year earlier? Or the Savage to Brown miracle ending this year against UConn? Or Ray Rice's 280 yards in his last game in scarlet in the International Bowl? A specific moment of Brian Leonard's leaping or leadership? Or the upset of Michigan State? The hiring of Greg Schiano? Or some personal memory of Rutgers football in this pivotal decade without an agreed upon name that we have decided to call the naughties?

Merry Christmas from Beat Visitor dot com

2009-12-24T10:15:00.004-05:00

Here's a little Christmas present from Beat Visitor dot com at the end of a 9-4 Scarlet Knights football season that many found disappointing. And could we even imagine the word "disappointing" appearing in conjunction with the numbers 9-4 even five years ago? Or at ANY point in the long history of Rutgers football? With that historical perspective of our current situation in mind, we thought you might enjoy a blast from the past. This article, "SHADES OF 1869: First intercollegiate football game is re-enacted at Princeton," from the November 4, 1946 issue of Life magazine shows in words and pictures a postwar (post World War II) crowd reenacting the postwar (post Civil War) birth of intercollegiate football between Rutgers and Princeton on the 77th anniversary of that first game in New Brunswick.
If you click the link, be sure to scroll down through the advertisements to see all the pictures on pages 101 through 104 (but don't ignore the ads either, especially those for Southern Pacific's fast 52-hour travel between Chicago and LA or for Ting, the "ALMOST INCREDIBLE NEW scientifically compounded treatment for SKIN ERUPTIONS").
Merry Christmas to the Scarlet Knights and to their fans.

Congratulations to the 2009 Kings of the Knights

2009-12-20T10:22:00.006-05:00

Now that the Scarlet Knights have won their fourth straight bowl game after having zero previous bowl wins, it's hard to remember what a big deal it was when we sat in Houston and watched Greg Schiano, Brian Leonard, and Ray Rice raise the Texas Bowl trophy above their heads in Reliant Stadium. Congratulations to all the Rutgers football players and coaches for last night's convincing 45-24 victory over the Golden Knights of the University of Central Florida, but especially to the seniors who do not know what it is to not attend a post-season game, and who do not know what it is to lose one (we have to believe that our freshmen, especially Savage and Sanu, will have future years in which we can single them out for special recognition after bowl games).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We at Beat Visitor dot com would like to point out that we were very restrained in the buildup to last night's game, not even pointing out this very obvious anagrammatic school motto for the UCF Knights pictured to your left. As soon as we saw the the phrase "UCF Knights" in print for the first time, we knew that the first four letters would lead to promising anagrams and it took less than a minute more to come up with the obvious school motto, so obvious that it had to have been as purposeful as French Connection UK and their FCUK shirts. It's a clever play for the University of Central Florida to subliminally attract prospective high school seniors and put their school into the running to take the official #1 party school honor away from West Virginia and Penn State.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, until the Black Knights of West Point or the Golden Knights of Disney World take it away from us, the Scarlet Knights are the first undisputed Kings of the college football Knights. Where's our crown?

I don't know if I'm more upset about the late bait 'n' switch or the apostrophe abuse in the B'O'B Bowl.

2009-12-09T19:40:00.012-05:00

As far as I can tell from my five minutes of arduous internet research, the St. Petersburg Bowl has just officially named itself after a food franchise. I had never heard of this roadside eatery and it doesn't exist in New Jersey or most of the Northeast, but it seems to be extremely popular in the states that are featured in US obesity maps.

The style guide of Beat Visitor dot com assiduously avoids naming any corporate sponsors (e.g., we say Muffler Bowl of Charlotte, Pizza Bowl of Birmingham, etc.), but I feel like I have to mention "Beef 'O' Brady's" by name just this once in order to ask, "What the fuck is going on with the apostrophes and spacing around the O?" If it's the beef restaurant of a man named O'Brady, then there shouldn't be a space after the O'. If it's the slaughtered-cow bistro of a man named Brady and the o' is a contraction of of, then the space between o' and Brady is correct, but I can't think of a single reason (other than illiteracy) for an apostrophe before and after the 'O'. Can someone please enlighten me? (On their website they also use the superfluous plural apostrophe -- "Today there are Beef's [sic] popping up all over the country." -- so I'm going with the initial illiteracy theory until convinced otherwise.)

The full name of this fast-food franchise will never be mentioned again in this blog. Maybe the St. Petersburg Bowl will have to become the B'O'B Bowl, or maybe we can use an anagram of the franchise name and make it the "Obey Bad Refs" Bowl. In any case, it sucks. The only thing that the St. Petersburg Bowl had going for it was that it was not sponsored. To add a cheesy name less than two weeks before the game takes place seems especially sleazy.

Is it too late to switch with USF and go back to the International Bowl?

Is There a Special Award for Becoming King of the Knights?

2009-12-08T13:08:00.005-05:00

The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers have already defeated the Black Knights of West Point on the gridiron earlier this fall and now they will have the chance to beat the Golden Knights of University of Central Florida in less than two weeks.
Is this the first time in college football history that a team has had the opportunity to become the undisputed King of the Knights? Is there a special trophy or sword that goes with the honor? Something other than being crowned the football champions of St. Petersburg?
Do they at least have a mounted mascot with whom our Knight can joust on the sidelines?

25 Football Teams for whom I have never cheered

2009-12-06T18:28:00.004-05:00

Here's my last pre-bowl BlogPoll ballot of 2009. As always, you can review my half-assed rough-draft rationalizations for these choices by clicking on the thumbnail illustration to your right.

There was some anticipation on my part of being able to add the one team that I do care about, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, to this ballot again after their victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers yesterday, but . . . well, you know.

So here's a list of 25 football teams I don't really care about.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	2
2	Texas	1
3	Cincinnati	1
4	TCU	1
5	Boise State	1
6	Florida	4
7	Ohio State
8	Oregon
9	Iowa
10	Penn State
11	Georgia Tech	1
12	Pittsburgh	1
13	Virginia Tech
14	LSU	1
15	Brigham Young	1
16	Miami (Florida)	1
17	West Virginia	4
18	Oregon State	4
19	Utah	3
20	Oklahoma State	4
21	Nebraska	2
22	Stanford
23	Central Michigan	2
24	Wisconsin
25	Houston	6
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Southern Cal (#18), California (#20).

