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.
If anyone had told you at the end of Rutgers' 2019 football season that the Scarlet Knights would average over 30 points a game in their first six Big Ten games of 2020 -- without ever scoring less than 20 points -- you would have laughed. I know I would have laughed. Last year the Knights were shut out in three of their first six B1G games and they averaged 4 points per game (4!) in that stretch.
After this evening's 37-30 win over Purdue, the Knights' record is only 2-4, but even that win-loss record seems deceptive. They have fought hard until the bitter end of every game. The 3OT loss to Michigan and the 3-point loss to Illinois easily could have been (or should have been) wins. The Knights weren't embarrassed against the Buckeyes and they even gave us the play of the year (almost) near the end of the Indiana game.
With Greg Schiano back at the helm, I know I'm having more fun as a Rutgers football fan than I have in years. And there's still a chance of ending with a .500 record in the Big Ten for the first time since joining the conference in 2014.
I just wish I could be watching live at Rutgers Stadium. Last week's Michigan OT game would have been a blast (and may have turned out differently in a loud stadium).
There's a great article by Ryan Dunleavy on NJ.com this morning with the title, "Did Rutgers, not Ohio State, start helmet stickers in college football? Here's proof." Not only is it worth reading this piece about large stars added to the front of Rutgers helmets for interceptions in 1961 in its own right, but the timing is perfect with the Buckeyes coming to town in two days.
...even when, or especially when, we're playing the number one team in the country at R House in front of a national television audience in prime time on Saturday night on ABC:
Here's the halftime show that wasn't shown on ABC television when Rutgers visited Columbus, Ohio for the first time yesterday:
I think we'll be competing with Ohio State on the football field before the Marching Scarlet Knights (a.k.a. "The Pride of New Jersey") are able to compete with the choreography of the TBDBITL when the men in pads relinquish the field.
Musically TPONJ is not bad at all, but we want marching Frankensteins and people smashing guitars.
There was a fair amount of the normal whining from disappointed fans (and the normal Rutgers haters) on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, but who among us can say that we didn't know that there would be losses like yesterday's 56-17 defeat in Columbus, Ohio when we joined the Big Ten? On the positive side, I didn't see any quit on the offensive or defensive sides of the ball even after a superior team (which would be a playoff favorite without an atypical loss against VT early in the season) led by a quarterback who should be a Heisman candidate got off to a large early lead.
We're all disappointed about going 0-1 last week, but here comes another chance to go 1-0 against another ranked team and another Heisman candidate in a large hostile environment this week.
They couldn't even find a single clip with player wearing a Rutgers uniform?
The fans aren't showing much knowledge or respect for Rutgers football in advance of this first meeting either. Look at this article by Harvey Araton in The New York Times in which Buckeye fans guess that our Scarlet Knights might be called the 'Nuggets' or the 'Bulldogs'. Our players were wearing scarlet twenty years before there was an Ohio State football and a year before there was even a college in Columbus.
Let's all hope the players and coaches are looking past Rutgers as much as the fans and press office are.
We may have played against Virginia Tech in the Big East for years without ever learning what a Hokie was, but there's no reason for us to be as uninformed about our fellow Big Ten member schools' mascots.
The Scarlet Knights are resting up this Saturday, getting healthy for what could be one of the biggest games in Rutgers football's very long history. But we don't need to tell the players and coaches how important next weekend is. We just need to tell them to Keep Calm and Chop OSU (or is that more properly "Keep Calm and Chop THEOSU"?)
Just like last Saturday's game against the Wolverines, our next game -- in Columbus, Ohio on the 18th -- will be the first meeting on the gridiron of two teams that have been around since the 19th century. The Ohio State Buckeyes are proudly celebrating the 125th anniversary of OSU football this year (something that Rutgers football did in 1994).
The 1890 Ohio State football team (augmented by three prisoners from a local jail?).
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.
On the other hand, Katy Perry and Lee Corso weren't surprised by the Rutgers victory over Michigan yesterday in the historic initial meeting between these two schools.
And in case you were already tailgating seven hours ahead of last night's big win, here's the full video of one of the more interesting celebrity appearances on ESPN's College Gameday ever:
Beating Desmond Howard's old team at The Birthplace yesterday was a great accomplishment, but nothing would be more earth-shaking in the Big Ten than doing the same to Kirk Herbstreit's team in our next game in Columbus, Ohio on October 18th.
