Time to look ahead to Next Saturday. Keep Calm and Chop Temple.

Rutgers can't afford to underestimate our opponents from across the Delaware. Here's your poster for the week.

With another noon starting time, is there any way to make sure a higher percentage of students and other fans are in their seats at the kickoff?

There should be no quarterback controversy after today's loss.

It's a long drive back from Rutgers Stadium, so it keeps me from writing anything too offensive about today's 49-14 loss to Houston. Instead I'll let all my thoughts about Gary Nova's 3-interception 0-TD 23.9-QBR performance be reflected by this post I made after last December's bowl game. Nothing has changed about my feelings regarding quarterbacks Gary Nova and Chas Dodd since then.
If I had written earlier, or had been able to tweet in the Stadium, I would have ranted and raved about a thousand bad passes, worse coaching, and missed tackles.  But there's no need for any Rutgers fan to relive all that. Is there?
There's one coaching decision I want to comment on though. We were there until the very end (as shown by this photo taken with about 5 minutes left right before the final Rutgers drive) and it's those last few seconds that still bug me hours after the game.

In that final drive Chas Dodd drove the Scarlet Knights 90 yards in 12 plays in 4'41" with a combination of passing, handoffs, and his own legs.  He should have been allowed by Kyle Flood to cap the longest drive of the day with a touchdown rather than letting the final seconds tick away with timeouts in our pocket inside their ten yard line. I was glad to see Kyle Flood put in our more effective quarterback, but it would have been nice if he had done it before the game was out of reach. Dodd had a much better appearance in the fourth quarter than his 11/15 78-yard passing yards and 20 rushing yards will tell you. You should also ignore his one interception. He put the ball into Brandon Coleman's hands with a pass over the middle and Coleman shoveled it into the arms of a Houston defender (Gary [tur]Nova's interceptions, on the other hand, were all completely on him).
If Chas Dodd does not start against Temple next Saturday, I'll be very unhappy about the coach who said this back in December.

"My Father Sent Me To Old Rutgers" revisited

It's been more than a month since the last game at R House, but you remember which first verse you're singing at the Homecoming on Saturday, right?

Here's a Wordle constructed from all the 1873 lyrics.

The Life of a Rutgers Man in the [Eighteen] Seventies

With the attempted 2013 changes to the first verse of the 1914 lyrics to "On The Banks of the Old Raritan" still fresh in everyone's mind, it's a great time to revisit Howard N. Fuller's (RC, '74) hastily-penned 1873 version which gives a quick contemporary sketch of a Rutgers man's progression from freshman hazee to sophomore hazer to junior card player to senior maiden slayer. 

It's amazing the first and last verses made it from 1873 to 2013 completely unchanged (only the chorus's "my boys" became "my friends" with co-education) while verses II through V couldn't even make it past 1914. The original central verses were unfamiliar to me, but it's amazing how fresh and alive (and politically completely incorrect) they feel.

I.
My father sent me to old Rutgers,
And resolv'd that I should be a man;
And so I settled down,
In that noisy college town,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
On the banks of the old Raritan, my boys,
where old Rutgers ever more shall stand,
For has she not stood since the time of the flood,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
II.
As Fresh, they used me rather roughly,
But I the fearful gauntlet ran,
And they shook me so about
That they turned me inside out,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
III.
I passed through all these tortures nobly,
And then, as Soph, my turn began,
And I hazed the poor Fresh so,
That they longed for Heaven, I know,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
IV.
And then I rested at my pleasure,
And steered quite clear of Prex's ban,
And the stars their good-bye kissing
Found me not from euchre missing,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
V.
And soon I made my social entrée
When I laid full many a wicked plan,
And by my cunning art
Slew many a maiden's heart,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
VI.
Then sing aloud to Alma Mater,
And keep the Scarlet in the van;
For with her motto high
Rutgers' name shall never die
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)

Let's sing (loudly) the original first verse at the beginning and end of Saturday's Homecoming game, though we probably won't be singing about all-night euchre players with wicked plans to haze first-year students and become serial slayers of the hearts of many women. It is interesting though that while many schools have replaced "freshman" with the gender-inclusive "first-year student" in the 21st century, the gender-neutral "Fresh" in verses II and III here could be politically correct today (though the first-year hazing and fearful gauntlets and tortures probably less so).