I don't know what to say . . .

2009-12-06T11:29:00.009-05:00

Another year's worth of used tickets . . .

I'm finally dry enough, almost 24 hours after the event, to write a few words about yesterday's 24-21 loss to the Mountaineers of West Virginia University on the last day of the year at Rutgers Stadium. Though I haven't read anything online since leaving the parking lot yesterday afternoon, I imagine that there have been a lot of words written about the number of dropped passes, a key missed field goal, underthrown passes, the defense's early porousness, the inexplicable coaching decisions at the very end of the first half, and the effect of the cold, rain and snow on all of the above.

I'll comment on something I know more about, the effect of the cold, rain and snow on the fans around me. The people who stayed until the end of the game (or at least until West Virginia's last first down with less than a minute left) in Section 123 were loud and standing throughout (as if it were possible to sit on cold wet aluminum for one second more as the wet snowflakes fell) and there was even good-natured shouting at those in blue and gold (and a little late-game pushing and shoving), but the number of no-shows, and large number of people who left during the second quarter, and at halftime, was inexcusable. If you buy tickets next year, consider yourself obligated to at least make it to the beginning of the fourth quarter. This wasn't a blowout like the loss to the Mountaineers the last time they visited in atrocious weather; this was a THREE-POINT loss. There's no honor in a close loss to these hicks for the umpteenth straight year, but this game was close, and I put the loss squarely on the shoulders of my fellow season ticket holders and students who didn't show up or left early. If you had stayed and screamed in that final quarter, it would have carried our boys to victory. Period.
Those of you who sought warmth and shelter probably aren't enough of a Rutgers football fan to read Rutgers football blogs either, but if you can't show up for a WESTFUCKINGVIRGINIA game, you probably shouldn't bother to show up at all. Wait until the BCS game is over and then transfer your fair-weather loyalties to the Crimson Tide or those beef cattle with the deformed horns from Texas.
~~~
Video Addendum: I got at least one response on Twitter pointing out that the fan exodus wasn't quite as bad as I had painted it up above.
Though the following scan of Rutgers Stadium shot during the Lil Jovi interlude isn't the best video in the world, it does show how many empty seats there were at this sold-out game at the beginning of the fourth quarter (except, of course, in that pie slice next to the student section filled with Mountaineer supporters):

This is my only piece of advice for the Scarlet Knights going into tomorrow's game.

2009-12-04T16:14:00.005-05:00

I only have one piece of advice for the Scarlet Knights for tomorrow's game, the biggest of the year. Don't wear the black uniforms that made their only appearance in the rain at the last infamous visit of the Mountaineers to R House in 2007. I swear. I don't think I'll be able to restrain myself from booing if I see these things on our home field again.

What do we have to be thankful for? (other than the fact that we're not from West Virginia)

2009-11-29T20:19:00.005-05:00

********
Before Thanksgiving weekend ends, I just want to say a quick thank you for (and to) this year's crop of true Rutgers freshmen.
********
No matter what happens with Tom Savage and Mohamed Sanu (and De'Antwan Williams and Mark Harrison and Antwan Lowery and the others) in the last two games of the season against the West Virginia Mountaineers and the bowl opponent to be named later, we have seen what looks like the beginning of a bright future for Rutgers football in 2009.
*********
Next Saturday is Senior Day. The freshmen will see the tradition they have to live up to, and what they should try to surpass in their next three years On the Banks. (And though we wish him continued success in the NFL, it's just too bad that Kenny Britt couldn't have been celebrating his Senior Day against West Virginia next Saturday at noon.)
**********

The Steve Kragthorpe and Charlie Weis Memorial BlogPoll Ballot

2009-11-29T19:47:00.007-05:00

As always, you can click on the thumbnail to your right to read my scribbled notes for this week's ballot. It's strange to see all the green highlighting disappear with the second losses dealt out to Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech this week in their annual rivalry games. It's hard to imagine which is stranger at this late point in the season, to have zero one-loss teams, or to have six undefeated teams. Both feel like they could be unprecedented (though those who enjoy that sort of trivial research will be sure to tell me which seasons provided precedents), and the combination looks and feels extremely unique.
I, like any good Yankee ("Yankee" as in northerner, not as in pinstriped indentured bat-wielding servant of the Steinbrenner family) was hoping for anarchy in the South this weekend, but Alabama and Florida and Texas continued on their boring path toward a National Championship game that could have been scheduled by preseason pollsters back in August. A Horned Frog vs Bearcat matchup for the great crystal football tchotchke is looking pretty unlikely at this point and the chances for any other major surprises are fading.

Here are my picks for this week.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Texas
2	Florida	1
3	Alabama	1
4	Cincinnati	1
5	TCU	1
6	Boise State
7	Ohio State	2
8	Oregon	2
9	Iowa	2
10	Penn State	2
11	Pittsburgh	4
12	Georgia Tech	4
13	Virginia Tech	1
14	Oregon State	2
15	LSU	4
16	Brigham Young	2
17	Miami (Florida)	4
18	Southern Cal	4
19	Houston	6
20	California	3
21	West Virginia
22	Utah	7
23	Nebraska
24	Oklahoma State	11
25	Central Michigan
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Mississippi (#17), Clemson (#20), Temple (#24).

I was sorry to see Temple fall to the Bobcats of Ohio; they were the only surprise team that I was pleased to add to my ballot every week.

The Fakest of the @FakeBigEastCoaches

2009-11-28T19:36:00.007-05:00

@SteveKragthorpe and @Kragthorpe have been given their walking papers by the University of Louisville today after their Cardinals were kragthorped by the Scarlet Knights for the second year in a row yesterday, so the question becomes: Who is now the funniest fake Twitter football coach in the Big East? This tweet from the person who takes the identity of Mountaineer Coach Bill Stewart earlier today may just show who is the funniest imposter of all.Sorry @FakeGregSchiano, @CoachBrianKelly, and @NotDougMarrone, but the fragmented fake folksiness dreamed up by the Twitter team behind @CoachStewart seems sometimes, like today, to have been drafted by the same comedy writers posing as the former Alaskan sports reporter known as @SarahPalinUSA.
But by quoting (without attribution) the Maréchal of France Ferdinand Foch: "Mon centre cède, ma droite recule, situation excellente, j'attaque," is he (are they) trying to compare our Scarlet Knights to Foch's German enemies? Is he calling us Krauts?? Them's fightin' words (as they say in the few mountains and hollers of West Virginia that haven't yet been leveled to yield piles of combustible coal and poisonous sludge)!

It's not really a question, is it?

2009-11-28T10:36:00.004-05:00

"Which means more to you as a Rutgers fan, winning a fourth straight bowl game or beating West Virginia?"
It's not really a question is it? If you're a true follower of the Scarlet Knights, beating the Mountaineers has to mean more to you than beating an ACC or C-USA or MAC team, but maybe I'll add it to the sidebar as my question of the week anyway just to see if I'm wrong.Yesterday I was out of state for the holidays and didn't catch a single second of Rutgers sports news on Thursday or Friday. So what happened over those two days?

