start adding #BeatPitt to all your Tweets

If you're on Twitter and you're commenting at all about Rutgers Scarlet Knights football and Friday's upcoming game with the Pittsburgh Panthers, it's now time to start adding the #BeatPitt hashtag to all your tweets. Hell, start adding #BeatPitt to your tweets even if you're commenting on what you had for lunch and what you're listening to on your stereo.
This idea comes straight from those great Syracuse bloggers and tweeters, Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician and Orange::44, but since the Orange have a week off from football, we Rutgers bloggers and tweeters should take up the call this week. Maybe we can even get #BeatPitt into Twitter's Trending Topics before game time on Friday night.
If there is a rash of great #BeatPitt tweets, I'll even copy and paste them into a blog posting here at Beat Visitor dot com.

Here's something you don't see every day: An argument for kissing your sister.

Here's an interesting defense of the tie in college football from The Unbalanced Line.
If you haven't read it, The Unbalanced Line is an Army Football blog with a very strong sense of history. Check it out. It even has links to very old Rutgers yearbooks.
I'm not a big fan of overtime myself. For one thing, the Scarlet Knights' record against a certain team from West Virginia would look a little better if overtime had never been invented. If I'm reading the all-time record correctly, I only find 4 Rutgers games that have gone to overtime since 1997: a loss to Pitt, a win against Syracuse, and two losses to West Virginia. I agree with The Unbalanced Line. Bring back the tie. 2006 would have looked better with an 11-1-1 line than 11-2.

The Quote of the Day. Once again, the defense speaks.

"We’re competing with the offense. We told them we’re going to try to score as many points as they do a game.”
--#31 George Johnson

This is the second quote of the day in a row from a Rutgers defensive starter. Senior defensive end George Johnson's quote comes from an article in Sunday's Trentonian entititled "Rutgers Pounds Texas Southern".

It's more than just words from the defense. They have now scored a defensive touchdown in three straight games. The Scarlet Knights are also second in the nation in turnover margin (to only Air Force) with 16 loose balls gained (8 fumble recoveries & 8 interceptions) against only 4 footballs lost (1 fumble & 3 interceptions) in the first five games of the season (with all 3 interceptions being thrown in the 1st half of the 1st game by our 2nd-string quarterback). If the defense continues to pick up footballs at that rate, they'll score some more points before the season's done.

Prepare R House for the Friday arrival of Wannstedt, God of Thunder

How refreshing to check this morning and see that the stirring God of Thunder background images behind the Twitter entries of @CoachWannstedt haven't changed, and that his favorite events involve lighting bonfires outside cathedrals (how medieval can you get?).
I guess you wouldn't want a head coach with no ego. It's just too bad for the Pittsburgh Panthers that his imaginary superpowers haven't helped him beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights over the last four years.

Update @ 9:56am -- With Pittsburgh ranked at 26 in this week's AP, 28 in the Coaches' poll, and at 25 in the ESPN Power Rankings, is there any doubt that the winner of the Rutgers-Pittsburgh game on Friday should and will be ranked in the top 25 next week?

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.

The new Beat Visitor dot com BlogPoll ballot is up

With so few dramatic losses among my top 25 I feel like I'll be in the running for both "Mr. Stubborn" and "Mr. Numb Existence" in the Blogpoll Editorial Guy's weekly wrapup this week. Though with the lack of surprises on the nation's gridirons yesterday, I expect that there will be lots of competition for those two awards. Maybe I should have followed my first instincts and placed the 4-1 Scarlet Knights into the poll, putting me into the running for this week's Coulter/Kos Award instead.
As always, you can click on the thumbnail to your right to see the scribbled notes that led to the following BlogPoll ballot. You can place your arguments and suggestions for corrections in my Comments, but judging from the lack of reaction to my past ballots, I can only come to a single logical conclusion: My choices are always perfect.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Alabama	1
3	Texas	1
4	Cincinnati
5	Southern Cal	1
6	Virginia Tech	3
7	Iowa	1
8	Boise State	1
9	Ohio State	1
10	Miami (Florida)	4
11	LSU	6
12	TCU	1
13	Oregon	1
14	Penn State	1
15	Kansas
16	South Florida	1
17	Brigham Young	2
18	Georgia Tech	2
19	Nebraska
20	Oklahoma
21	South Carolina	3
22	Houston
23	Oklahoma State
24	Auburn	8
25	West Virginia
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#18), Missouri (#21).

