Are You Watching New Jersey's College Team tonight, or one of its pro teams?

It's not even close on this current NJ.com poll:

it's Keep-Calm-And-Chop-Louisville week

Don't tell anyone associated with the team, but this game on Thursday against the #8 Louisville Cardinals could end up being as pivotal for the Rutgers football program as the 2006 game against the #3 Louisville Cardinals. Just tell them to keep calm, and to chop Louisville.

Keep Calm and Chop Louisville

It would have been great if Rutgers and Louisville had entered this Thursday's game both 11-0 and highly ranked. It still would have been wonderful if they both went into the game 10-1.  With both of them losing today, there may be a possibility that they will both drop out of their top 25 BCS rankings, but the stakes are exactly the same between these two 9-2 teams as they would have been if they had both been 11-0.
If Rutgers wins, we'll be the sole Big East Champions and going to a BCS game. If Louisville wins, there will be a 3- or 4-way tie of 2-loss teams, including Rutgers, sharing the title, but Louisville will almost certainly go to the BCS game.

Get you own original image or pdf at
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-chop-louisville-2/

Use the #ChopLouisville hashtag this week if you're on Twitter.

This Morning's(?!) Game Against Louisville

This is the first year since 2006 that I haven't received a package full of Rutgers football tickets in late August, so I didn't know until about half an hour ago that the 11/26 game against Louisville was an eleven A.M. start (that's 8 AM for those alumni and students who may live on the West Coast), on a Friday when all of the students are off and at home for the Thansgiving break. Has there ever been a more badly scheduled game? Not only are the students not in New Brunswick (or in the student section in Piscataway), but a large percentage of them aren't even awake yet. Has there ever been a more badly-scheduled Senior Day? It's now noon as I write this and the score is 28-0 Louisville with 8:25 left in the first half. If ESPN2 loses interest in broadcasting Rutgers games, can we go back to playing on Saturday afternoons?
I may say a few things over at http://twitter.com/BeatVisitor as this game continues, but probably not too enthusiastically.
FINAL UPDATE: It ended up 40-13 in Piscataway today, and West Virginia is well on its way to defeating the Pitt Panthers in Ketchup Stadium. So it's now official that Rutgers will not have the opportunity to go to a third-rank bowl game this year and it's almost official that Pitt will not be going to the Big East's BCS bowl. So here's the question. Which would be more satisfying for a Rutgers football fan: Appearing in a "Beef'O'Brady's Bowl" or beating the Mountaineers in West Virginia next weekend? Is it even really a question?

Good Luck to Jourdan Brooks!

The best of luck to number 39, Jourdan Brooks, who is transferring from Rutgers to Morgan State.
He had a number of important runs for the Scarlet Knights, but the most memorable run at R House may have come in the 2008 blowout of the Louisville Cardinals when his 60+-yard run was ended with one of his dreadlocks on the FieldTurf. Let's go to the video:
I hope he gets a lot of carries for the Morgan State Bears, where he should see a number of successful runs.
Good Luck Jourdan!

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.

Wild Knight -- The 63-14 Score is Deceiving (it was not that close!)

Who would've thought after the first 6 games that 2008 would turn into another good year for the Scarlet Knights?



My son asked me at last night's game if "they" (the announcers and sportswriters who mediate most of America's sports experiences) are calling it the "Wild Knight" when Joe Martinek or Kenny Britt or someone else other than a quarterback lines up in the QB's position. Since I watch all the games from my aluminum bench in section 123 without the benefit of the chattering classes to tell me what's happening on the field (and with Joe Nolan rather than the electronic yellow line telling me when that is a Rutgers First DOWN!), I had to tell him: "I don't know." But it's a great name for the formation, and for last night's systematic demolition of the Louisville Cardinals, isn't it?
What can you say except that all of us in Rutgers Stadium left last night feeling like we had already received our best Christmas/Kwanzaa/Chanukah present of the season. And what a great way for Mike Teel to end his career at R House, directing the band with the Knight's sword like Brian Leonard in 2006 (though looking sheepish and utterly unmusical while doing so). When we look back on 2008 in our stadium, we'll remember his seven touchdown passes and 447 yards and remember that he could have easily made it ten touchdown passes and 600 yards if they hadn't taken their feet off the accelerator in the third quarter. It almost totally erased those two games we watched back at the beginning of September.
What a Game. What a Knight. What a Wild Knight! Thanks for four years Mike!
We'll see you in a Bowl somewhere (I just hope it's somewhere other than the Pizza Bowl Deep in the Heart of Dixie) later this month!