The football team beat Louisville 34-14 and put the final nail into Steve Kragthorpe's coffin on Friday morning and afternoon.
The men's basketball team beat UMass yesterday 83-75.
The women's basketball team beat Southern Cal by 66-51 on Thursday and Mississippi State by 62-54 yesterday.

So, should I continue to help the success of the Scarlet Knights by ignoring them? Should I keep my eyes closed while sitting on my bench at the Stadium next Saturday at noon?

The New BlogPoll Ballot of Beat Visitor dot com Is Posted for your Abuse

2009-11-22T17:03:00.006-05:00

Nothing else really matters this week other than the fact that Rutgers has been dropped from my ballot with no signs of reappearing soon. It will take blowout wins in Louisville next week and in Piscataway on December 5th for the Scarlet Knights to have any chance of clawing their way back onto the bottom of the list.

Neither of the other Big East teams on the list was playing this week, so my interest in these other teams was admittedly minimal. I've jumped Texas above Alabama into the number one spot simply because they were the only one of the top six undefeated teams that managed to put a real team on their schedule this week. As always, you can check out the rest of my "logic" in making these rankings by clicking on my scribbled thumbnail at the upper right.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Texas	1
2	Alabama	1
3	Florida
4	TCU
5	Cincinnati
6	Boise State
7	Pittsburgh
8	Georgia Tech
9	Ohio State
10	Oregon	1
11	Iowa	1
12	Penn State	1
13	Oklahoma State	1
14	Virginia Tech	3
15	Utah	3
16	Oregon State
17	Mississippi
18	Brigham Young	2
19	LSU	9
20	Clemson	1
21	Miami (Florida)	1
22	Southern Cal	1
23	California
24	Temple
25	Houston
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#15), Stanford (#16), Rutgers (#19). I should have ranked Notre Dame last week so I could have dropped them out again after their very satisfying loss to UConn yesterday. Congratulations to the Huskies!

There's no doubt about who "New York's College Team" was this weekend

2009-11-22T12:37:00.006-05:00

It started on Friday night when I found it pleasant to root for the basketball Orange over the boys in Baby Blue from North Carolina after work in Madison Square Garden. I was supporting the Big East over the ACC as I joined in the "Let's Go Orange" chants with the vast majority of the crowd there at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic final. And I was sure the Orange were going to lose to the Scarlet in the sport that I really cared about the next day.
Even when I climbed into the car and turned on 710 WOR to listen to the game after the Orange were already up by two touchdowns yesterday afternoon, I wasn't really worried about the final results. Wasn't it the third year in a row that Rutgers had spotted Syracuse 14 points to start the game? Wasn't Syracuse making it a habit of losing heartbreakers in 2009? And didn't Joe Lefeged block a punt a minute after I turned on the radio as an omen of Rutgers' inevitable comeback?
I guess now we're going to have to change that strategy of giving away the first two touchdowns whenever we see orange. I guess now I'm going to have to stop rooting for Syracuse in any sport, because now the war for New York City is officially on, and Syracuse won a major battle this weekend.

West Virginia looks like it will be sold out soon

2009-11-20T11:55:00.006-05:00

Out of curiosity, I just went to see what kind of tickets were still available for the last home game against the Mountaineers. I went online at http://tickets.scarletknights.com and clicked "Best Available" and was offered two in section 214, the last section of the upper deck. So buy them quickly if you don't have them already.

And here's hoping that everyone who buys a ticket shows up at noon on the last Saturday of the season. I hope weather.com doesn't predict rain again like they did (incorrectly) for the South Florida game, scaring away all those fair-weather Scarlet Knight fans who are prone to melting in water.

Don't Let Greg Paulus See This Before Saturday

2009-11-18T16:46:00.001-05:00

Why the Huskies need to massacre the Leprechauns on Saturday

2009-11-18T16:03:00.003-05:00

In his most recent prediction of the 34 2009-2010 bowl matchups, Stewart Mandel presents the possibility of this outrage, a mediocre Notre Dame stealing the 2nd Big East bowl slot in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day. The "other" Big East teams are allocated to the following bowls:

Pittsburgh as Big East champs in the Sugar Bowl against Florida.
Cincinnati as the "3rd place" Big East team in the Muffler Repair Shop Bowl against North Carolina.
West Virginia in the Pizza Bowl of Birmingham against South Carolina.
Rutgers in the St. Petersburg Bowl against Southern Miss.
USF in the International Bowl against Temple.
UConn in the Pizza Bowl of Detroit against Central Michigan (because the Big Ten won't have enough bowl-eligible teams for all their bowl slots).

As much fun as it would be to see Notre Dame lose to Virginia Tech by five touchdowns in the Gator Bowl, I'd much rather see that bowl slot go to a worthier Big East team, and see the Dames blown out by the University of Connecticut this weekend. I hope the Huskies' football players get a cathartic release of every bit of frustration they have felt in this season's close losses to Pitt, UNC, Rutgers, and Cincinnati.

What a Difference a Month Makes

2009-11-18T13:48:00.007-05:00

I don't pretend that Beat Visitor dot com and Protect R Turf have an identical readership, but I think it's safe to assume that we both have a readership that consists mostly of Rutgers football fans. A few days ago I noticed that we had asked our readers almost the same question.
The Protect R Turf question was asked before the Army game and the results were completed before the UConn game on Halloween (a Halloween that will induce nightmares in the little children of Storrs for years to come), when RU had yet to chalk up its first Big East victory. The question was "How many Big East games will Rutgers win?" As you can see from the graphic in the upper left, 2 wins was the winner with 27%, followed by 3, 4, and Zero wins with 24%, 24%,and 16% respectively. 5 wins received only 4% of the meaningless internet polling clicks.

So move forward a couple of games to the sidebar poll that I posted just before the UConn game and which ended earlier today, with the Knights' BE record standing at 2-2. In answer to my similar question, "What will Rutgers' 2009 Big East Record Be?" the results were much less equivocal. Now a full 62% of Beat Visitor readers are sure that the Orange, Cardinals, and Mountaineers will fall like wind-blown dominoes before the mighty Scarlet Knight juggernaut on its way to a 5-2 Big East (and 10-2 overall) record.
What a difference a month makes.

A famous RU alum fondly remembers his daze On the Banks

2009-11-17T16:48:00.002-05:00

I have to thank Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician for digging up this clip of Mr. Magoo nostalgically treasuring his happy Rutgers connections.

The big lie

2009-11-17T16:21:00.005-05:00

Yeah, that's the only thing I hear anybody talking about on the streets of Manhattan : Syracuse Orange football!

I think they are lighting the Empire State Building in orange on November 21st in honor of Greg Paulus.

My favorite statistic

2009-11-17T14:02:00.006-05:00

Not only are the Scarlet Knights leading the FBS schools in turnover margin for another week, but they are now officially leading by what is technically known among professional statisticians as "a shitload," with 29 gained and 8 lost for a margin of +2.33.

The Syracuse Orange (orange you glad you don't go there), tied for 97th with a turnover margin of negative .70, should liberally apply the Krazy Glue to their gloves before Saturday.

The Beat Visitor dot com BlogPoll Ballot Is Up for Your Comments

2009-11-16T22:20:00.004-05:00