The End of the Beginning

I wondered out loud somewhere in this blog over the last couple of years whether or not we would ever see an interesting sunset over Rutgers Stadium after the enclosure of the South Endzone. The picture up above taken during the fourth quarter yesterday should answer that worry. At least we're still watching football outside. At least we're not in a fucking dome, or watching the game on an idiot box from our couches. Though I have to say that many of the people around me were acting as if they might have been sitting on naugahyde recliners in their rumpus rooms rather than on hard aluminum in R House. Though the section was pretty full considering the quality of the opposition, the fans around me could not have been quieter when the Scarlet Knights were on defense. I think I even yelled, "Come on Section 123, if this team scores, it's OUR fault!" I hope (and expect) this will all change on Friday night when our defense is trying to stop the Panthers.
It's hard to believe that there are only three games left at Rutgers Stadium in the 2009 season, starting this Friday with a big one against Pittsburgh (followed by USF visiting in mid-November and West Virginia in early December).

Ryan D'Imperio & the Scarlet Knights singing at the end of yesterday's game.

I hope to stick around to see a happy team singing On the Banks of the Old Raritan after each of the remaining home games. Now it's for real again (for the first time after the opener against Cincinnati). The biggest triumph yesterday against Texas Southern, other than the ability of the defense to earn a shutout and keep the TSU Tigers to 126 total yards (and negative 25 yards of rushing), was to see Tom Savage up and throwing and rushing and acting with the composure of a veteran for three full quarters. That and, of course, the fact that no one seems to have gotten banged up in the run up to our second Big East game.

Tom Savage in the pocket against Texas Southern on 10 October 2009.

That's the last word on TSU.
Now it's officially Pittsburgh Panther week.

The Quote of the Day (and more) about today's Homecoming Game against Texas Southern

“We're going to go out there and play every game just like it's the national championship. We're going to treat it all the same. We're not going to look down at any team. You see it this year when you're watching the games, everyone's beating everyone so you gotta go out there and be focused.”

-- Ryan D'Imperio, Number 44

The Beat Visitor dot com Quote of the Day from Rutgers' middle linebacker comes from an article in yesterday's Houston Chronicle entitled "Rutgers will go for 600th win vs. Texas Southern". Six hundred wins is not an insignificant milestone just because it may come against a school that has shown that it is playing at a lower level than the current Scarlet Knights. In the Scarlet Knights' all-time record, a win against CCNY or Stevens in the 'eighties (1880's that is) counts the same as an exciting win against #3 Louisville or #2 USF in the 'naughties. And 600-591-42 will look much better than 599-591-42.

As an extra preview of today's visit to Rutgers Stadium by Texas Southern University, here's a YouTube preview of "The Best Dance Squad Ever":
Speaking of exciting live shows, I was personally glad to have started my homecoming weekend on Thursday night at Giants Stadium watching Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play for three hours and play (in sequence) one of the biggest LPs to hit the record stores of George Street during my years On The Banks, Born to Run (no offense to little Jovi and his weekly appearances on the endzone Ginormotron, but Bruce and the Boys reminded me how much Bon Jovi sucks). I hope I have than much energy when I'm sixty (I wish I had that much energy when I was twenty).
Finally, when did the redesign of ScarletKnights.com take place?? I've been busy at work and I don't think I checked it this week. It's a much cleaner, more modern, interface and I assume everything that was there is still there. I'm just having a little trouble finding what I need this morning. Check it out.

A Couple of Words From Our Sponsors

An email came around this afternoon announcing that RAH, Rutgers Against Hunger is holding a food drive for depleted local food banks before this Saturday's game (they will be holding others before the South Florida game in November and the West Virginia game in December).

