How to End the Rutgers Homecoming Curse

What curse, you ask? Well, here are the results of the last eight Homecoming games at R House:

• Homecoming 2014 - Wisconsin 37 - Rutgers 0 (1st shutout since posting a zero on the scoreboard at Notre Dame in 2002)
• Homecoming 2013 - Houston 49 - Rutgers 14 (1st 2013 home loss)
• Homecoming 2012 - Kent State 35 - Rutgers 23 (1st 2012 loss; Kent State was a 13.5-point underdog against an undefeated and 15th-ranked Rutgers)
• Homecoming 2011 - The last Homecoming win at The Birthplace of College Football was the 21-20 squeaker over Navy that required a blocked field goal to seal the win.
• Homecoming 2010 - Tulane 17 - Rutgers 14 (Tulane was a 17-point underdog)
• Homecoming 2009 - Rutgers beat an FCS opponent, Texas Southern, by a score of  42-0 for the 600th victory in the program's history.
• Homecoming 2008 - Another close win over UConn requiring a late missed field goal.
• Homecoming 2007 - Another victory over an FCS opponent, 59-0 over Norfolk State.

So, you get the idea. Short of scheduling FCS opponents for Homecoming, how can we combat this obvious curse? Simple.
End Homecoming Games.
Read this. It's a silly tradition from the South and West anyway that only started between Missouri and Kansas in  1911. We won't miss it, and it doesn't encourage more alumni and students to show up anyway if there's a little bit of cold rain.

Wishing Paul James the Best

You hate to hear the letters A, C, and L mentioned when talking about any football player, but it's very disappointing to know that 2014 will mirror 2013 in that we won't get to see Paul James realize his potential over a full season for the Scarlet Knights after a very promising start.

But the helmet that Paul James took to his knee in the second quarter wasn't an isolated incident; the number of low blocks and tackles from the Midshipmen was obvious even to me watching on a small laptop screen (special thanks to TimeWarnerCable for cutting out TV service in my area all weekend). If this Navy team were from any school other than a service academy, they'd be getting a lot more shit (and penalties) for their cut blocks and other attacks on their opponents lower extremities.

Even Kyle Flood couldn't help pointing this out after the game:

"You have to be really smart about how you operate because playing Navy is a very physical football game [...] the way they block on offense, the way they attack your legs on offense with your defense, even the way they tackle and take on blocks with their defense, it just creates a lot of very violent collisions and we're going to have to make sure we're being really smart here as we go through the week so that our bodies recover."

Overall, teams tend to have losing records the week after playing Navy, so it's good for the Scarlet Knights to have Tulane at home this weekend before facing Michigan, but Paul James will be missed all season.

I Apologize in Advance for this 'CHOP NAVY' Poster

Even though the official @RFootball Twitter feed is using the #ChopNavy hashtag in advance of this Saturday's game in Annapolis, I still have a sneaking feeling that the current Athletic Director would prefer it if the following poster said something less aggressive like "Keep Calm and Play Nicely With Midshipmen."

Scream . . . scream real loud

I expect that tonight's game against the Midshipmen of Annapolis will be the only game at Rutgers Stadium that I will miss this year. I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean right now to make it to the game, so someone else is using my ticket.
I wouldn't want anything untoward to happen just because someone isn't screaming loud enough when the Rutgers defense is on the field.
Make some noise, and wear red to the game. I expect to get some updates by 3 or 4 this morning Greenwich Mean Time. But I'd love to be there with you screaming Upstream Red Team after the Knights' fourth or fifth first-half touchdown tonight.