I watched the Rutgers - South Florida game on Thursday night from my aluminum bench in Piscataway, but as any other game would have been boring in comparison, my information about games played by non-Scarlet-Knight teams last weekend comes entirely from the internets after the fact. My in-depth analysis of the games I didn't see is reflected in the scribbled notes to your right and in the updated BlogPoll ballot posted below. You got a problem wit' that?

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Texas	1
3	Florida	1
4	TCU	1
5	Cincinnati	1
6	Boise State
7	Pittsburgh	1
8	Georgia Tech	1
9	Ohio State	2
10	LSU
11	Oregon	1
12	Iowa	3
13	Penn State	5
14	Oklahoma State	5
15	Wisconsin	6
16	Stanford
17	Virginia Tech	3
18	Utah	2
19	Rutgers	4
20	Brigham Young	4
21	Clemson
22	Miami (Florida)	5
23	Southern Cal	10
24	Temple	1
25	Houston	11
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Arizona (#15), South Florida (#22).

The Quote of the Day following the USF game

2009-11-13T10:25:00.004-05:00

No matter how you want to analyze USF’s 31-0 loss at Rutgers on Thursday night, here is what stands out to me in the immediate aftermath: the Bulls didn’t even look like they belonged on the same field with Rutgers tonight, and if these teams played 10 times, I think USF would have a good chance to win the series.
-- Scott Carter, The Tampa Tribune's Bulls Report, 13 Nov '09

Is there anyone connected with the Scarlet Knights who wouldn't want to take them up on this ten-game series "threat"?

Congratulations to everyone playing on the field for last night's impressive performances on both sides of the ball (especially to Devin McCourty!) and to Coach Schiano for finally getting to the .500 mark for his career at Rutgers. The percentage will only get better from here.

The Quote of the Day leading up to the USF game

2009-11-11T14:11:00.010-05:00

“When Damaso Munoz got his first interception last week, no one said much to him because he didn’t score. It’s not enough now with this defense just to get the turnover. Guys are looking to score, too.” --Munoz's fellow linebacker Antonio Lowery (who does have a defensive score on an interception return)

Does anyone else have the feeling that the Scarlet Knights are going to have at least one defensive touchdown scored tomorrow night? Rutgers is going into the game against USF having lost the ball only 7 times in 8 games (and three of those were interceptions thrown by Natale in the first half of the first game against Cincinnati) and having stolen the ball 25 times from the opposition. That +2.25 turnover margin leads the nation and it will definitely be a factor against the Bulls, if only because it might cause the players from "South" Florida (actually central Florida, but they flunked Geography 101) to be more careful and conservative with the pigskin than they need to be. That defensive pressure, plus the continuing maturation of the young offense, lead me to be more than a little optimistic about what we're going to witness at the Stadium. If you're not planning to stand and be loud and obnoxious (and you won't need those vocal cords again until December 5 anyway), then stay home and give your tickets to someone with a stronger set of legs and lungs and fewer inhibitions. Go Knights!

And if the words of Antonio Lowery aren't enough for you (it's been awhile since we've run a Beat Visitor dot com quote of the day), how about a randomly generated quote from the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon:

Fear no more the heat o'the Jim Leavitt
Nor the furious winter's rages.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

I hope Leavitt wears his silly little sun visor and screams all night long.

The BlogPoll Ballot of Beat Visitor dot com is up for your comments

2009-11-09T00:42:00.002-05:00

I don't have much to say about my ballot this week. Rutgers wasn't playing, so did anyone actually watch a college football game this past weekend??

All I can say is that I'm sorry to any readers who may have been offended by my addition of Notre Dame to the ballot last week. I'm sorry. They are gone for good now after having been beaten by the team that was beaten by the Temple Owls last week. Hoot. Hoot.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Cincinnati
5	TCU
6	Boise State	1
7	Georgia Tech	3
8	Pittsburgh	3
9	Iowa	3
10	LSU	1
11	Ohio State	3
12	Oregon	4
13	Southern Cal
14	Houston	1
15	Arizona	1
16	Utah	1
17	Miami (Florida)	1
18	Penn State	6
19	Oklahoma State	1
20	Virginia Tech	4
21	Wisconsin
22	South Florida
23	Rutgers
24	Brigham Young
25	Temple
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: California (#19), Notre Dame (#21).

140 years ago today. Why isn't it a national holiday yet?

2009-11-06T10:43:00.003-05:00

Today's the 140th anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game, so it seemed like a good time to rerun this transcript that I typed back in June from this bicentennial anthology of Rutgers stories published in 1966.
Here's the report of that first "foot-ball" game between Rutgers and Princeton as is was reported in the Targum in 1869, and as it was reprinted in Aloud to Alma Mater, edited by George Lukac, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1966, pages 67-69.

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.

What to watch when your Scarlet Knights aren't playing football.

2009-11-05T15:07:00.011-05:00

As a fan of Rutgers Scarlet Knights football, you might think that there's no reason at all for you to pay the slightest attention to any of this weekend's college gridiron battles while our Knights are enjoying a bye week, mais au contraire mon frère!
There are at least 10 games in which you, as a loyal son or daughter of Rutgers, should have at least a mild rooting interest over the next three days. Here they are, in order of appearance (not in order of importance):

Tonight @ 7:30pm: Virginia Tech at East Carolina. You should root for the Pirates to beat the Hokies. While not vital, it's necessary for some teams currently ranked in the twenties to lose to make room for the Scarlet Knights.
Friday @ 8pm: Boise State at Louisiana Tech. The Smurfs must lose, as must every other undefeated team except Cincinnati. The best chance for the Scarlet Knights to make it into a BCS bowl begins with the Bearcats making it to the National Championship game. To do that they need to do more than go undefeated; they need for all the other undefeated teams (or all but one) to lose.
Saturday @ 12 noon: UCF at Texas. See above. Death to Longhorns.
Saturday @ 12 noon: Northwestern at Iowa. The Hawkeyes are undefeated? The Hawkeyes must lose.
Saturday @ 12 noon: Syracuse at Pittsburgh. We Rutgers fans want to see Otto the Orange giggling with glee and rolling on the sidelines of Ketchup Stadium as Syracuse breaks out of their week of extreme bad luck with a laughingly easy victory over the Panthers. Why? Not only does Cincinnati need to win convincingly every week, but the Panthers need to lose three games in order for the Scarlet Knights to jump over them in the Big East standings.
Saturday @ 12 noon: Louisville at West Virginia. The Mountaineers need to have the best possible record and ranking when they enter Rutgers Stadium on December 5th, so say bye bye Cardinals (& move one step closer to the end of the Kragthorpe era at PapaJohnsStadium).
Saturday @ 2:30pm: Navy at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is another of those schools ranked in the twenties that needs to make room for the Scarlet Knights. Plus we'd just love to see the Midshipmen beat the Leprechauns after losing to the Temple Owls last week. Plus we just love to see Notre Dame lose. Don't you?
Saturday @ 3:30pm: LSU at Alabama. The losses need to be evenly distributed around the SEC in November, so this Saturday it's the Crimson Tide's turn to be mauled decisively by the Tigers of Baton Rouge.
Saturday @ 4pm: TCU at San Diego State. The Aztecs need to rip the heart out of any Horned Frog dreams for an undefeated 2009 season.
