Tom Savage is the new starting QB for Pitt.

According to this, the ex-Rutgers quarterback is getting his chance to start again and we couldn't be happier for him.  I hope he tears it up in the ACC (not to be confused with the AAC -- God, I can't wait to join the Big Ten.)

Tom Savage attracting all eyes at the 2008 Scarlet-White Game.

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

Quite the scary mascot.

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

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

Keep Calm and Chop Pitt

The Scarlet Knight players and coaches need to keep only one thing on their minds this week, going one and oh against the Pitt Panthers, who may be the most unpredictably dangerous team around, looking hapless one week and dominating (though somehow losing to) the Number One Fighting Irish the next. 

Rutgers needs to expect to see the latter at a half-empty Ketchup Stadium in Pittsburgh at noon on Saturday. All thoughts of the Louisville matchup and  BCS Bowls and Big Ten invitations need to be erased.  All that matters this week is the need to Chop Pitt.  Here's your poster:

Original poster may be downloaded at
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-pitt/

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

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

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

So much for home court advantage.

Go Knights!

Today's Game

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.

Rule #12 Revisited.

If you're getting a feeling of déjà vu, it's because I ran this entry, in almost exactly this form, just before the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' first football game of 2009 against the Cincinnati Bearcats. I've made a couple of minor edits and Point 5 is brand-new for the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers tomorrow night. It just seemed important to reiterate these rules of Rutgers Stadium behavior before the second real contest of the year. The "fans" have been entirely too quiet during the three intervening games between Cincy and Pitt. Tomorrow's forecast (39 and rain at this point according to weather.com) is not conducive to normal high spirits or high attendance, so those of us who are there are going to have to stretch our vocal cords to fill any gaps in the 55,000 seats.

We have many fewer rules than the Freshmen of the Class of 1923 had in the Rutgers College Handbook Volume XXVI, 1919-1920 , but rule number 12 from that little book should be considered as true and as enforceable now as it was then (you can see the full Freshman Regulations with Beat Visitor's 2009 annotations by clicking here):

Rule 12. Failure to know the songs and yells before the
first football game will be detrimental to your health.

When you go to watch Rutgers beat Pitt (for the fifth year in a row), here are The Four Absolutely Necessary Songs and Yells at Rutgers Stadium:
1) R ... U ... R ... U ... etc. This one is idiot proof. If someone yells R at anytime on game day, you yell U. If you're on the bus from the parking lot at the RAC and someone yells R, you yell U (especially if there are fans with Pittsburgh's colors on board). If the students in the new South Endzone seats of Rutgers Stadium yell R and point in your direction, you -- and everybody else in the Stadium -- yell U as loudly a possible and point back at the student section. Like I said, idiot proof. But there are always some idiots who feel they are above yelling at a football game (they should reminded of Rule #12). If you and some of your leather-lunged friends are feeling ambitious, you can yell R yourself and start a chant in the parking lot or on a refreshment line or while walking into the mens' room. The line of fellow Scarlet Knights at the urinals with their backs to you are under an obligation to reply.
2) First Down! Touchdown! Go RU! After every Rutgers first down, you will hear the familiar voice of Joe Nolan proclaim over the loudspeakers : "And THAT is a Rutgers FIRST DOWN!" Your duty as a fan is to scream that along with him and point emphatically in the direction the Knights are traveling when you get to the words "first down." The band will immediately start to play a fanfare (a tune that will become very familiar with repetition as the Scarlet Knights march up and down the field at will). After the first repetition of the fanfare, you yell HEY. The second repetition will be in a higher key, you yell HEY at the end. The third, still higher, repetition of the theme will be followed by HEY, First Down! Touchdown! Go RU!. If you're in one of those sections where your neighbors like to sit quietly, and they give you a look, you can give them a look back, or make copies of Rule #12 to hand out in your section.
3) Here's the reason we come to the games rather than sitting at home listening to the radio: R U rah rah! R U rah rah! / Hoo-rah Hoo-rah Rutgers rah! / Upstream Red Team / Red Team Upstream / Rah Rah Rutgers Rah! You'll get a chance to practice once with the band as they play "The Bells Must Ring" before the National Anthem before the game, and then you will chant it over and over again after every Rutgers touchdown or field goal (you can see it in action at the 2:19 mark in this video -- you will also hear where to add "Fight Fight Fight" in "The Bells Must Ring".)
4) On the Banks of the Old Raritan. You have no excuse not to sing along with your beautiful Alma Mater (the nation's best Alma Mater) at the beginning of the game with the band (and sometimes glee club) and at the end of the game with the team. Not only do you only need to know the first verse, but the words are usually projected on the scoreboard and zippers. If your neighbors don't sing, you know which rule they are violating. Also, note in the illustration up above that there is also a page for the Class of 1923 entitled "A Word to the Wise." Note the second piece of advice: "While 'On the Banks' is being sung all Rutgers men rise and uncover." In other words, don't sit down and put your cap on after the National Anthem, you have another song to sing (we'll assume that you already sang The Star-Spangled Banner with feeling and are in the mood to sing some more).
And FINALLY, and MOST IMPORTANTLY ...
5) Though not officially a "Song or Yell," Make As Much Noise As Possible Whenever Rutgers Is on Defense. There were people around me last week who didn't seem to know this basic rule of any football stadium. We won't have another home football game until November 12th against the USF Bulls, so plan on leaving tomorrow night's game with your vocal cords torn and bloodied. They have a month to recover.

