UConn vs. Chas Dodd 10/8/2010

I'm so glad to see Chas Dodd finally getting the start he has deserved this whole season. Here's a repeat of his first start against the Huskies in 2010 and video evidence of why the state of Connecticut was hoping to see the Gary Nova show this Saturday.


Note especially at the 2'46" mark when the ESPN announcers explain how Chas Dodd uses something called a "second read", which Gary Nova doesn't seem to understand.

Oh, and as long as we're bringing back Chas Dodd to close out the 2013 Rutgers football season on a higher note, please bring back these 2010 uniforms too.

And the correct opening words to our Alma Mater.

Keep Calm and Huck the Fuskies

I'm almost glad that we're playing this one at Rentschler Field rather than at R House. In years past those Thanksgiving weekend "crowds" in the student section have been pretty anemic when the undergrads are all back in their Moms' & Dads' homes sleeping off turkey and pumpkin pie (and pumpkin ale) hangovers two days after our annual national all-you-can-eat family-style buffet.

After watching films of the Rutgers season so far, I'm sure the Huskies are hoping to see Gary Nova on Saturday. Our coach would have to be an idiot to oblige them.

~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE @ 11am on 11/25:

As proof that the Rutgers coaching staff reads BeatVisitor.com religiously (more religiously than I write it), Chas Dodd has (finally!) been named the Rutgers starting quarterback for Saturday's game in Connecticut. This will be his first start since winning the Pinstripe Bowl against Iowa State in Greg Schiano's final game as head coach.

Forget today...Time to Keep Calm and Chop UCF

Here's this week's poster:

Keep Calm (and fire defensive coordinator Dave Cohen and name Chas Dodd the starting quarterback) and Chop UCF.

And the UCF Knights always remind me why I love anagrams:

If you can't say anything nice....

... use Twitter.
Rather than trying to summarize today's 52-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats here, I just took all the words from the tweets I wrote at the Stadium this afternoon and threw them into a single vaguely-football-shaped word cloud.

You can click on the cloud to enlarge the smaller words, or you can see them in context by looking at twitter.com/beatvisitor if you're interested in today's frustrations.
The only things I'll add are that it will be a crime if Dave Cohen is still the Rutgers defensive coordinator when the Scarlet Knights take the field in our next game against the UCF Knights. And it will be a worse crime if Chas Dodd is not at least considered for the job of starting quarterback in that game. Anyone (of the few hundred of you) who stayed for the last three Rutgers offensive series this afternoon will know why. As at the end of the Houston game, in front of another empty Rutgers Stadium, Dodd demonstrated that he can move this team with confidence in a way that our starting quarterback fails to show in any consistent way.
From this day forward, the words "Gary Nova gives us the best chance to win" need to be banned. He doesn't. 

There should be no quarterback controversy after today's loss.

It's a long drive back from Rutgers Stadium, so it keeps me from writing anything too offensive about today's 49-14 loss to Houston. Instead I'll let all my thoughts about Gary Nova's 3-interception 0-TD 23.9-QBR performance be reflected by this post I made after last December's bowl game. Nothing has changed about my feelings regarding quarterbacks Gary Nova and Chas Dodd since then.
If I had written earlier, or had been able to tweet in the Stadium, I would have ranted and raved about a thousand bad passes, worse coaching, and missed tackles.  But there's no need for any Rutgers fan to relive all that. Is there?
There's one coaching decision I want to comment on though. We were there until the very end (as shown by this photo taken with about 5 minutes left right before the final Rutgers drive) and it's those last few seconds that still bug me hours after the game.

In that final drive Chas Dodd drove the Scarlet Knights 90 yards in 12 plays in 4'41" with a combination of passing, handoffs, and his own legs.  He should have been allowed by Kyle Flood to cap the longest drive of the day with a touchdown rather than letting the final seconds tick away with timeouts in our pocket inside their ten yard line. I was glad to see Kyle Flood put in our more effective quarterback, but it would have been nice if he had done it before the game was out of reach. Dodd had a much better appearance in the fourth quarter than his 11/15 78-yard passing yards and 20 rushing yards will tell you. You should also ignore his one interception. He put the ball into Brandon Coleman's hands with a pass over the middle and Coleman shoveled it into the arms of a Houston defender (Gary [tur]Nova's interceptions, on the other hand, were all completely on him).
If Chas Dodd does not start against Temple next Saturday, I'll be very unhappy about the coach who said this back in December.

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

“Gary is our starting quarterback. He is the guy that has earned the job and earned the right to be in the game, and certainly nothing I saw from him made me feel like I should make any change.” -- Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood on Quarterback Gary Nova

Was Kyle Flood watching a different game? Gary Nova looked scared, was throwing off his back foot all night, and should have thrown six interceptions rather than one -- if the Virginia Tech defensive backs had any hands.

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

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

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

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?)

No more need to vote in our latest poll.

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.

If you were Greg Schiano . . .

... 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

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!