Once again, no one named "Rutger" is associated with Rutgers...

... so the correct possessive form of our university's name should therefore be Rutgers', not Rutger's.

But congratulations to Rutgers' Gary Nova anyway for winning this week's Manning Award Quarterback of the Week honor from the Allstate Sugar Bowl's Facebook page.

Video Highlights of Yesterday's Maryland Game

You won't see many defensive highlights here until the very end of the video, but there are a lot of explosive offensive plays starring Nova, Carroo, Grant, Patton, Martin, and Hicks.

Maryland Chopped

If you missed today's Maryland game, be sure to look for the replay on BTN, or find someone who has it on their DVR, or at least watch the highlights online.

Rutgers wins and the Knights are 7-5 (3-5) in their first B1G season. That was a GREAT win. #MarylandChopped #RFootball
— Beat Visitor (@BeatVisitor) November 30, 2014

The Rutgers (lack of) defense was painful to watch in the first half, but the offense was steady throughout and Gary Nova acquitted himself excellently in his last regular season game as a Scarlet Knight. The comeback from 25 points down at 35-10 to win by 41-38 was impressive and historic and the perfect way to end this inaugural Big Ten season.
It's also not a bad way to begin a rivalry with an I-95 neighbor.
Or to silence all the negative nellies on Twitter.

Someone should get a game ball for whatever was said to the defense during halftime.

Keep Calm and Chop The Bye

In advance of the October 18th quarterback duel in Columbus, Ohio against that other Big Ten team claiming scarlet as their color (it's been ours since the turbans worn in 1869), it's important to let the players use this off week to become fully healthy and watch a lot of film.

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.

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?)