Rutgers' Mount Rushmore

The Big Ten Network announced the results of their contest for the Mount Rushmore of Rutgers football. No current players were eligible (sorry Kemoko) and no coaches (sorry Schiano),

The winners of the vote were from four different eras and matched my choices.

• Paul Robeson (1915-1919)
• Bill Austin (1956-1958)
• Marco Battaglia (1992-1995)
• Brian Leonard (2003-2006)

Did you choose different players from the 10 that BTN suggested? Honestly, I feel that only Paul Robeson is undebatable.

"Who is the best Rutgers player you've ever seen play in your lifetime?"

The Facebook page for Rutgers Football on NJ.Com asked this question of the day today: "Who is the best Rutgers player you've ever seen play in your lifetime?"

I couldn't help thinking about one player, Brian Leonard, not only for what he does in this video, but for his role in Rutgers' rise, his role as Ray Rice's roommate and mentor and -- when he realized Ray's talent and value to the team -- blocker, even though he had had his own Heisman campaign a year earlier.  If I were a player, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have as my teammate.

Now that number 23 is back with Greg Schiano in Tampa Bay, I'd love to see him reach his full potential -- and reach a bowl game -- in the NFL.

The Rutgers Football quotes of the month come from Tampa Bay

I'm a little slow catching up with the news from the NFL this month, but it's just recently come to my attention that our favorite Knight Brian Leonard is hooking up with  his college coach Greg Schiano again and moving from the Bengals to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (otherwise known as the Scarlet Knights South in opposition to the Scarlet Knights North playing at Gillette Stadium).

Brian Leonard's last game wearing
the Scarlet's 23 on 12/26/06.

Here are a couple of quotes from the July 10 article in Brian's local Watertown Daily Times:

“We felt Brian could help us win and that’s why we brought him here. Brian Leonard’s a winner. I have a history with him since he was 16 years old. We’ve been through a lot together. This guy is an unselfish guy who will show up big when we need him.” -- Greg Schiano

and

“It’s comfortable going back to a coaching staff I already know and I’ll also be playing with some former teammates from Rutgers. [...] I’m excited. I had a great time in Cincinnati and have some good friends there, and the fans are great. But I needed a change and I think Coach Schiano knows how to use me. Hopefully I’ll progress throughout camp and show my skills, and my role with the team will get bigger and bigger.” -- Brian Leonard

It's hard not to wish them both the best. This is a coach/player combination that trumps any other loyalty I might have to any other NFL team.

The Quote of Day

"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. . .

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!

Jamaal Westerman, New York Jet

Here's the quote in today's Jets Blog on the New York Post website from Jets' head coach Rex Ryan about Jamaal Westerman's skills in camp this week:

"The kid from Rutgers _ you know his name, No. 55 _ that guy right there I'll be shocked if he doesn't make a name for himself,'' Ryan said. "We're moving him all over the place. His natural position is outside, but we're moving him inside, too. He can pass rush and is a good blitzer. The fact that we got him from our back yard is a great thing.''

J!-E!-T!-S! Jets! Jets! Jets! The only time I'll have mixed feelings about Jamaal in his role on the Jets this season is if he's trying to stop new Bengal Brian Leonard.

Brian Leonard and Ryan Hart News

With the names in the news this morning, it seems like it's 2005 again.

#23 Brian Leonard has this feature in the Star-Ledger about his future with the Bengals. I want Brian to succeed so badly that I'd be glad to see him beat any NFL team that I rooted for (my professional loyalties will never be as deep as my Scarlet pride), but it's the end of the article that I found most interesting. There he talks about the importance of coming back to Rutgers to train with the current team this summer. Brian Leonard's influence on the Scarlet Knights' success goes so much deeper than his own records and leaping highlight films. No one will ever forget how he influenced his roommate and successor Ray Rice, and how he was glad to block for Ray in the 11-2 2006 Senior season rather than looking to pad his own pro résumé. Now he is working with, and complimenting (and, I hope, leaving his mark on), the next generation in the Rutgers backfield.