Saturday @ 7:15pm: Vanderbilt at Florida. Florida is undefeated. You know for whom to root. Commodores. Commodores. Toot. Toot. Toot. (If that isn't their cheer, it should be.) OK, so Vanderbilt lost to Army. All that means is that if the Gators don't beat them by twenty points, then the Gators don't deserve their top national ranking.
Saturday @ 8pm: Connecticut at Cincinnati. You almost feel sorry for the fluffy white doggies from Storrs this year. With a couple of bounces in their favor in the fourth quarter, they could be 8-0 rather than 4-4, but as Rutgers fans we have to root for them to go 4-5 on Saturday night, and for them to lose convincingly to the Big East leaders, for all the reasons already given above.

The preliminary BlogPoll ballot of Beat Visitor dot com is up for your commentary

2009-11-01T19:33:00.007-05:00

Once again the undefeateds all remained undefeated and the only major changes in the top 15 are caused by the losses suffered by Southern Cal and Va Tech. There was more action at the bottom, where 3 of my previous bottom 5 lost and fell off the list.

I expect that if there are disagreements with my picks this week (and I expect that there will be disagreements), those disagreements will revolve around a couple of names in my new bottom three.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Cincinnati
5	TCU	2
6	Iowa	1
7	Boise State	1
8	Oregon	2
9	LSU
10	Georgia Tech	1
11	Pittsburgh	1
12	Penn State	1
13	Southern Cal	7
14	Ohio State	1
15	Houston	1
16	Arizona	2
17	Utah	3
18	Miami (Florida)	1
19	California	3
20	Oklahoma State	3
21	Notre Dame
22	South Florida	3
23	Rutgers
24	Virginia Tech	10
25	Temple
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: West Virginia (#21), South Carolina (#23), Central Michigan (#24).

Once again, I'm glad to show my work (wouldn't it drive you crazy when you'd solve a complicated quadratic equation in your head in algebra class and your teacher wouldn't accept it because you didn't make any pencil scribbles to back up your idiosyncratic mathematical logic). You can click on the thumbnail of my handwritten notes up above as always to see all of this week's scores and records and some of my rationale for this week's choices, especially the additions. I don't expect the fact that I've finally added Notre Dame to stir up any controversy, but the addition of Rutgers and Temple probably deserves a comment.

6-2 Rutgers is replacing another 6-2 Big East school, West Virginia, but Rutgers' losses to two teams in the top 15, Pitt & Cincy, don't look as bad as the Mountaineers' losses to USF and Auburn. Also, I simply feel that the young Scarlet Knight offense is on the verge of gelling and going on an end-of-season run. We'll know for sure where they belong after their next game against South Florida.
6-2 Temple is replacing a losing MAC school, Central Michigan (7-2), after beating Navy yesterday. The Owls' six-game win streak is their longest since 1974 and their last loss was to Penn State. I personally feel great for Temple. How many times did we watch them play the Scarlet Knights over the years? It was a long-time rivalry with a nearby team; they always brought a lot of their own fans up the Turnpike from Philly to Rutgers Stadium. It was awful to see the depths they sank to in recent years; it's too bad we can't say "sorry" and give them Louisville's place in the Big East.

Feel free to let me know where you feel my ballot is full of shit.

The Eyes of Tim Brown

2009-11-01T07:37:00.007-05:00

Tim Brown signing autographs for fans in April 2007.

Tim Brown has always shown his strong loyalty to his home in Florida. The photo up above was taken at the Scarlet-White Game in April 2007; the "305" on his eyeblack is his area code in Miami. There's a great article on Tim and the late Jasper Howard and yesterday's UConn game in the NY Daily News today with a picture of an emotional Tim Brown being hugged by Devin McCourty with "JAZZ" on his eyeblack. The other eye read "RIP."
I hope that Tim Brown's sense of family now extends far beyond Miami, beyond Florida. I hope he knows how much his teammates, the people of Rutgers, and of New Jersey love him too, not just for his exceptional football ability, but for his heart.

Let's go to the videotape

2009-10-31T17:37:00.004-05:00

With 33 seconds on the clock and one time out at the Rutgers 19 after the Connecticut Huskies had just taken the lead for the first time in the game with less than a minute left, this happened. I "watched" the game on the radio, so I'm glad to see the video, and I'm sure you will be glad to see it too, even if you already saw it happen live.
I found it on Bleed Scarlet, but I'm sure that all Rutgers fans and bloggers will just want to see this touchdown getting the widest circulation possible (until it disappears from YouTube's server):

6-2 (1-2). What a Game.

2009-10-31T15:19:00.006-05:00

Those last few minutes of today's 28-24 win over Connecticut have to have been some of the most nerve-wracking I've ever spent as a fan of Rutgers football (or of any sports team). I was watching on the radio, and in the fourth quarter I started commenting on Twitter by writing, "I wasn't nervous about typing #BeatUConn all day yesterday, so why am I nervous about it now with Rutgers having an 11-point lead in the 4th?".

Here are the last few minutes and last two touchdowns of the game as I typed them on Twitter:

UConn 1st and goal. Fuck. Come on defense! That missed two-point conversion of UConn's looks major now. #BEATUCONN
42 minutes ago from web
COME ON DEFENSE! #BEATUCONN
38 minutes ago from web
4th Down & Goal. ONE MORE STOP!
38 minutes ago from web
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck now we need mccourty to end the game the way he started it. #BeatUConn
37 minutes ago from web
33 seconds and a time out. Let's go Offense. #BeatUConn
34 minutes ago from web
TIMMMY TIMMY TIMMY TIMMY TIMMY TIMMY TIMMY
34 minutes ago from web
FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!
33 minutes ago from web
For that to have been done by Jasper Howard's friend is just awesome. This is the kind of game that turns around a season.
32 minutes ago from web
Although, 22 seconds left is a lifetime in this game. come on defense. Just one more stop. #BeatUConn
31 minutes ago from web
"I'm rarely speechless, but I think right now I am." Ray Lucas
30 minutes ago from web
8 seconds left. Come on Defense.
29 minutes ago from web
The "Let's Go Rutgers" chant is loud on the radio. 3 seconds left with that last incompletion. #BeatUConn
28 minutes ago from web
That's the win. This is Tom Savage's coming out party.
28 minutes ago from web
That was one of the most nerve-wracking two minutes of my life.
19 minutes ago from web
If someone had to #BeatUConn today, I'm glad it was Jasper Howard's friend. Tim Brown sounded very emotional in the short postgame chat.
18 minutes ago from web
I hope lots of former Knights were watching the new Knights #BeatUConn. RT @CGreene36 Yes Tim Brown... 80yd Td Catch To Win Da Game.
12 minutes ago from web

I have nothing else to add right now about a game that's going to be written about widely, not just during the coming week, but for years. The story of Jasper Howard and Tim Brown's friendship has all the makings of a television movie. You wouldn't believe it if it weren't true.

West Virginia and Virginia Tech have already lost this weekend. How many more top 25 teams will have to lose before I consider putting the 6-2 Scarlet Knights onto my BlogPoll ballot?

The New Look

2009-10-31T09:15:00.005-05:00

This morning I fooled around and did my first redesign of the Beat Visitor dot com header since February 2007, using this team photo from the 2008 Scarlet-White Game as a background.
I hope it greatly increases your browsing pleasure as you spend a few seconds here on your way to the site that you were actually looking for.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Update at 5pm on Halloween:
If Rutgers had lost today's game to the Connecticut Huskies I would have dropped the new design immediately as a jinx. Now, of course, I am (and you are) stuck with it forever. It's obviously a good-luck charm.
~~~~~~~~~~~