Go Knights!

It's the "Wild Knight", not the Wildcat. Quote of the Day from Coach Schiano

"I don't follow pro football that much, but what I hear is that the Dolphins have this package and they run it all the time. I don't know if we're there. That's probably why you don't see it a lot (with Rutgers). But it is interesting."

-- Head Coach Greg Schiano, 14 October 2009

Greg Schiano's quote of the day comes from this article from Brendan Prunty that appears this morning, "Rutgers' wild card against Pittsburgh? It may be the 'Wildcat'." The Scarlet Knights coaching staff hasn't given away any information about special plays in the recent out-of-conference games, but you know that we are going to see some new looks from the offense on Friday night, and not just the Jabu Lovelace package. The trick plays are always saved for big games and the Wild Knight worked well as a change of pace in last year's season-ending blowout against Louisville. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Joe Martinek or Tim Brown or De'Antwan Williams lining up in an unconventional position in the backfield. On what could be a sloppy night (the last forecast I looked at was calling for rain, 12mph winds, and a low of 38 in New Brunswick on Friday night), the running game will be even more important than usual, and I feel confident in saying that not every running play of the Scarlet Knights is going to begin with a conventional handoff from the quarterback.

Once again, the Beat Visitor dot com style sheet calls this formation "The Wild Knight" for obvious reasons, and especially when it's used during night games. It shouldn't be called the "Wildcat" on Friday unless it's being run by the Pitt Panthers.

I think it's personal. Pitt QB Bill Stull gives us the Quote of the Day. And It's Bitter.

"And this one’s personal. We can’t stress watching film more or working harder, because we do that, but we have to do them better. I don’t want to say extra focus, because we are a focused team. But we just have to get down and dirty – do the little things ­– everything, because it’s personal. I haven’t been on the winning side of the ball against these guys, so I’m really taking it personally this week. All of our seniors are really taking it personal, and all the guys who haven’t played against them ... we want them all on the same page with us. (And) we have to do whatever we can to win this game. We have some Jersey guys on the team as well, and we’re all excited for this opportunity. Four years in a row, if that’s not good enough motivation, the only team we haven’t beaten in the Big East, I’m telling you. It’s bitter. It really is, and it’s definitely personal for all of us.”
-- Bill Stull, quoted in the The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown PA ) 12 Oct 2009

And remember, #BeatPitt

start adding #BeatPitt to all your Tweets

If you're on Twitter and you're commenting at all about Rutgers Scarlet Knights football and Friday's upcoming game with the Pittsburgh Panthers, it's now time to start adding the #BeatPitt hashtag to all your tweets. Hell, start adding #BeatPitt to your tweets even if you're commenting on what you had for lunch and what you're listening to on your stereo.
This idea comes straight from those great Syracuse bloggers and tweeters, Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician and Orange::44, but since the Orange have a week off from football, we Rutgers bloggers and tweeters should take up the call this week. Maybe we can even get #BeatPitt into Twitter's Trending Topics before game time on Friday night.
If there is a rash of great #BeatPitt tweets, I'll even copy and paste them into a blog posting here at Beat Visitor dot com.