"Canned and packaged goods, boxed containers, or items packaged in plastic will be accepted (please do not donate glass items). Paper products, such as paper towels and toilet tissue, toiletries and baby supplies are also needed. Drop off sites for the October 10th game will be at the West, North, and South Gate entrances of Rutgers Stadium and at the Louis Brown Athletic Center (RAC). University Facilities trucks in the parking lots will also accept items for donation."

~~~

And speaking of donations, you may also be receiving a phone call this month from a Rutgers student soliciting a tax-deductible donation for my favorite charity, the Rutgers University Foundation. I got the call this week and made my pledge slightly larger than in past years because the school needs our help more than ever. If you haven't given before and you don't get the annual phone call yet, then you can click on their link. I always designate my gift to be split between the History Department and the Libraries, but you can direct your money, and your company's matching gift, to go to whichever part of the Rutgers community you love the most.

Don Imus Thinks He's Back on Television

Here are two facts that you should not reveal to Don Imus.

1. "Fox Business" is not a real television station that people watch or have even heard of; it's simply a shady tax write-off for Rupert Murdoch. (Let him feel like he has some self-esteem with a camera aimed at him even if no one is watching at the other end. He and Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and Karl Rove can sit around talking to each other trying to convince themselves that they are sane and important and visible, but no one will get hurt or offended in the process.)
2. The twenty-gallon hat* and the inch-thick pancake makeup still make you look like a 85-year-old douchebag trying to relive your glory days as a vital 67-year-old faux cowboy.
   

Why does a Rutgers football blog care to comment about this mumbling senile old fart? Click on the "Imus" tag below, or read this one post from April 2007.

___________________
*If Rutgers fans are going to pick political commentators by their headgear, we'll go with Michael Moore.

Rules are not necessarily meant to be broken. My Week 6 BlogPoll ballot is posted for your comments and/or accolades.

As always, you can click on my scribbled ballot notes to get an insight into my logic.
My one unbreakable rule this week when compiling my BlogPoll ballot was simple. It is too early in the season for a two-loss team to be in the top 25. Period.
The fact that the 2-2 Okies will be on the ballots of most experts is a perfect example of what is wrong with the writers' and coaches' polls. Nobody earns their way into the top 25 with a .500 winning percentage and their only wins being over the likes of Idaho State and Tulsa. Oklahoma is only in the top 25 today because writers and coaches think they are a top 25 team based on reputation and preseason prejudices. After four games, the wins and losses have to count for something (and close losses can only count as losses).
Georgia, California, and Oklahoma all received their second losses yesterday and they got their walking papers from my ballot.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Alabama
4	Cincinnati	1
5	LSU	1
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Boise State	3
8	Iowa	1
9	Virginia Tech	1
10	Ohio State
11	TCU
12	Oregon	2
13	Penn State	2
14	Miami (Florida)	6
15	Kansas	4
16	Auburn
17	South Florida	6
18	Wisconsin
19	Brigham Young	2
20	Georgia Tech	2
21	Missouri
22	Houston	9
23	Oklahoma State	7
24	South Carolina	1
25	West Virginia
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Oklahoma (#12), Michigan (#17), Georgia (#18), California (#24).

The two-loss teams have been replaced by the undefeated Auburn, Wisconsin, and Missouri. The one-loss West Virginia Mountaineers snuck in at the bottom of my ballot, just beating out one-loss Michigan and one-loss Nebraska. Nebraska will enter the list next week if they beat Missouri, but that's a big if. West Virginia's one loss to Auburn doesn't look as bad now that those Tigers are on a roll (though there is no question at all in my mind that there are entirely too many Tigers on the list at this point).

There was only one question in college football this weekend

Strangely enough, it seems that there were actually some games being played in the college football world this weekend even though the Scarlet Knights were idle.

Number 7, Tom Savage, in his first game, against the Cincinnati Bearcats, on Labor Day 2009

But the only question on most Rutgers football fans' minds was, "How is Tom Savage doing?" In most cases I don't think the question is "Is Tom Savage going to be well enough to play on October 10 versus Texas Southern, or on October 16 versus Pittsburgh?" I think the question is simply, "How is Tom Savage doing?" With four or five years ahead of him On the Banks, the important thing is that he recovers fully, and correctly, from the concussion that he suffered against FIU.
Get well Tom.