Well, this was unexpected...

Did one single person predict a bowl game for the Scarlet Knights after the season-ending loss to the Terrapins? Let alone the Gator Bowl?

Some work needs to be done on this off week...

 

Keep Calm and Chop Michigan State

 

This is the one game at Rutgers Stadium in 2021 that my seat companion and I can't make this year, so I hope the Scarlet Knights make us regret our competing engagements by making Saturday's game against Sparty one to remember.

If you are there, make the noise that we would have made.

Keep Chopping

It's "Keep Calm and Chop Ohio State" Week

The year will come when it won't sound like a ridiculous pipe dream to think about the Scarlet Knights beating the football team from Ohio that also wears scarlet and has named themselves after a mildly poisonous nut.

The year could be this year, but it will be some year soon as long as Greg Schiano is coach of the Knights and they keep chopping.

And unlike 2020, home field advantage is a thing again this year. See You Saturday at R House. 

 

Keep Calm (despite today's surprises) and Chop Michigan

I guess we shouldn't have expected the week between Rutgers' 3-0 non-conference season and Saturday's trip to begin running the Big Ten gauntlet at The Big House to be completely uneventful, but who had  "Max Melton and Chris Long will be suspended after an incident incident involving a paintball gun" on their bingo card?  

I'm sure I wasn't the only Scarlet Knights fan wondering about which brother would make the biggest impact during the Wolverines' game, Bo Melton on offense or Max on defense, because both have been stellar so far.

This is a coaching challenge that Greg Schiano did not need during this week, but I hope he's able to fully instill the Keep Calm and Chop Michigan message with the non-suspended members of the team before Saturday at 3:30 in Ann Arbor.

And when the smoke cleared...

...from the firing of the cannon on Saturday afternoon, Rutgers was 3-0 to start the 2021 season.

Keep Calm and Chop Delaware

With Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan State up next, it's hard not to think of tomorrow afternoon's game against the University of Delaware Blue Hens as the final pre-season game before the heart of the Big Ten season begins on September 25, but I hope the players aren't thinking of it that way. I know that Coach Schiano isn't looking past the Blue Hens just because they're an FCS team -- I'm sure that he well remembers coaching the 2004 Scarlet Knights to an emotional season-opening home upset of the MSU Spartans only to lose to a Division I-AA New Hampshire team the following week.

Also, it was great to see Adam Korsak named the Ray Guy Award Punter of the Week for two weeks in a row after the wins against Temple and Syracuse, but I'd be happy if he didn't even get a chance to punt tomorrow.

See you at the game!

Cornhuskers Visiting The Birthplace of College Football This Friday

The schedule is out for next weekend's Big Ten "Champions Week" in this unique 2020 season, and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights will be facing the 2-5 Nebraska Cornhuskers on December 18 at 4:00, getting one last chance for a home win at Rutgers Stadium after three B1G road wins over Michigan State, Purdue, and Maryland.

#ChopHuskers

30.833333333

If anyone had told you at the end of Rutgers' 2019 football season that the Scarlet Knights would average over 30 points a game in their first six Big Ten games of 2020 -- without ever scoring less than 20 points -- you would have laughed. I know I would have laughed. Last year the Knights were shut out in three of their first six B1G games and they averaged 4 points per game (4!) in that stretch.

After this evening's 37-30 win over Purdue, the Knights' record is only 2-4, but even that win-loss record seems deceptive. They have fought hard until the bitter end of every game. The 3OT loss to Michigan and the 3-point loss to Illinois easily could have been (or should have been) wins. The Knights weren't embarrassed against the Buckeyes and they even gave us the play of the year (almost) near the end of the Indiana game.

With Greg Schiano back at the helm, I know I'm having more fun as a Rutgers football fan than I have in years. And there's still a chance of ending with a .500 record in the Big Ten for the first time since joining the conference in 2014.

I just wish I could be watching live at Rutgers Stadium. Last week's Michigan OT game would have been a blast (and may have turned out differently in a loud stadium).

The Schiano 2.0 Era is off to a great start!

On this day when Greg Schiano announced his return in East Lansing, Michigan, with a 38-27 win over the Michigan State Spartans, I couldn't help thinking about his last game as Rutgers' coach, with a bowl win over Iowa State at Yankee Stadium that Greg dedicated to Eric LeGrand.


Welcome Back to the Banks of the Old Raritan, Greg!

Rutgers is paying Falwell University a Million Bucks?

Maybe this sign of the apocalypse is the sign that 150 years of football on the banks is enough.

 "Rutgers will pay Liberty a $1,000,000 guarantee for the game, according to a contract obtained by NJ Advance Media. That payout is bigger than Rutgers’ two most-recent non-conference home losses. Buffalo received $900,000 for its win in Piscataway a year ago and Eastern Michigan was paid $860,000 for its victory in 2017."

Sending a state university's funds to Falwell "University"? I guess we're just lucky that Trump University never fielded a team.

Paul Robeson, Football Player

In its ongoing recognition of the 100th anniversary of his graduation (as valedictorian) in 1919, Rutgers Today just published this short history of Paul Robeson's stellar football career on the banks that is well worth clicking on and taking ten minutes to read.