Prepare R House for the Friday arrival of Wannstedt, God of Thunder

How refreshing to check this morning and see that the stirring God of Thunder background images behind the Twitter entries of @CoachWannstedt haven't changed, and that his favorite events involve lighting bonfires outside cathedrals (how medieval can you get?).
I guess you wouldn't want a head coach with no ego. It's just too bad for the Pittsburgh Panthers that his imaginary superpowers haven't helped him beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights over the last four years.

Update @ 9:56am -- With Pittsburgh ranked at 26 in this week's AP, 28 in the Coaches' poll, and at 25 in the ESPN Power Rankings, is there any doubt that the winner of the Rutgers-Pittsburgh game on Friday should and will be ranked in the top 25 next week?

Which Big East teams to root for in Week Seven

There are four games this week that will involve Big East teams. If you're a fan of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights who is unsure of how to root in any of these contests, we'll be glad to give you guidance.

~~Thursday, October 15, 7:30pm
The 5-0 (1-0) Cincinnati Bearcats will be visiting the 5-0 (1-0) South Florida Bulls for the marquee Big East matchup of the weekend. One of them will leave Raymond James Stadium with their first loss and the other will be the favorite to win the Big East's BCS Bowl bid. So, for whom should we Friends of Rutgers root? It's easy. As annoying as they are, we need to root hard for USF (aka, South Florida, Ponce de Leon University, Flamerica University, Sunshine State University, Citrus State University, etc.). There are two reasons for this. 1) Cincinnati will need to lose twice if Rutgers is to have any chance of winning the Big East, and 2) the higher USF is ranked when they visit Rutgers Stadium in November, the more of a bump it will give to the Scarlet Knights' national ranking and recognition when the Knights win that game on November 12th.

~~Friday, October 16, 8pm
The ferocious 5-1 (2-0) Pittsburgh Panthers (see illustration to the left for identification purposes) head to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on the 4-1 (0-1) Scarlet Knights of Rutgers. If you have any doubt as to which way you're rooting in this one, then you are reading the wrong blog. One of these two teams will be ranked by many poll voters at the end of the night. If you are lucky enough to have tickets for the game and you feel that you are not willing to stand and yell loudly enough to damage to your vocal cords whenever the Knights are on defense, then you should stay at home, watch on ESPN, and give your tickets to someone louder and more rambunctious. The only words that should not be allowed on Friday night? That's easy: "Down in Front!"

~~Saturday, October 17, 12pm
The 2-3 (0-1) Louisville Cardinals will be visiting the 3-2 (0-1) University of Connecticut Huskies. This is a pick'em in which Beat Visitor dot com is taking no formal position. As long as the Scarlet Knights beat both teams later this year, you can root based on which of your personal hatreds is greater.

~~Saturday, October 17, 3:30pm
The 4-2 Marshall Thundering Herd will be thundering into Morgantown to meet the 4-1 (1-0) West Virginia Mountaineers. This one is easy not only for Rutgers fans, but for all fans of Big East teams. Let's Go Mountaineers! The Big East should not be dropping any games to non-conference foes as long as sportswriters and fans of other conferences are questioning our conference's legitimacy and ownership of an automatic BCS Bowl bid.

Syracuse is the only Big East team to have the coming week off. There will be no Crying Child next weekend.

Why so glum?

Anyone surfing around the web for any news or comment about our favorite football team is sure to see a lot of "commentary" from various Gloomy Gusses about the sorry state of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in 2009 (and let's be brutally honest, does anyone love to complain more than a whiny North Jersey a**hole?). As an answer, I give them this picture taken on Labor Day.

As with any photo on Beat Visitor dot com, click to enlarge.