Has the Big East hired any officials in the off season?, or Can you imagine this call being made IN Louisville?

The folks over at Card Chronicle have named Larry Taylor of Connecticut the least cool person of 2007-2008 for the fair catch that he turned into a 74-yard return for a touchdown. Watching this replay on video is still unbelievable; if I were a Louisville Cardinals fan, I'd surely use a stronger word or two to describe my feelings about it.
The real question is not about Taylor though. He didn't hear a whistle, so he ran; he was probably as surprised as anyone that he scored. The real question is whether or not the Big East has hired any officials to take the field in September.

A slight name change in order to avoid any confusion.

To avoid any possible confusion in the future, our next opponents, the Ball State Cardinals, and our most recent opponents, the Louisville Cardinals, will be more descriptively referred to here as the "Speedy Cardinals" and the "Pissed Off Cardinals" based on the bird decals that they have affixed to their respective helmets.

It's almost too bad that the Pissed Off Cardinals didn't get a bowl invitation this year, just to see these two helmets clashing across a line of scrimmage.

A disgusting loss.

Luck Fouisville.
To hell with Kragthorpe.
Brohm's a bastard.

But most of all,

FUCK CRAIG JAMES.

He spent that ENTIRE game with his lips firmly affixed to Brian Brohm's Ass. Like Ahmad Rashad and Michael Jordan. All he did for four quarters was praise Brohm and knock our Knights. Saying how if Ray Ray leaves, we'll have no team. No offense. He refused to acknowledge that Teel played a hell of a game. That he outplayed Brohm in yards and touchdowns. All he did was sidle up next to Brohm and sweet talk him as if he was some chick sitting in a bar. That's what you would expect from James, a man who called Joe Paterno an "old fart" in reference to his broken leg last season. I can think of a younger, bulkier man who hurt his knee being crashed into by players. Former Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice. I guess he's an old fart too. Thank god the Rutgers season is over on ESPN. I never have to watch James call a game again until next year. I'll be AT the International Bowl. I'll watch it in person. No more of this ESPN crap. Because having James, Flutie, and Fowler call your game is only SLIGHTLY worse than being on ESPNU. Three morons. Sorry. Two morons and a midget. Flutie has to stand on an milk crate to watch the game. How in God's name do you blow TWO 18 point leads? TWO!!!! That was simply an abomination. The pass to Douglas was a let down. Christ al-FUCKIN-mighty get a damn hand up or something. INTERFERE with Douglas--it's only 15 yards. You stop a team's leading receiver for the first 57 minutes of the game but when it counted in the final minutes, you FAILED. There was NO second half defense. Plain and simple. It's time for us to CRUCIFY a team. Losing SUCKS. You taste victory and you NEVER want to lose that taste. I've only ever tasted one thing worse than this loss. When my breakfast was two pop tarts and a swig of four or five day old Steel Reserve malt liquor out of a 40 ounce bottle. Ouch.

On a lighter note...

Nate Jones' hit on Brett Favre knocked him out of the game tonight. I like Favre, but good for Nate getting some playing time.

And the lightest note...

Canada here we come. We're going international. And this will cost Ball State dearly. Because they will be the sacrificial lamb. Keep choppin, all the way up to Toronto, to the CN tower, to Massey Hall, and finally to the Toronto Zoo, to kill all the Cardinals in the Aviary. After all, Ball State are Cardinals, too.

Keep Choppin'

That's certainly not the kind of repeat of last year I wanted.

Louisville 41, Rutgers 38

Well, that sucked! I know it doesn't make a difference in the bowl picture, and I already ordered my tickets for the International Bowl, but two 18-point leads blown?