#BeatUConn is just a warmup for the big game on November 21

2009-10-30T11:40:00.003-05:00

#BeatUConn is gaining some traction as a hashtag at Twitter today (and if you are on Twitter and use #BeatUConn in your tweets today or tomorrow, @BeatVisitor will start following you -- yes, it's come to bribery), but there aren't a lot of #BeatRutgers responses from UConners.

Orange Tweeps are already looking forward to taunting Rutgers on 11/21.

That will change as November 21 approaches and the game with the Syracuse Orange Tweeps begins. Say what you want about their football prowess (and I'll expect you to in the third week of November), but there is no doubt that Syracuse currently rules the world of Big East Twitter taunting. Check the #BeatCincy hashtag today to see how it's done -- quantity and humor are both very important. We've got some work to do people, so let's practice by beating up on UConn today and tomorrow (online and on the field).

Don't Take any Wooden Nutmeg!, and #BeatUConn

2009-10-29T09:40:00.005-05:00

I always knew that Connecticut was "The Nutmeg State" but I never knew why a state in the Northeastern US took the name of a spice that was only grown in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. I thought it must have something to do with trade. I didn't know it had to do with fraud. The following paragraph comes from Wikipedia (so it's got to be true):

Connecticut gets its nickname ("the Nutmeg State", "Nutmegger") from the legend that some unscrupulous Connecticut traders would whittle "nutmeg" out of wood, creating a "wooden nutmeg" (a term which came to mean any fraud). [2]

But even though their state nickname may brand them as fraudsters, Connecticut's leading industry in the 21st Century is the almost-fraud-free industry of insurance, everybody's favorite. Still, it's the duty of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to beat the University of Connecticut on the football gridiron on Saturday afternoon, and it's your duty to spread the #BeatUConn gospel on Twitter until then.

And if you're going to the game at Rentschler Field, remember: Don't take any wooden nutmeg.

And watch out for "fair catch" signals from "nutmeggers".

What Constitutes "Success" for the 2009 Scarlet Knights?