Of course Gloomy Gus will see only the "45" and the "7," but I love this picture despite the score. This one image shows the debut of the ginormous new HDTV screen above the new south endzone seats, it shows people still in those seats despite the score, it trumpets the one honor -- "THE BIRTHPLACE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL"-- that no school will ever take away from Rutgers, and it shows the debut of Rutgers' quarterback of the future (and the present) in his first quarter of action for the Scarlet Knights, before he threw his first touchdown pass and his first 2-point conversion pass (and before he gave up a safety to give those 2 points back to the Bearcats).
If Tom Savage continues to throw the ball against Florida International this weekend the way he did against Cincy and Howard, and if Cincinnati wins again against Oregon State (in the Beavers' home) showing that they are who we think they are, then they are going to be moving up close to the top ten in everyone's polls next week and Rutgers' first-week loss to them with our second-string quarterback (and Dom Natale didn't even show he could move the ball against Howard in the second half on Saturday) will start to look like an aberration.
The most important game for Rutgers this Saturday is obviously the game against the FIU Panthers, but the second most important game for Rutgers football is the game being played by the Pitt Panthers against Navy. Pittsburgh is lurking just below the bottom of most polls right now; a few stumbles among the top 25 and a stellar performance by Pitt could put them on the lower rungs of the national rankings next week. There would be nothing better than to see a highly-ranked and undefeated group of Panthers entering Rutgers Stadium on October 16th to meet a Scarlet Knight team that has had a chance to gel around Tom Savage's leadership. If the Bearcats are still undefeated they will be in the top ten at that point; nobody would have a problem putting the Knights into the rankings if they beat a ranked Pitt and their only loss was to a top-ten team in week one. Well, maybe by "nobody" I mean that I would have no trouble placing them there in my BlogPoll compiled on October 17.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just want to note that I hope to be able to get a BlogPoll posted here early on Sunday, but then I'll be out of the country for nine days (in a place where football is played with the feet, and where the players wear shorts instead of pads and helmets) and I'll be computer-free while I'm in that land of beer and castles. I won't be around for the Maryland game or the post-Maryland poll, so I will either miss that week or get it in just before the Wednesday-morning deadline on June 30th. Don't completely abandon Beat Visitor dot com while I'm observing radio silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's to the Pitt Panthers

The Panthers have two important games starting at two this afternoon.

We'll be rooting hard for their football team to win the Sun Bowl in El Paso versus the Beavers of Oregon State to keep the Big East's bowl record perfect at 4-0.

But we'll be hoping that the bowl distracts them enough for their #3 ranked basketball team to fall to Mike Rosario and the Knights of the Hardwood at the RAC in today's Big East opener.

Do they have students in plush cat suits at sports venues in Texas and New Jersey today? Or will one of these games be without their frightening mascot?

--update @ 2:55pm e.s.t.: At the end of the 1st quarter at the Sun Bowl, it's Pittsburgh 0--Oregon State 0. Go Panthers! And at the end of the 1st half in at the Louis Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway, it's #3 Pittsburgh 39--Unranked Rutgers 43. Go Knights!

We can only hope that, like the football team, the Rutgers basketball team got all its losses out of the way early in the season. But there are major differences. In roundball, the loss to North Carolina is not as embarassing, and the early losses don't count at all by the end of the season.

--update @ 3:45pm e.s.t.: THIS IS ALL WRONG PANTHERS. At halftime in El Paso, you should be winning, not losing by 3! And what's the deal in New Jersey? You decide with five minutes left that it's time to take your largest (6-point) lead of the day?? THIS IS ALL WRONG.

--update at 4:10pm : It's still halftime in El Paso with the Beavers using their mighty incisors to hang on to a three point lead, but at the RAC it's all over with Pitt winning by 6, 78-72. So that's the #1 and #3 teams in the country beating the Scarlet Knights in consecutive games with #2, UConn, up next. Rough week for the basketball Knights (and now I'm not rooting that hard for the football Panthers anymore).

-- final in El Paso: You lost 3-0 to the Oregon State Beavers?? Now we need Cincy and UConn to win their bowls to salvage a 5-1 Big East Bowl record. (Update January 2: OK, except for one play, Cinncinnati looked as offensively inept against Virginia Tech as the Panthers did against Oregon State, so now it's up to UConn to salvage a 4-2 Big East Bowl record.)

Vote for Mike Teel as USA Today's Player of the Week (and next week vote for President Obama!)

CLICK HERE to vote for Mike Teel in honor of his (untelevised) 6-touchdown performance against Pittsburgh in last Saturday's 54-34 win.




(And you should know where to cast your vote for President next Tuesday.)

------------------------
Update 10/29: The voting for player of the week is closed and Mike Teel got the nod (and 58% of the readers' votes).