Leonard said he has enjoyed hanging out with the current Rutgers players in the weight room and is interested to see who emerges from their crowded pack at running back this fall. One of the contenders, Joe Martinek, reminds Leonard a little bit of himself.
"He has a running style like mine a lot," Leonard said. "He's kind of a downhill runner, a powerful runner. I've been talking to him about training. He's been a good player; he's a good guy, too."

And #13 Ryan Hart is in the news, suing Electronic Arts for using his image without permission or payment in a video game.

2007, Year of the Thirty-Minute Chop

The picture of the "60 Min Chop" sign to the right was taken at this year's USF victory, but if we could only have played 30-minute games this year, we would have been 10-2 rather than 7-5, with the three extra wins highlighted in bold.
And, at the half, the winner is . . .
W - RU 28 / Buffalo 0
W - RU 24 / Navy 7
W - RU 45 / Norfolk State 0
W- RU 17 / Maryland 14
W -RU 17 / Cincinnati 7
W - RU 24 / Syracuse 14
W - RU 17 / South Florida 14
L - West Virginia 17 / RU 3
L - UConn 25 / RU 16
W - RU 14 / Army 6
W - RU 17 / Pitt 10
W- RU 28 / Louisville 17

At 250 to 131, Rutgers' first-half points this year were almost double that of their opponents; but the Scarlet Knights lost the second half in 2007 by a score of 124 to 131. While the first and second halves were dead even for the opponents, the Knights second-half point production was less than half that of their opening period.

I can't help thinking that a big part of the difference is Brian Leonard. How many times did he keep a key late drive alive last season when it was needed most? Last night would have been totally different with just one or two more Rutgers first downs during key drives in the second half.

Rutgers vs. Louisville (the 2006 version), in case you've forgotten

Click this photo (or any other photo in the Beat Visitor blog) for a large version.

9 Nov 2006: (15) Rutgers 28, (3) Louisville 25

Who would have thought when we looked at the schedules in the summer of 2007, that tonight's game would be any less important than last year's battle of the unbeatens on the Banks of the Raritan? Who would have thought that Connecticut(?!) would have had a chance at the Big East title until being blown out by the Mountaineers last weekend? Or that the Louisville Cardinals would be ending the season bowlless after having won the Orange Bowl only eleven months ago?

11 Nov 2005: (nr) Rutgers 5, (23) Louisville 56

That being said, Louisville certainly remembers the one blot on their otherwise perfect season in Piscataway one year ago, and Rutgers certainly remembers their sole loss to the Cardinals at the stadium named after a pizza chain in Louisville two years ago. That game was lost by a score of 56-5 (supposedly because the Knights jumped up and down on the cardinal head at midfield before the game), but it did include the Leonard Leap pictured here, and also available on video at YouTube.

How many times did you hear, "He won't be able to do that in the NFL?"

He not only did it in the preseason against the Raiders, but he did it last week in a real game against the Cardinals (in which he had 102 yards rushing and 33 receiving).
I wish he were still doing it for the Scarlet Knights.

It's been over a year since the Knights have been unranked

Last year, on September 23rd during week 5 of the season, the 4-0 Scarlet Knights began their most recent appearance in the national polls, at 23 in both the AP and Coaches polls. They stayed in both polls from 9/23/06 until this past Sunday, 10/7/07, hitting highs of 7 in the 2006 poll and 10 in the 2007 poll. The end of this year-long streak is worth commemorating here simply because the Scarlet Knights have never had anywhere near this kind of run of national prominence in their long history.

That being said, this season isn't over. This important month isn't over. October could easily end with the Knights in a position much higher in the polls than "Other teams receiving votes".

There are three games left in October. Two of them at home against teams that are currently ranked in the top ten.

