What the hell is going on:
Painted on the red brick wall in the north end zone of Rutgers Stadium are the words: “The Birthplace of College Football.” The Scarlet Knights were a part of the first college football game played more than 137 years ago, a 6-4 win over Princeton in 1869, and they really hadn’t played a game as important as that one since.
Between then and now, history had essentially ceased when it came to Rutgers football. The Scarlet Knights have played in two bowl games and were largely considered one of the worst teams in the country. For longer than anyone in the New York metropolitan area can remember, Rutgers set the standard for football futility, going 0-11 in 1997, 1-10 in 1999 and 1-11 as recently as 2002.
“I can remember being a laughingstock at 1-11,” senior fullback Brian Leonard said. “I can remember getting booed off the field and getting my car smashed with a beer bottle. I remember when that was happening.”
Those days now seem long ago.
Especially after the No. 15 Scarlet Knights stunned No. 3 Louisville 28-25 on Thursday night in front of a sellout crowd of 44,111, the largest to ever watch Rutgers play at home. And during the wild celebration on the artificial turf that continued well after junior Jeremy “The Judge” Ito drilled a 28-yard field goal with 13 seconds left to cap an improbable 18-point comeback — on his second try nonetheless — they might as well have painted a few more words in the opposite end zone.
I guess the WVU/Rutgers game will be one to watch.
MattM
Thank you Rutgers, for saving us from having to watch a Big East team get bent over for 60 minutes in a national championship game.
Jimmmm
My alma mater, Syracuse, will derail the RU express. And about this I am oddly conflicted, as I live in NJ and so badly want local teams to do well.
Zifnab
Go Generic Underdog Team!
Otto Man
Stunning. I was on the turnpike last night, and they’d lit up all the driving hazard signs to read “Go Rutgers!” My only reaction was “yeah, right.”
We’re through the looking glass here, people. I’m scared.
Sam Wilkinson
Rutgers/WVU has all the makings of a, in the parlance of Jim Ross, slobberknocker. Because seriously Rutgers looks good. Here’s hoping we win, but I’d hardly call it guaranteed. And we might as well start feeling badly for Rutgers fans, because Schiano’s out of there at the end of the season, off to the one of the bigger schools.
Alex
What Rutgers and Princeton played back in 1869 was really a soccer game. Everyone knows that Yale invented *American* football (except the Canadians, who think that McGill did).
Ned R.
Clearly Yale and McGill should just play a game to settle the matter.
Geoffrey
Sam-
Pray tell: since Schiano LEFT Miami when he was the first in-line to be head coach, because his life goal was to make Rutgers a National Powerhouse, why would he EVER want to leave Rutgers in the middle of reaching his life goal, to go coach a team that is becoming a total embarassment, like Miami?
CaseyL
I was watching the Rutgers game at the gym, and the announcers seemed absolutely flummoxed. That phenomenon alone is enough to get me to tune in to the next RU game :)
Tony Alva
Man, I remember the days when my beloved Army team couldn’t wait to get Rutgers on the field for homecoming cupcake dance. Good for them. Gotta love the underdog!!!
Justin Slotman
Well–what Rutgers and Princeton played back in 1869 wasn’t exactly a soccer game either. It was the messy ur-football that both continents played (in various ways) before the rugby-soccer split in England and the American and Canadian codes developed in a different direction.
Oh, and BOOYAH COLE! SEE YOU THE SECOND OF NOVEMBER!
Justin Slotman
Or December. You can all tell that Rutgers education is really paying off….
Punchy
Rutgers is getting completely fucked. When WV and Louassville were undefeated, all the talk was which undefeated Big East team would make the Champ game.
Now RU is THE undefeated team, and suddenly no one talks about their role in the Champ game. So, Dub-V and Louassville are worthy, but not RU?
This is beyond fucked up. RU looked like a top 5 team last nite. Nobody shuts out UL for AN ENTIRE HALF. I’ve never hated the BCS bullshit as much as this year.
Elvis Elvisberg
The best game since the title game last year. What a second half– Rutgers’ defense was just smothering.
Sojourner
I’d vote for OSU vs. Michigan.
Bob In Pacifica
Go Cal!
Eric Lindholm
Yeeeeaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!
Today I watched YouTube videos of celebrating students at my alma mater. Sad, I know.
Eric – Class of 1991
merlallen
It would take one hell of a big beer bottle to smash a car, wouldn’t it?
Brent
Hey punchy,
With the way college football was before the BCS, Rutgers still wouldn’t play for the National Championship. I think the Big East champ received an invitation to the Orange Bowl in order to play the Big 12 Champion. The Ohio State/Michigan winner would be at the Rose Bowl trying to win the National Championship. Just a thought.
AnonE.Mouse
Give me a fucking break-Rutgers ain’t a top five team.They aren’t even a top ten team.Between the Big 10,Big 12,SEC,and PAC 10,there’s at least a dozen teams who would beat Rutgers by 2 TDs or more.Then add Notre Dame,West Virginia,and Louisville(who would beat Rutgers 4 times if they played 5).Okay,you’ve convinced me-they’re a top twenty team.
Tom in Texas
I have to agree with Anon. The Big East benefits enormously from being near such huge media markets, but the quality of football is fair to middling. WVU was the only legitimate contender in the conference before they blew it. Louisville is a top 20 team this year, to be sure, but they are no match for a top Big 10, SEC, or Big 12 team. I mean, they lost to RUTGERS for cryin out loud. Who — let’s be realistic — are mediocre this year due mainly to playing crappy northeastern teams and typically still lose to them. What midrange team in any of those three aforementioned conferences wouldn’t be able to navigate North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Howard, South Florida, Navy, Pitt, UConn, and Louisville safely?
Rutgers will lose either to Syracuse or WVa, probably both, and sanity will prevail in the Championship Game, with pseudoprofessionals squaring off, worried mainly about their draft ranking, instead of these guys at Rutgers/Louisville that look like normal college students. As a point of reference consider this: The University of Texas offensive line averages 330+ lbs per player. Rutgers simply cannot compete with that. There are really only a few schools that can do so consistently — because they recruit the same freakishly gifted athletes.
pie
Speaking as a Rutgers grad, I’m just happy you guys are talking about the place. I graduated from Camden, in 2004. JD. It’s a shithole of a school compared to many others, but just hearing it mentioned makes me feel all warm and gooshy inside.
Now, what’s all this about sports?
grumpy realist
Sorta off topic but I remember right after whatever Olympics it was when it came down to the U.S. vs. the USSR for gold in hockey (which the US won), the US team was playing around the US….
Came to Cornell and got completely run over in a game that wasn’t even competitive. Cornell at that point had a hockey team which was mainly half US students, half Canadian.
Those of us in Ithaca found this pretty amusing.