Keep Calm and Chop Michigan State

 

This is the one game at Rutgers Stadium in 2021 that my seat companion and I can't make this year, so I hope the Scarlet Knights make us regret our competing engagements by making Saturday's game against Sparty one to remember.

If you are there, make the noise that we would have made.

Keep Chopping

Keep Calm and Chop Delaware

With Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan State up next, it's hard not to think of tomorrow afternoon's game against the University of Delaware Blue Hens as the final pre-season game before the heart of the Big Ten season begins on September 25, but I hope the players aren't thinking of it that way. I know that Coach Schiano isn't looking past the Blue Hens just because they're an FCS team -- I'm sure that he well remembers coaching the 2004 Scarlet Knights to an emotional season-opening home upset of the MSU Spartans only to lose to a Division I-AA New Hampshire team the following week.

Also, it was great to see Adam Korsak named the Ray Guy Award Punter of the Week for two weeks in a row after the wins against Temple and Syracuse, but I'd be happy if he didn't even get a chance to punt tomorrow.

See you at the game!

Cornhuskers Visiting The Birthplace of College Football This Friday

The schedule is out for next weekend's Big Ten "Champions Week" in this unique 2020 season, and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights will be facing the 2-5 Nebraska Cornhuskers on December 18 at 4:00, getting one last chance for a home win at Rutgers Stadium after three B1G road wins over Michigan State, Purdue, and Maryland.

#ChopHuskers

Huck the Fuskers

Same Message Every Week During Rutgers Football Season...

...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:

Please buy a Rutgers student an alarm clock

#ChopKansas

It hasn't been a good week for Rutgers Football, but...

...if we beat That Team From Pennsylvania in the B1G opener on Saturday, even without Coach Flood, it will take away a lot of the pain.

Game Day

See you at R House at 3:30!

Go Knights!

Not to be judgmental, but...

... how rich and/or idiotic does a person need to be to pay an extra $2,500 to $3,500 for a parking space closer to Rutgers Stadium? That's significantly more than my yearly tuition when I was on the banks (and riding my bike to games).

I'll be back in the RAC parking lot in September.

In news from central Pennsylvania...

Under Penn State's variable pricing policy, it has been announced that the most expensive 2015 games at Happy Valley will be for the games against Rutgers and Michigan. Here's hoping that the fans in blue and white spending $100 to $200 for tickets on September 19 leave early to beat the traffic and feel they didn't get their money's worth from TTFP. And that the visiting fans wearing scarlet stick around until after the game ends to sing 'On the Banks of the Old Raritan' with a happy team.

ASDSADADADASFA SADFGFGFDSGFDGFDGFD!!!

If you want to know what that means, you'll have to ask ESPN:

Seems ESPN used their ace graphics team as well as first-string announcers today: RT @StevePoliti Seems about right. pic.twitter.com/dvucj6WhWo
— Beat Visitor (@BeatVisitor) December 27, 2014

Despite the third-string ESPN announcers and the mostly empty Ford Field (why wouldn't people want to travel to Detroit on Christmas?), the Scarlet Knights had a great 40-21 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels today. The game wasn't as close as the score would lead you to believe, with Rutgers dominating on both sides of the ball for almost all game until late in the fourth quarter when UNC recovered two onside kicks and made things look interesting for a few minutes.

Freshman running backs Josh Hicks (202 yards, 1 TD) and Robert Martin (100 yards, 2 TD) made 2015 look very bright, but 2014 -- finishing at 8-5 with a convincing bowl win against an ACC opponent -- didn't look too bad either.

ASDSADADADASFA SADFGFGFDSGFDGFDGFD indeed!

The Throwback Photo for Our Next Opponent, the Michigan Agricultural College.

As with Rutgers changing its name from Queens College after the Revolutionary War made that royal name politically incorrect, our next football opponents have had some name changes too. In 1855, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was founded; in 1861, it became the State Agricultural College; in 1909, the Michigan Agricultural College; in 1925, the Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science; in 1955, the Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science; and finally, in 1964 it became plain old Michigan State University.

In the tradition we started in this inaugural Big Ten year with MSU's big brother Michigan and continued with Ohio State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Indiana, here's a photo of the 1915 Michigan Agricultural College football team.

The 1915 Michigan Agricultural College football team.

The 1917 Rutgers College football team.

A Political Question for #ChopWisconsin Week

Which GOP Governor wears his state university's colors better, Scott Walker or Chris Christie?

Marquette University
(no degree)

University of Delaware
(BA); Seton Hall (JD)

[I won't give the correct answer away, but let's just pray that New Jersey represents itself much better on the football field this Saturday than on the gubernatorial fashion runway.]

Let's Hope THE Ohio State University Players and Coaches Believe Vegas...

... and look past Rutgers this Saturday.

. #Rfootball installed as a 19.5-point underdog against #OhioState http://t.co/AP6jZy82Gj
— Keith Sargeant (@KSargeantNJ) October 13, 2014

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.

Michigan Chopped

Michigan chopped. pic.twitter.com/CqyOOZigy5

— Beat Visitor (@BeatVisitor) October 5, 2014

So What's Up With South Jersey Football Fans?

The New York Times has a great interactive college football fan map on The Upshot today. It doesn't surprise me that Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Army are the most popular teams in my Hudson Valley county and Zip Code, and it doesn't surprise me that the area around New Brunswick is solid Rutgers country, but why is southern New Jersey so heavily Penn State country? And why doesn't Rutgers even make the top three in many of those counties? This map is based on  Facebook likes, so please like some Scarlet Knights links if you live in the lower counties of New Jersey.

The map and the accompanying article are fascinating and just a little bit addictive. I was surprised by the size of Fresno State's popularity in central California for one thing. Another surprise is the most popular team in the midtown and downtown Manhattan Zips, our visitors tomorrow, the Michigan Wolverines.

Good Thing I Have a Black Raincoat

This Saturday's game against the Michigan Wolverines at Rutgers Stadium is a blackout game. All my Scarlet-Knight gear is, surprisingly, scarlet, so I was wondering what I was going to wear to match my fellow fans. No fear. I checked Weather.com for Piscataway just now and I see the game may be a wet one.

Thankfully, my raincoat is black.

KEEP CALM AND CHOP PENN STATE

What a great win just now out in Seattle for the Scarlet Knights over Washington State. The team showed a lot of heart coming back over and over again tonight (this morning).

I have a season seat at Rutgers Stadium this year, but I'll be out of the country and away from television and computers during the first two home games against Howard and Penn State. I don't feel a need to do a KeepCalmAndChop poster for Howard, but I can't let the first Penn State game of Rutgers' Big Ten era pass without this:

The First Keep-Calm-and-Chop Poster of 2014

Continuing a long Beat Visitor dot com tradition, here's the Keep Calm and Chop WSU poster for the Big Ten / Pac-12 showdown that will be taking place in Seattle on Thursday to open the season.