• A win against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome next Saturday probably won't get the Knights back into the top 25 unless it's another week of carnage among the ranked (but a win, of course, is absolutely necessary).
• A win against #5/5 South Florida at home on the 18th on Thursday-night TV will definitely move the Knights back into the national rankings, maybe into the teens (assuming, of course, that RU had taken care of business against the Orange 5 days earlier).
• Following up a win over USF with a win against #8/9 West Virginia on the 27th would definitely have them ranked back in the teens with a good chance of taking the Big East crown (and the conference's BCS bowl).

This season is far from over.

Go Knights!

(And since I started this entry by mentioning last season's success, I have to mention that last season's star, Brian Leonard, had 102 yards rushing on 18 carries & 33 receiving on five catches for the St. Louis Rams yesterday. If they had been winning rather than losing, maybe he would have had the opportunity to run even more at the end of the game. Go Rams! )

Brian Leonard starting against the Cowboys next Sunday

Steven Jackson is out for at least a week with a partial groin tear, so Brian Leonard is getting his first start for the 0-3 St. Louis Rams on Sunday versus the very hot 3-0 Dallas Cowboys.

Brian played his last game wearing Scarlet in the Lone Star State and helped give the Knights a victory. Maybe he can do the same thing in Dallas for his new team.

Give "America's Team" hell Brian! Go Rams!

Brian Leonard's first professional game

I know it's only preseason, but how great is it that Brian Leonard was the leading rusher and the leading receiver and scored the only TD in the St. Louis Rams' first game of the year?

The most notable offensive performance in St. Louis' preseason opener may have been turned in by rookie Brian Leonard ... The second-round draft pick out of Rutgers put on a Rams uniform for the first time and rushed nine times for a game-high 36 yards and the only offensive touchdown of the contest, also catching five balls for a team-best 30 yards. ... (from The Sports Network, 16 Aug 07

Doesn't this quote from Metro Canada sound familiar?

The second-round draft pick from Rutgers scored on a 10-yard run up the middle that gave his team a 7-3 lead.

"It was a huge hole. I told these guys I'm going to save my spike for the regular season. I just handed it to the ref," Leonard said.

And how great is it that he's still wearing number 23? Is there any doubt that this is the first number the Knights should retire?

The Kordell Young & Ray Rice Backfield Duo

Kordell Young's jersey after a friendly Scarlet-White game on 21 April 2007

Some of the most exciting moments in Rutgers football came last year when number 8 touched the ball, often (like a certain back who just left for the Rams) on short passes out of the backfield.

Now Ray Rice is talking about sharing the ball with Kordell in the season that starts later this month:

"I definitely don't see a 350-carry year. Not with Kordell here."

The Scarlet Knights aren't likely to run an equal-carry system. But sophomore Young is making a case for the touches that used to go to Leonard, Rutgers' former do-all all-star fullback. He carried the ball 29 times, scored three touchdowns and caught three passes (just one less than Rice) last year – and he smilingly said Saturday, "I'd love to take some of the load off Ray. Maybe cut down his carries a little bit."

I don't think that people who haven't followed the Knights closely have any idea how deep the talent on this team runs.

Congratulations St. Louis!

You got the Player of the Draft in the second round yesterday!

Here's #23 at the end of his final game for the Knights on December 28, 2006.

And #63 Cameron Stephenson is going to the Steelers!
Click this photo (or any other photo in the Beat Visitor blog) for a large version.

I rooted for the Rams in the past, when they and I both lived in Los Angeles in the late 1960's, so if they give Brian Leonard the chance he deserves, I'll have no problem living up to my promise and rooting for the Rams again.

Go St. Louis!
---------------------------------------

UPDATE:

And Go Pittsburgh! -- the Steelers picked up Cameron Stephenson in the 5th round today.

And Green Bay! -- Tight End & Student Section Favorite Clark Harris was picked by the Packers in the 7th round; but who is going to jump into the student section at the end of every game now that Clark's gone??

There are a lot of informative draft updates at the RU Ready blog.

