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.

Ray Who?

Can you name one famous NFL Scarlet Knight who hasn't been included on this IBEW wall behind Section 107?

Game Day

Today's free Scarlet Knight bobblehead is in his seat and anxious for this Tulane game to begin!

No, I haven't forgotten...

Here's the Keep-Calm-And-Chop poster for this Saturday's Tulane game.

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.

The Twenty Ten Rutgers Football Schedule Has Been Posted

The times of most games are still to be posted, but in 2009 and 2008 it took until the middle of April to get this basic information about the names of the teams on Rutgers' football schedule.

2010 Rutgers Football Schedule (with games at R House in Bold)

• Thursday, September 2 Norfolk State
• Saturday, September 11 at Florida International
• Saturday, September 25 North Carolina
• Saturday, October 2 Tulane
• Friday, October 8 Connecticut (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)
• Saturday, October 16 Army (New Meadowlands)
• Saturday, October 23 at Pittsburgh
• Wednesday, November 3 at USF (ESPN2, 7 p.m.)
• Saturday, November 13 Syracuse
• Saturday, November 20 at Cincinnati
• Friday, November 26 Louisville (National TV)
• Saturday, December 4 at West Virginia (National TV)

Though we'll miss the exciting Texas Southern rivalry, it's nice to see that there is only one second division football team on the schedule this year, and it's great to see that the Green Wave team that will be visiting us at Rutgers Stadium on October 2nd will be visiting from New Orleans, and not driving west on Route 18 from Long Branch High School.