Now I know how Louisville felt when they visited Piscataway last November and lost on a last-minute field goal after having been up by 18.

Rice got three TDs and yet another 100-yard game and both Underwood and Britt have over 1,000 receiving yards for the year, but where was the defense tonight?

Scarlet Knights Aren't Afraid of the Dark

The University of Louisville is officially encouraging their fans to wear black tonight to "Papa John's Cardinals Stadium" (I'd like my pizza with a pepperoni and cardinal, thanks) and they're naming the event, "Black Out the Scarlet Knights".





They might want to know that the same official appeal for a blackout was made to fans of another opponent on November 9th of this year. That game ended with the Scarlet Knights beating the Black Knights of West Point 41-6 (it wasn't that close).

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.

Breaking News about our next opponent, or why we love coaching chaos in Louisville

So first-year Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe held a news conference within the last hour stating unequivocally that "I'm not going anywhere." Wasn't the same thing said less than a year ago by a coach named Petrino who then deserted the team for the pleasure of coaching Michael Vick in Atlanta (ooops!)? It could be that S.K. meant simply that he's not going anywhere after the last game of the regular season (i.e., to a bowl game). But no matter what he meant, it certainly plays into the hands of the Scarlet Knights to be ending the season against a team whose players and fans are freely showing their dissension and depression about this disappointing season and their coaching uncertainty.
If you check in over at Card Chronicle or Inside the Ville later this afternoon, I don't think you'll find the same kind of joy about Kragthorpe's decision to stay that you found in New Jersey about Greg Schiano's decision to tell Miami to shove their job offer last year.
There may have been some people in Rutgers Stadium criticizing Greg Schiano's decisions during last week's squeaker against the Panthers, but I think we all know how lucky we are in the coaching department.

Meet our friends over at Card Chronicle before the last game of the season

Our friends over at Card Chronicle, in today's weekly roundup of the top performers in the Big East, have Ray Rice's 121 yards against Pittsburgh in week twelve as only the #8 offensive performance of the week, but Ray is leading Pat White, Brian Brohm, Matt Grothe, and the rest with only a couple of games left for the offensive player of the year honors.

There are no Rutgers defensive players in the running for the yearly honors, but last week Kevin Malast was #9 for his 11 tackles and a sack, and Devin McCourty was #3 for his 4 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, and his game-sealing interception.

Rutgers was Team of the Week in this Card Chronicle wrap-up, not for the beauty of last week's win, but because last week's win guarantees a 2007 bowl appearance for the Scarlet Knights.

The Cardinals, especially at home, are still a very scary bunch even after this season's disappointments. I hope the Knights are prepared for Brohm and crew on the 29th.

It's Anniversary Week at Rutgers

1766 - - This Saturday, November 10th, will mark the 241st anniversary of William Franklin's granting a charter for Queen's College, named in honor of Charlotte, George III's Queen Consort (who also gave her name to Charlottesville, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina). William Franklin was not only the Provincial Governor of New Jersey, but also the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. The name change honoring Henry Rutgers came in 1825.

1869-- Yesterday, November 6th, marked the 138th anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game held on the College Avenue campus in New Brunswick. There will be thousands and thousands of college football victories in the years to come, but only one school - - our school -- can lay claim to the first intercollegiate football victory. The fact that it came over those snobs down the road in Princeton (yes, they were snooty even then), makes this date even sweeter.

2006-- This Friday, November 9th, marks the first anniversary of the football team's explosion onto the national stage with the emotional come-from-behind Thursday night defeat of #3 Louisville at Rutgers Stadium. Let's all celebrate this year up at West Point.

Déjà vu, or Didn't We Just Rush the Field on a Thursday Night After Beating a Team Ranked in the Top Three?

18 October 2007 (not to be confused with 9 November 2006)

Two days ago, it was too much to hope that we would see a repeat of last November's Louisville game, but the defense that showed up and shut the door on Grothe in the second half was just as impressive as the defense that shut down Brohm a little less than a year ago. There may have been a smidgen less unrestrained joy and surprise on the faces of those who rushed the field, but maybe it's because we're becoming more and more sure of our Knights' ability to defend R House against any and all comers (that means you, you 'neers; see you in a week!).

