by Trevor Freeman
Someday girl I don’t know when we’re gonna get to that place..Where we really want to go and we’ll walk in the sun…But till then tramps like us…baby we were born to run…
-Bruce Springsteen
If luck truly is when practice meets opportunity then this weekend the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers seized their moment. In the land of Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Tony Soprano……in the land that inspired one of the truly great websites of all-time (www.njguido.com) college football’s best Cinderella story is being written. For a win over Louisville and losses by Auburn, Texas and California has elevated The State University of New Jersey close to a place that Mr. George Mason currently resides. David is once again tapping on the door of Goliath.
I’m a big fan of picking out a sleeper at the beginning of every college football and basketball season so when I read some positive press about Rutgers in a few preseason magazines, I made sure to tune in for their game against Pittsburgh. After being heavily impressed, I watched them play on a Sunday night against UConn. Seeing the way they play and the way they dictate tempo was the reason why I picked Rutgers last week on the Sportscolumn Blog to beat Louisville. You see the Scarlet Knights are not winning with a gimmick offense. The Scarlet Knights line up, they run the football and they play defense.
To say that the Scarlet Knights are a reflection of Greg Schiano is an understatement. This team, their style and their success is all due to the dream Schiano had when he arrived on campus. From the moment the ex-University of Miami Defensive Coordinator took the job he talked national championship. That he would utter that while taking a job at a school that hadn’t made a bowl game since the late 1970s was something that casual observers scoffed at. However, Schiano kept chasing this goal and recruited hard in Florida, New York, and New Jersey. He built a team that could compete with the big boys by constructing a defense that lacked size but contained speed. Essentially he built a poor man’s version of what he coached at Miami. Then on offense he went out and got two backs that will both play on Sunday. The first is fifth-year senior Brian Leonard. The fullback has gone from all everything to settling into a role of clearing holes for their exceptional sophomore Ray Rice. The former star linebacker at Bucknell has a team that isn’t the biggest dog in the park but they sure might be the scrappiest. When the University of Miami comes calling it will be for good reason. I personally hope Schiano remains a Scarlet Knight but I’ll admit that turning down Miami to stay at Rutgers would be like turning down drinks with Maria Sharapova because you already have Tara Reid naked in your bed.
If Rutgers runs the table then they will have beaten two Top Ten teams in Louisville and West Virginia with the West Virginia win being a road one in Morgantown. They also would have beaten South Florida and Pittsburgh who are above .500. Most importantly they would have won the Big East. A conference that was included when the plans were drawn up for this BCS party. Not letting the Big East champion into the BCS Title game would be the equivalent of paying $5 to get into a keg party and being allowed to drink out of the Bud Light, Budweiser, and Miller Lite kegs but not the Yuengling one as that is reserved for VIP guests.
The biggest criticism of Rutgers is their nonconference schedule. First off, these schedules are generally set in years in advance so it isn’t like Rutgers intentionally tried to soften it up. Secondly, I guarantee when they were putting their slate together they thought that North Carolina and Illinois would be better than the bottom feeders they are in their respective conferences. Secondly, one of the teams on their schedule was a Navy squad that currently stands at 7-3. Finally, and this if you are into comparing scores of games, Rutgers beat Ilinois 33-0 and this same Illinois team played The Ohio State University to a 17-10 score on November 4th.
I scoff at the elitists like Lee Corso who mock Rutgers and say that they do not deserve to play for the national championship should they run the table. If college football is too stubborn to set up a “Dirty December” playoff system then they have to sleep in the BCS bed that they made. If the only unbeaten team from a BCS conference aside from the winner of Ohio State and Michigan at the end of the season is Rutgers, then they deserve to play for the national championship. It is as simple as that. If the BCS installs a one-loss team ahead of them it would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
6 replies on “The Case For Rutgers”
But after next Saturday…. It’s all going to be a moot point. Rutgers are going to lose at West Virginia. And lose big.
I disagree The way Rutgers plays they won’t lose big to anybody. The Rutgers defense is very fast, especially up the middle. I think as long as they don’t get the jitters from carrying an 11-0 record into that contest(the game is actually a few weeks from now, Rutgers plays Cincinnati and Syracuse before it), they will be just fine.
i love the reference to that song. and another great column, as always.
i was watching that game at rockin bowl, i couldn’t believe he missed that first fg! i don’t even like big east fball being a penn state fan, but hell that was a great game for the conference and for rutgers.
Thank you Smart move by the long snapper on that miss. He saw the Louisville guy jump and he quick snapped it. That’s just one of those heady plays that you need to get if you want to run the table.
that Rutgers game was great I was in a bar in Hoboken whooping it up with the locals and pretending like I cared about Rutgers football. (I was raised in Penn State territory.) Still, it was a fun game to watch and since Rutgers was the underdog, I’d have rooted for them anyway. Let’s hope they don’t do anything stupid like lose to Cinci.
Cinci That’s the game I most fear for Rutgers. More than the West Virginia game. The Cinci game has letdown written all over it.