Please Participate in Beat Visitor's Summer Sidebar Poll

In the most recent ESPN preseason rankings from May 9th, the Fresno State Bulldogs are listed at #21. The only Big East teams on Mark Schlabach's post-Spring rankings are West Virginia (#9) and Pittsburgh (#19). The Knights do not make an appearance on his (or many other) preseason prognostications.
So far, the only preseason ranking on which both the Bulldogs and our Scarlet Knights have simultaneously appeared is the AthlonSports.com top 25, in which the Dogs are #25 and the Knights are #22.
Losing Ray Rice to the Baltimore Ravens has obviously introduced a question mark into the minds of many football writers, so I really have no idea at this point about whether our team will find enough support to be listed in the preseason coaches and AP polls.
That widespread uncertainty leads directly to my question in the new sidebar poll, "Who Will Be in the AP Preseason Top 25? a) Rutgers, b) Fresno State, c) Both, or d) Neither." It will be interesting to see what visitors to this blog say between now and mid-August. Please add your vote (even if you, like me, are unsure).
Here's my one firm prediction. No matter which of these teams appears on the preseason poll, the winner of their September 1st meeting will definitely appear on the first regular-season listing.

RU @ Pitt Tonight at 6:00 P.M. on ESPN Classic

At 6 PM tonight on ESPN Classic, the Knights face the 17th ranked Pitt Panthers at the Petersen Events Center, where the Panthers are 91-8 all time. This will be an extremely tough test for our Knights, coming off of a shocking upset win at the RAC defeating Villanova 80-68. While I'm not sure if it was more Rutgers playing well than Villanova playing poorly, I do know that all that mattered was the conference win we got that we desperately needed. That being said, as well as Coburn and Farmer have been playing, with Coburn scoring 23 to lead the team against Villanova, I don't see them stopping Pittsburgh. It will be closer than people think, but I like Pitt 68-54. Guard Levance Fields is still out for the Panthers, but for this game to even be close, the entire Rutgers team needs to show up. Yes, that means you, JR Inman, who refuses to play defense from time to time. If UConn can go into Indiana and hold a 5-6 point lead for the majority of the game (they lead 42-37 with 10:00 left), than we can go into Petersen and keep it semi-close. The horrendous conference season continues, as I see Rutgers falling to Pitt by around 15 points.

Spotty Basketball Coverage comes to Beat Visitor!

Starting with todays game at Pittsburgh, We at Beat Visitor will be giving the occasional basketball report as to stay updated. While they may be few and far between, this still remains mainly a football information center for Scarlet Knights both past and present. Go Knights!

Submit Your Ideas Here.

Play Like Your Couch Is on Fire.com is still soliciting ideas for National Championship game shirts this afternoon:You might want to make that a suggestion for Orange Bowl Fiesta Bowl shirts instead, which is nothing for the Mountaineers to be ashamed of (when the sting of last night's loss disappears in a decade or two). But how did West Virginia lose to two teams that Rutgers beat this year? There's more parity in the Big East than any of us expected at the beginning of September (and next year Pitt's freshmen starters are going to be much better, so the Backyard Brawl will really be wild at the Heinz Ketchup Stadium next year).
Check the silence and cries of disbelief from other West Virginia blogs this morning here:

• West By God Virginia
  
• Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks
• Let's Go Drink Some Beers
• WVMountaineer Sports
• The Mountainlair
• We Must Ignite This Couch

And the gloating at:

• Pitt Blather

Is there a better feeling in the world for a Rutgers football fan...

... than watching the team raise helmets and swords after a victory and singing the Alma Mater with the fans and students on a Saturday afternoon in November?

Just asking.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

The Scarlet Knights have their third winning season in a row

The seniors line up for the opening coin toss earlier today.

With the 20-16 win against the Pittsburgh Panthers at the Stadium today, the Knights are now assured of their third winning season in a row, ending this season (counting the inevitable bowl appearance) somewhere between 7-6 and 9-4. Those young men standing together and watching the coin toss in the picture up above are the only current Scarlet Knights who can remember what it was like to end the season with a losing record. They are the only current Scarlet Knights who can remember what it was like to know that there would be no games played after the last regular season game. The only current Knights who remember how much worse a 4-7 record feels than a 7-4 record.

I mention this because I have heard from a number of people in the New York area (including some who were behind me in the stands today) who are disappointed in this year's version of the Knights. If they had any sense of history, they would realize how important it is that the Knights have just beaten the Panthers for the third time in a row -- this is a team that owned a 19-3 record against the Knights when these seniors were freshmen. These seniors helped double the number of wins the Knights hold in this long series in just three years. There are now high-school football recruits who think of Rutgers as a dominant team in the Big East, but there was a time not too long ago when no one would think to seriously mention the name of Rutgers in comparison to Pitt and Syracuse.

The Knights deserve praise for this turnaround. These seniors were a big part of it, and they'll be missed.