I was on this board a few years ago as Scarlet Knight but have done more lurking than posting the past few years. I am a Rutgers grad and die hard fan...going to every football game, bball game, etc. For years I have had to endure constant putdown and insults about the RU sports program due to their constant futility in the two major sports. I think I speak for all RU fans that it wasnt easy to endure that. What happened last year with our first bowl trip in 27 years was incredible but not even the most positive RU fan knew what was coming this season. It has been an absolute dream season. If any college teams fan deserved this, it is Rutgers fans. We have suffered for so long and are finally getting our reward.

I was there Thursday night for the incredibly thrilling win over Louisville. I stormed the field after the game. That was the most exciting sporting event I have ever been at. The buzz surrounding this game was huge and it lived up to its billing. What America saw was years and years of losing and frustration creating one of the best atmosphere you are going to find. Yes we dont have a 100K seat stadium but 44K were screaming at the top of their lungs the entire 2nd half of that game and truly played a role in Brian Brohm not able to do anything in the 2nd half. I got chills when the entire stadium was singing "We Will Rock You" with about a minute left in the game with the score tied at 25. We hadnt won yet but we knew we had this game. It is very rare that a game produces such an outpouring of emotions from its fans and players. Thursday's game will be one to be remembered as the game that put RU on the college football landscape.

There has been some debate on whether or not the NYC area is a college football town. Well for those unfamiliar with NYC media one has to understand that NJ has no tv affiliates of their own. They use NYC for the most part with South Jersey using Phillys. The amount of attention spent on Rutgers has been beyond my wildest dreams. RU is not exactly just outside NYC either. Its a good 35-40 miles. The Empire State building was lit up in scarlet all weekend. Yankee Stadium had a Congrats to RU sign on it. WFAN the biggest sports talk show not only in the NYC but the nation did the pregame before the game and talked about the game pretty much all day before and all day after. This is from a city that is considered to not give an iota about college sports. RU is getting plenty of attention in NYC and will continue to get plenty of attention due to the amount of viewers that live in Jersey. The ESPN ratings for the game were the 2nd highest on a Thursday night and amongst the highest ESPN has had. The NYC rating alone was the highest watched college event ever in NYC on ESPN.

What this all means is the potential for this RU football program is enormous. NYC is the #1 media market in the world. No one says RU has to dominate the airwaves but a winning RU football team and one that can compete at the BCS level will get their share of attention in NYC. This recent stretch has proved it.

Greg Schiano really should be up for coach of the year honors for what he has done with this program. He went through some very rough years but always talked about the process and never backed down from getting it done here. The scary thing is he has yet to scratch the surface yet recruiting wise. Generally he has missed out on the top NJ talent, getting some solid players but the classes have not been ranked higher than the 40-45 range in the nation. This year is going to give an enormous boost to recruiting in NJ this year and next.

I am not that worried about him leaving anytime soon...he will certainly not go to Miami. He has all the things in place at RU most importantly the committment to winning from the AD something that has prevented RU in the past from making waves.

As far as RU getting to the BCS title game. If they beat WVU and thats a big if they deserve to go in my opinion over one loss teams from other conferences. It is only fair. The schedule arguments are BS when you analyze what the other major conference schools like the SEC have played. The story of David and Goliath would be an interesting one.

Hear Hear!


Welcome to the board Fellow Big East Brother!

Very cool to see Rutgers having a magical season. Congrats!

Welcome back to the board, RUjock! As a fellow Jerseyan, I love what's happening at Rutgers. The sleeping giant has awoken. Rutgers' success is without a doubt the story of the year in college football. It's great for the university, the state of NJ and especially the Big East! You guys on the old Raritan deserve all the success you're having. It's been a long time coming. What Greg Schiano has done is nothing short of miraculous. I'd love nothing more than to see Rutgers keep it going - until Dec. 2 in Morgantown. Sorry, RU, but I'm also a WVU alum and I think the undefeated season ends there.

I think that Rutgers deserves all the accolades that they're getting and more and I'm so tickled to see that they're having such a great season-it speaks volumes of what a great season the entire BE is having

I am going to root for Rutgers up until they play my Mountaineers thought.

Make no mistake about it, ESPN selected the RU-Cincy game as their primetime Saturday night telecast to take full advantage of the RU explosion in the Northeast/NYC area.

I left work early last Thursday to watch the game (SF here), but then I'm a total college football nerd, and I love an underdog story. Have to admit that when Rutgers was behind I left to walk the dog and go to the store. But, when I returned and saw they were catching up I was on the sofa with a glass of wine (well, the bottle was close by...) and screaming with the Rutgers fans at the television. Can't imagine what my neighbors were thinking. The dog ran and hid. This will probably be the best college football game of the season - all excitement and very low on the cynicism meter.