Ray Rice's Mom & a Fan, 18 October 2007. Ray's mom had no doubt about the outcome on her way into the Stadium last night, posing and chatting with all of her well wishers. The trick plays and Tiquan Underwood receptions were great and exciting, but the heart of the offense was Ray Rice and his 181 yards. To do this against a defense that hadn't allowed anyone to gain 100 yards against them in the last 14 games (since Ray gained 202 yards against them last year) showed that there was nothing "fluky" about this win against the #2 team in the country. Ray had averaged 180 rushing yards in his previous two games against this Bulls team and he matched his average almost exactly. He was also an active and effective blocker, helping to keep Mike Teel from being sacked by this sack-happy line, when he wasn't carrying the ball. He may not have gotten a touchdown yesterday, but you'll start seeing Ray's name in Heisman discussions again, especially next Saturday at noon, when he takes the field opposite Pat White and Steve Slaton.

Déjà vu, or Didn't We Just Have a Team in the Top Three Playing in Rutgers Stadium on a Thursday Night?

9 November 2006. There's some FieldTurf under there somewhere.

The school whose most famous alumnus invented the Sledge-O-Matic® for squirting watermelon juice on ponchoed audience members is bringing the youngest team in college football to The Birthplace of College Football this Thursday for yet another nationally-televised ESPN game between the Knights and a team ranked in the top three.

We know that what happened against the #3 Louisville Cardinals last year is a real possibility against the #2/#3 USF Bulls this year, but it's important for those of us in the stands to do our part as well!

And speaking of déjà vu, didn't we already beat a team called the Bulls (albeit a team with more tradition and history) on a Thursday night earlier this season??

By the way, Gallagher will be unsheathing his Sledge-O-Matic® just down Route 18 from Rutgers at Monmouth University in West Long Branch on the 19th, so maybe he'll be at the game on the 18th, inspiring the Bulls and Bullfans with his antics. Of course, Gallagher graduated from USF in 1969 -- 28 years before his alma mater played its first intercollegiate football game (and 100 years after Rutgers and Princeton played the first) -- so he may not even know his old school has a team.

Scarlet Knights hit the Top Ten for the 2nd straight year

Last year it was the Texas Bowl . . . This year it will be the . . .?

Add another streak to the 10 straight Rutgers Stadium home wins, the 17 straight polls in the national rankings, the 6 straight games scoring 30+ points, and the 6 straight games without allowing a sack. It is now 2 straight years with the Scarlet Knights making an appearance in the top ten. They are now number 10 in both the AP and the Coaches polls out this afternoon.

I know it's early in the season and a lot will change from this point in the season (e.g., Syracuse & Connecticut are currently sharing the Big East lead after their victories over Louisville & Pittsburgh yesterday, but they probably won't be there in December), but let's hope that the Knights continue their upward climb in the rankings and that it's not another one-week appearance at these rarified heights, like it was between the Louisville and Cincinnati games last November. And speaking of Louisville and Cincinnati, Louisville has dropped out of the top 25 in both polls out today, but Cincinnati has entered the AP poll at #24 and is first among the "others receiving votes" in the Coaches poll (in other Big East rankings, West Virginia is still 5/5 and South Florida is up to 18/18.)

With Louisville's loss to Syracuse today at the Pizza Palace . . .

. . . Rutgers' 10-game home winning streak is now the longest in the Big East and the 5th longest in D1 football (behind only USC, Florida, LSU, and BC).

CORRECTION & UPDATE 9/26/07:
I got some bad information somewhere. I just found this list on the Rutgers website showing that the Scarlet Knights' current home win streak is only the 7th longest in D1 football. Here's the current rundown: 1)USC 34, 2)Florida 18, 3)LSU 16, 4)Ohio State 15, 5)Boston College 14, 6)Oklahoma 13, and 7)Rutgers 10. It's interesting that 6 of these 7 teams are in the top ten, and that BC is lurking at #12/#11.

My apologies to all you Buckeyes and Sooners out there for leaving you off the list.