2009-10-28T18:50:00.006-05:00

At this point in 2008 the Rutgers Scarlet Knights with current NFL'ers Mike Teel, Tiquan Underwood, Jamaal Westerman, and Kenny Britt were 2-5 and looking like they could end up well below .500. As Mike Teel's interceptions magically became touchdowns, the team showed its ability to end the season with offensive records shattering in almost every game; seven straight wins erased most of the bad taste left by the five early season losses for most the the Scarlet faithful.
This year's Scarlet Knights, after losing their all-time leading passer and all-time leading receiver to the pros, and with true freshmen Tom Savage and Mohamed Sanu leading the charge, are 5-2 with five conference games to go and with both losses being to teams that are now in the top 15 of the BCS rankings. Yet some "fans" are acting as if the Knights' golden years are behind them and that this season is somehow over.

How do you feel the young Knights are going to come together in this second half of the 2009 season?
Vote in the new sidebar poll. Will the Knights have five conference wins after December 5th's game? Three? None??
How many victories constitutes "success" for these young Knights?
If the season ends with only one more victory, but that victory is against the Mountaineers, will that be enough comfort to take into the off season?

Speaking of the Mountaineers, even they have problems with their "fans."

Going Beyond "Huck the Fuskies!"

2009-10-27T08:22:00.008-05:00

Check out Bleed Scarlet's UConn Q&A this morning for an analysis of the upcoming Halloween game up in Connecticut that actually looks beyond #BeatUConn tags on Twitter and making fun of a mascot who would have been more at home in the Yukon than at UConn (get it? their mascot's based on a juvenile joke.)

Also, be sure to look for the other side of this serious football conversation, the follow-up Rutgers Q&A at The UConn Blog, which should be appearing soon.

Meanwhile, while the big boys are discussing actual football facts and prognostications, we're left with silly anagrams: UConn Huskies = Kiss No Eunuch and Connecticut Huskies = Chicken Scouts Unite or Hectic Sunken Coitus or Chicken Coitus Tunes. Have you got better ones?

Oh, and Huck the Fuskies!

~~~~~~~~~~~
Update at 7:00pm on 27 Oct:
The follow-up Q&A with Jon of Bleed Scarlet is now appearing on The UConn Blog.
Who knew he was that Jon? And I thought all of his football expertise and fandom went into the Philadelphia Soul.

The BlogPoll Ballot of Beat Visitor dot com is presented for your admiration

2009-10-26T20:47:00.003-05:00

It was another week in which the seven unbeaten remained unbeaten and there was very little red ink on my notes about the week in NCAA football. So there was relatively little movement on my BlogPoll ballot (I'll get one of those Mr. Stubborn or Mr. Numb Existence trophies one of these days).
As always, you can check out my notes by clicking on the thumbnail to the right. And again, you're invited to add your criticisms and accolades in the Comments section below before these ballots need to be finalized on Wednesday morning. From the fact that even unmediated anonymous abuse is accepted here at Beat Visitor dot com, I have to assume from the lack of comments to my earlier ballots that my 2009 college football acumen has been perfect.
Here's another example of perfection for you to admire:

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Cincinnati
5	Iowa
6	Southern Cal
7	TCU	3
8	Boise State	1
9	LSU
10	Oregon	1
11	Georgia Tech	1
12	Pittsburgh	4
13	Penn State
14	Virginia Tech	1
15	Ohio State	2
16	Houston	2
17	Oklahoma State	2
18	Arizona
19	Miami (Florida)	11
20	Utah	3
21	West Virginia	3
22	California
23	South Carolina	2
24	Central Michigan
25	South Florida	4
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Brigham Young (#14), Kansas (#20), Texas Tech (#22).

Don't Forget Me

2009-10-23T15:31:00.007-05:00

I'd love to be there at West Point to see the game tonight; for those of you who are going, have a great time watching the Scarlet Knights dismembering the Black Knights again (if for some strange reason you haven't seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, be sure to watch the clip below) and leveling the all-time record between the long-time rivals at 18-18.

I won't be able to see the game on television tonight, and after I send this last missive into the electronic ether cloud, I won't even be touching a computer for another few days. Don't forget that BeatVisitor.com exists while I'm observing radio silence. It's amazing how quickly blog traffic drops off when you shut your mouth for a couple of days.

Beat Army!

1.08695% -- I'll try not to let the power go to my head

2009-10-21T11:33:00.005-05:00

The Week 7 BlogPoll is up at CBSSports.com, and with only 92 blogs voting this week, that gave my ballot a more than 1% say in the final outcome. I'll try to use my awesome powers for good rather than evil.
I'd like to think that I had a hand in making sure that four Big East teams are in the top 25 (though that will be hard to maintain next week, because either USF or Pittsburgh is assured another loss).

The Quote of the Day comes from Chuck Klosterman

2009-10-20T20:36:00.010-05:00

"I don't know what I see when I watch football. It must be something insane, because I should not enjoy it as much as I do. I must be seeing something so personal and so universal that understanding this question would tell me everything I need to know about who I am, and maybe I don't want that to happen. But perhaps it's simply this: Football allows the intellectual part of my brain to evolve, but it allows the emotional part to remain unchanged. It has a liberal cerebellum and a reactionary heart. And this is all I want from everything, all the time, always."
--Chuck Klosterman in an excerpt from "Eating the Dinosaur" on ESPN.com

It's something I've wondered about myself, how a guy who gave himself the nom de blog of True Blue Liberal could find almost all of his blogging time devoted to his beloved Scarlet Knights once the Bushes and Cheneys finally removed their claws from the levers of world power. There seemed to be a disconnect between the athletic and political topics.
I was not a big football fan in college at the end of the Nixon years. Chuck Klosterman even addresses that in this great book excerpt of his, how Nixon was the nation's number one football fan, poisoning the well for many of us. I knew a couple of great football players in my high school who quit the sport rather than cut their hair for a coach with neo-fascist leanings (it seems that all the lesser coaches of those years modeled themselves on Woody Hayes).
Klosterman's essay addresses the revolutionary character of football and how the game reinvents itself on regular basis while maintaining a much more reactionary veneer. It is definitely worth reading in full for his recap of pivotal coaching and strategy changes.
Specifically as a Rutgers football fan it will make you look at the Jabu package and the Wild Knight in a new light, and wish for the occasional play that will make the fans around you in the Stadium grumble, "What the fuck are those idiots doing now??" The article made me desire the shock of the new. It's generally when the fans are grumbling that the important changes in the game are taking place.

If only it WERE true . . . The Quote of the Day about Tim Brown's prowess.

2009-10-20T12:52:00.007-05:00

I'm sure it will be corrected at some point today so I made sure to grab the part of the screen on which it appeared in Brian Bennett's midseason review of Rutgers published on ESPN.com at 1:35 this afternoon.

Offensive MVP: Tim Brown. The lone returning veteran receiver has been terrific in his new role as a No. 1 guy. He has 28 catches for 548 yards and three scores, averaging 196 yards per reception.

Almost two touchdowns per reception? Why are we even trying to run any play other than Savage to Brown? Even so, 19.6 yards per reception isn't bad either.
~~~
On a more serious note, Aditi Kinkhabwala has an article on SNY.tv about the close friendship between Tim Brown and Antonio Lowery of Rutgers with the late Jasper Howard of UConn. They knew each other from Miami.