The sad thing is that I know a bunch of Rutgers alums and NONE of them paid an ounce of attention to football when they were there and they could care less about the football team now. I'm alone in my Rutgers-from-afar joy. Alas...

you're not a nerd

Thanks guys. It is going to be interesting to see how the rest of this year plays out. First and foremost RU must come down off its emotional high from Louisville and focus for Cincinnati. There is still chopping left to do to avoid this trap game but I really think this is a different group of young men and Schiano will have them ready to play.

RU has been all over ESPN this year. Games vs Pitt, USF, UConn, Louisville, Illinois were on ESPN. Cincy and WVU will be on ESPN while Syracuse will be either on ABC or ESPN. UNC was on ABC. Thats alot of national coverage. Because ESPN is not far from NJ/NY I think they really will be pushing RU on their network with the ratings possibilities that Rutgers brings.

Gym....I have to applaud you for all the arguing you do for WVU and the rest of the BE. Ive seen alot of people on this board dismiss the BE as a second rate conference and Im sort of confused on that one because if you analzye the play in the other conferences they hold up pretty well to them. A lot of people like to rate teams and conferences based on reputation and history rather than the present.

Gym....I have to applaud you for all the arguing you do for WVU and the rest of the BE. Ive seen alot of people on this board dismiss the BE as a second rate conference and Im sort of confused on that one because if you analzye the play in the other conferences they hold up pretty well to them. A lot of people like to rate teams and conferences based on reputation and history rather than the present.
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Thanks RU.. It seems some ( ACC & SEC fans most notably) had/have issues with BE and dismissed/insulted previous posts and topics. That has subsided somewhat . The BE is having one of its better ( possibly the best) years in football. The sweet irony is Conference realignment/expansion is proving to have made the BE a better conference in basketball and football than the ACC.

You are right on. Al ot of these fans and conferences are living in the past anf feel their team should be obligated to be above a new team that's burt onto the national scene just because of their name.

Case in point is Auburn. Can someone please tell me how Auburn remained in the National Championship debate ( even after Arkansas exposed the Tiggers 28-10 in Auburn)? Evidently in the SEC a below average offenses ( 7 points LSU, 10 Arkansas, one offensive touchdown against Florida, 15 points against UGA) and a self proclaimed "elite" defense (until of course enemic offenses like Ole Miss and UGA make them look elementaty) is National Championship "caliber" just because they play football in the SEC and have had past good teams of players who have already graduated.


The SEC keeps revolving teams into the discussion of who should be best ONE LOSS team each week that is National Championship caliber to replace the previous SEC team that is exposed by a middle of the pack SEC team that would struggle to place in the top of any of the 6 BCS conferences. Aside from Tennessee beating a top 20 Cal team, there is no way for anyone to know how good these SEC teams would fare against the nation's best. The one game a good SEC team did play against one of the top 5 teams resulated in USC scorching Arkansas with 50 points. As much as the SEC cries to BE fans " you haven't played anyone" maybe they need to take a look at their own issues in regards to scheduling before hurling this at other conferences especially considering your likely conference champ ( Arkansas) had half a one of one hundred points scored on them.

If RU beats WVU, that will be 2 top 10 teams Rutgers has beaten to fininish undefeated. Also, that would mean RU beat 5 top 50 teams ( Sagarin) compared to Ohio State having only having beaten one top 10 team ( Michigan) and only 4 top 50 Sagarin teams this year. If RU, wins out They are deserving to play for the National Championship if they win Dec. 2nd's game against WVU.

Welcome back to the board, Scarlet Knight aka RUJock. I actually thought of you last Thursday night. I was at Rutgers myself during the Doug Graber era when Rutgers had some decent talent but never quite gelled as a team.

Ack! You know, when I saw that Rutgers next opponent was Cincinatti, I had this eerie feeling of deja vu. The last time people were excited about a Rutgers team was in '92 or '93. Rutgers was 7-3 going into their final game against a terrible (I think they were 2-8) Cincinatti squad. Everyone was certain RU had finally turned the corner and would get a bowl invite...and then they lost. The curse of Cincinatti has struck again.

WHile this loss might look very bad initialy, its more an indication of the depth of the Big East. As the SEC says, the same is true with the Big East now. NO game is a gimmie anymore. Cincy is a sophomore laden team that was beating Ohio State and VT in the 2nd half this year. ALso, Cincy came very close to beating Louisville on the final play of the game. Like RU, CIncy is an up and coming program. Cincy will make some noise next year and possibly land in the top 25. Cincy's defense will be special next year.

No worries on RU. The Knights will bounce back. WHile they might not win at WVU, RU should land in the Gator/Sun if Louisville and WVU both secure BCS bowl bids. A win against an ACC or Pac-10 in this game would give RU its best season of college football ever. Also, with the way RU is recruiting now, RU's football program is taking off not only in the Northeast, but nationally.

Rutger is still having a great season despite the loss at Cincinnati. This is still a chance to be the representative for the Big East in a BCS Bowl game. The Scarlet Knights control their own destiny.