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!