I'm going to miss the Leonard Leap! (or First Do No Harm)

Nostalgic already for the days of number 23 on a Scarlet uniform, I just did a little browsing around the web for news on Brian Leonard and the upcoming NFL draft. I stumbled on this player page of stats on ESPN.com.
The statistic that jumped at me from this page was not the number of receiving yards, the rushing yards, or the touchdowns, but a Zero. Despite all his touches (678 rushing attempts and 207 receptions for 5,961 all-purpose yards and 45 touchdowns), and some risky and thrilling airborne maneuvers, he NEVER fumbled in his Rutgers career -- not once (though he did have a fumble recovery in his freshman year).

I'm going to have to root for whichever NFL team has the foresight to pick up this great back, even if it's a team I formerly hated.

Knights in Scarlet Armor salute Rutgers Women's Basketball

In an article in yesterday's online Star-Ledger that was mostly about Brian Leonard's visit to Spring Practice, there was also this note about, and quotation from, a HEALTHY Tiquan Underwood:

Starting wide receiver Tiquan Underwood knows exactly what he will be doing Sunday night at 7 -- watching the Rutgers women take on LSU in the national semifinals.

Underwood is among a handful of football players who were regulars at Rutgers women's home games this season.

"I think I missed one or two," he said. "A bunch of us always found ways to work the games. We'd carry around the TV cables or help wherever we could. There was no way in December I thought they would be where they are now. It's really special what they're doing. It's great for them and it's great for the university."

If I had cable TV (maybe I'll write more about that in upcoming entries), I'd be watching the women too. With their consistent appearances in the national rankings, their Final Four appearances, and their National Championship in 1982 (right before the NCAA took over from the AIAW), the Rutgers women's basketball team is the perfect role model for our recently resurgent Knights in Scarlet Armor! Maybe we should start referring to Greg Schiano the C. Vivian Stringer of Football as well the Joe Paterno of New Jersey.

Congratulations Women for making the Final Four!

And Good Luck in Cleveland!

This Blog May Be New, But I'm Not a Bandwagoneer (not that that's a bad thing)

When the picture of my son was taken on Halloween of 1998 after a Rutgers victory over Temple (21-10), I had already been watching games at the Stadium since I started at Rutgers College 25 years earlier.
There are now plenty of complaints about rich bandwagoneers grabbing the best seats and closest parking lots with large contributions. I find it hard to complain about people who are willingly donating the money that will help to keep my beloved Knights at the level they reached in 2006 -- and keep Greg Schiano on his path to becoming the Joe Paterno of the Garden State.

I'll gladly continue to tailgate miles away and take the shuttle bus from the RAC in order to see the quality of football I've seen over the last couple of seasons. I don't see any point in complaining about parking spaces or crowds or traffic or newcomers. We're not going to continue selling out the Stadium game after game without quite a few "bandwagoneers". Remember days (like the one pictured above) when the Stadium was silent as the band played On the Banks of the Old Raritan toward gleaming (and very empty) aluminum benches? Could we then imagine a day like the last home game of the 2006 season against Syracuse when NO ONE left the Stadium even though the result of the game was never in doubt? Could we then imagine that the highlight of our day would be a full-throated singing of the Alma Mater and watching Brian Leonard lead the band with the game ball in one hand and the knight's sword in the other?

If I weren't already bleeding Scarlet, this is a bandwagon I'd be glad to jump on.

Everyone's welcome in R House!

December 28, 2006

Click this photo (or any other photo in the Beat Visitor blog) for a large version.

(12) Rutgers 37, Kansas State 10 (and it wasn't that close)
Thanks to Greg Schiano (far left), Ray Rice (with the microphone & the cowboy hat), Darnell Stapleton (53), Brian Leonard (23), Cameron Stephenson (63), Mike Fladell (72), Pedro Sosa (77), and the rest of the Scarlet Knights for turning Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas into "R House" for a day.