Another Candidate to Run the Wild Knight

2009-10-20T09:24:00.006-05:00

Before he was moved from Quarterback to Tight End back in August, #10 D.C. Jefferson was given a number of snaps lining up behind team captain Ryan Blaszczyk. The following short video that I took at the Scarlet-White Game at Rutgers Stadium on April 18, 2009 is my visual evidence supporting number 10 as a candidate to run the Wild Knight at some point this year. Though I won't be able to see the game, I'd love to hear that he tried it at least once against the Black Knights this Friday at West Point.

With Mohamed Sanu, D.C. Jefferson, and Jabu Lovelace all having the ability to run the Wild Knight and experience as passers, there should be a lot of ways that we can keep defenses off balance for the rest of the year. With Jefferson, Savage, and Sanu all being so young, and with Sanu and Jefferson both playing totally new positions this year, even if it doesn't all gel in 2009, the possibilities for 2010 and 2011 seem awesome.

More on this Friday's Coming Tournament

2009-10-19T22:46:00.006-05:00

There's a great breakdown of what the Black Knights of Army need to do to beat the Scarlet Knights on the gridiron Friday night over at The Unbalanced Line,
an independent Army football blog.
After the venom poured on Rutgers' football team by some Rutgers "fans" after the Pittsburgh loss, it's interesting to see T.U.L. referring to the "Hollywood glitz and Big East swagger" of Rutgers. This year Rutgers will not be taking a victory over Army for granted and it should be a better game than it was the last time our red knights visited West Point and Jabu Lovelace and Ray Rice ran wild over the wet field (I still have a chill in the marrow of my bones from the cold wet sleet and snow that pelted us that night in the upper deck of Michie Stadium -- it was too cold and wet to sit; we stood through the whole game, but at least we had multiple opportunities to scream the Upstream Red Team chant). I'd love to visit West Point again, but I'm going to be away this weekend. It's a trip I'd recommend to any Scarlet Knight fan (or any football or history fan); if you don't have plans for Friday night, consider a trip up the Hudson, especially since the Rutgers-Army rivalry will soon be moving to bigger and less interesting venues in the Meadowlands and the Bronx.
Beat Army.

Just Shut Up Already! The Quotes of the Day for Pitt Week.

2009-10-19T15:40:00.007-05:00

Maybe the Whiners will soon be jumping off the bandwagon and riding off into the sunset (this shot of R House at the end of the TSU game also makes a nifty full-screen computer background courtesy of BeatVisitor.com)

"schiano is an idiot...I hope you are gone soon and Rutgers can save 2 million dollars a year from your salary." "...lets let Tom Savage throw the ball all over the field for interceptions and overthrows. The kid is not ready to play Big East football and the only thing that is saving his butt right now is that interception on the last drive being dropped." "Schiano better do something. The ticker is running! New Jersey wants a Big East Champion! ... Mulchahy is gone! Schiano...you gotta give us a winning year!" "Schiano is a stubborn donkey, he will never admit when he is wrong, and he is clearly wrong not to play Williams. Our o-line is not playing well and a back like martinek with no lateral quickness is not going to succeed. This line cannot open up holes, we need a back with speed and cut-back ability. It seems so obvious. Yet we keep trotting out our glorified fullback and hope we can run straight ahead. Pathetic play calling, the co-coordinators is a joke." "Don't play your fastest running back coach, good idea. Does anyone know how to start a real petition to FIRE GREG SCHIANO!! 9 YEARS IT THE LONGEST TENURE COACH IN THE BIG EAST AND EVERY OTHER SCHOOL EXCEPT S. FLORIDA HAS WON A BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP. TIME TO GO GREG" --actual quotes from random idiots who commented on just one Star-Ledger article yesterday

When Saturday Night Live did skits with Bob and Wendy Whiner, did anyone doubt for a second that the Whiners were from some bedroom community in North Jersey? I've learned to ignore the Whiners and continue reading my book as they blame the conductor on NJ Transit for an Amtrak power or switch failure, or the weather. I was hoping I could ignore all this negative chatter on the internet the way I try to ignore all the frustrated head coaches sitting around me in the stands every week, but this has now reached a fevered pitch, and we've only lost twice -- to two ranked teams.

Did it ever occur to any of these Whiners that these are college kids playing a game? A game in which the ball takes funny bounces and luck takes more than a minor role every week? Bill Stull threw at least two third-down passes up for grabs on Friday night when he was in the grasp of the defense that could easily have been intercepted and returned for touchdowns by the Scarlet Knights but instead came down as first downs for the Panthers. Professional quarterbacks for at least two teams yesterday would have been happy to have had Tom Savage's line of 248 yards with 1TD and 1INT (the Titans had Kerry Collins and Vince Young combine for 2 of 14 with minus 7 yards and 2 interceptions; and the Jets' star rookie Mark Sanchez was 10 of 30 with 5 interceptions). It doesn't make these quarterbacks untalented or their coaches inept. They just had bad days (as I'm hoping the nattering nabobs of negativity quoted up above were having on a rainy Sunday with their favorite college and pro teams all losing). They were simply on the losing end of a game. It wasn't their day.

And the season isn't over. There's another game next week for all of these teams. Beat Army! (And shut up if I quoted you up above.)