Your Keep-Calm-And-Chop Poster for Homecoming Week

Sorry it's a little late this week, but here's a "Keep Calm And Chop Houston" poster to add to your 2013 collection:

See you at Homecoming at R House on Saturday!

Are You Watching New Jersey's College Team tonight, or one of its pro teams?

It's not even close on this current NJ.com poll:

it's Keep-Calm-And-Chop-Louisville week

Don't tell anyone associated with the team, but this game on Thursday against the #8 Louisville Cardinals could end up being as pivotal for the Rutgers football program as the 2006 game against the #3 Louisville Cardinals. Just tell them to keep calm, and to chop Louisville.

Here's your Keep-Calm-And-Chop-SMU poster for game 5 of 2013

I also wanted to apologize to anyone I may have offended by referring to SMU earlier as "Southern Meth". It turns out that the initials SMU may have nothing at all to do with methamphetamines.  I ask your forgiveness when dealing with my ignorance about these institutions from alien areas of the nation.



I've now found ironclad photographic evidence online that SMU actually stands for Sock Monkey University:

Scarlet Knights Never Stop Choppin'

Even on bye weeks...

That was a fun day at R House.

Rutgers Stadium is one place where the mighty SEC still doesn't have a win. This picture was taken as the Scarlet Knights finally scored their first 7 points at the end of the first half.
It was 10-7 in Arkansas' favor when this cannon fired.

Arkansas extended their lead to 24-7 in the third quarter on more Rutgers turnovers, and there were some people who left the Stadium and must be very sorry they did.  A 58-yard punt return for a touchdown by Janarion Grant at the end of the third quarter and two touchdown passes from Gary Nova to Leonte Caroo in the fourth quarter sent the rest of us home very happy indeed with a final score of Rutgers 28 and Arkansas 24. It was a great day for everybody who spent his or her afternoon and early evening On The Banks (except for that sizable contingent of Razorback fans in the Stadium this afternoon).
~~
And to follow up on my last blog post, there was a very spirited singing of "On The Banks of the Old Raritan" in section 109 before and after the game, with the correct opening lines.
~~
And to follow up on another earlier post this week, I'm sure the bar owners in Fayetteville, Arkansas are very happy tonight.

My Father Sent Me To Old Rutgers / And Resolved That I Should Be a Man

I know which words I'll be singing when "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" plays tomorrow at Rutgers Stadium. I'm never going to call Rutgers Stadium by the name of some fly-by-night corporate sponsor, and I'm never going to sing our alma mater with "From far and near we came to Rutgers/ And resolved to learn all that we can," the new opening lines that will introduced at the Arkansas game tomorrow. I'll stick with the words of Howard N. Fuller, who played football on the banks from 1871-1873.
 

I'd even be prepared to make an argument that these words belong to us, Rutgers alumni, and not to the university.  I'll continue singing the real lyrics. I hope some of you join me tomorrow.

And here's the "More Chest Hair" version from the Rutgers Glee Club giving this old drinking song its due in a European drinking establishment (followed by another great old Rutgers drinking song that may need some serious gender reworking, "Vive la Rutgers' Sons!").

Here's hoping Fayetteville gets "Rutgers Drunk" next Saturday night

Regular readers may remember that I posted this quote from an Arkansas Razorbacks' blog last September 24th after the Scarlet Knights beat the Hogs on their turf.  I can't help repeating it this year as we prepare to host them at R House.

The writer in Arkansas Expats wrote about names for various varieties of inebriation and their anecdotal origins. There was "Grandma Drunk" (something about taking someone's Grandma to a sports bar) and "Kentucky Drunk" (following a 2007 Arkansas football loss to that basketball powerhouse that caused the writer's brother-in-law to go on a legendary bender), and then the writer had this suggestion:

"...And following the debacle I witnessed Saturday night inside Razorback Stadium, "Rutgers drunk" should be a deserving candidate as well.

"The only problem is that right now there isn't enough booze in the world to numb the anxiety, angst, or apoplectic rage that comes with a preseason Top Ten team posting a 1-3 record in its first four games, including losses to members of he Sun Belt and the Big East. Whiskey worked wonders for helping us temporarily forget watching Andre Woodson march a basketball school up and down our football field, but it falls way short of medicating properly a loss to freaking Rutgers."

Here's hoping that the liquor stores and bars in and around Fayetteville, Arkansas have tremendous paydays next Saturday night.