In my first three years at Rutgers, the years preceding Greg Schiano’s arrival, the team won exactly one game.  Nobody went to games and it went without saying that other regional powers like Syracuse and Pittsburgh would routinely beat us.  When I was a sophomore Donovan McNabb put up more than 70 points in the Rutgers defense.

Schiano changed all of that.  I was at the Cook Campus Center more than ten years ago when athletic director Bob Mulcahey introduced coach Greg Schiano. He talked about making New  Jersey the “State of Rutgers.”  The new coach immediately went on a charm offensive to change the culture of the school and the football program.  He recruited well, getting home grown talent to play for the state school.  Within a few years the school was starting to win its share of games.  In 2005 Rutgers made its first bowl game since the 1970s.  In 2006 the team cracked the top 25.  After Rutgers beat #3 Louisville and was ranked as high as 7th in the nation, the Empire State Building was lit up Rutgers scarlet.  I lived in Manhattan at the time and when I saw that Rutgers had gotten New York City’s attention, I was never more proud to have been an RU alum.  Rutgers now regularly runs a winning record and goes to bowl games.  Twice the team has been within a victory of a Big East Title and BCS berth.

So thank you, Coach Schiano.  You’ve made New Jersey relevant in college sports again.  I understand that coaching an NFL team is probably a dream of yours and I wish you success.  I’m sorry to see you go and I don’t think the team will be the same without you.

It’s sad when you regard your team choking away a share of their first conference title to an unranked opponent with a losing record an improvement.

KFC Extra-Crispy-Chicken-Bowl here we come!

Huge win for Rutgers. The Orange Bowl is in sight…

The secret to being good in sports…not losing to inferior teams.  I have a habit of rooting for teams that can never seem to get out of their own way.  The Yankees seem to make every pitcher look like Doc Gooden in RBI Baseball once October rolls around.  Game 4 against the Indians in 2007….who the hell is Paul Byrd?  Game 5 against Detroit two weeks ago…wait, didn’t we pummel that kid last week? 

The Giants can beat anyone and lose to Seattle.  Rutgers is a game away from playing pretty much for the inside track to the Big East title against a West Virginia team that just got its ass beat but our wide open receiver couldn’t help himself from scoring the touchdown in his head before he actually caught the ball and, of course, dropped it.  When you’re a team with a decent record, inferior teams are always going to come out and play like it’s their Super Bowl and in the process make you look old and overrated.  When you’re playing a team with a 2-4 record, you’ve got to beat them like they owe you money. 

I feel like every game I watch lately my team is trying to win by the smallest margin possible—like it would be impolite to demolish someone 49-0 once in a while.

Is it just me or do college football conferences suddenly remind you of lunch tables in a high school cafeteria?

Drove back from Delaware last night.  The road systems in New Jersey are bypassed like Bill Clinton’s ventricles.  Tree branches and trunks are on the roads here, there and everywhere.  My Alma Mater, Rutgers, has been inundated worse than Hurricane Floyd ten years ago when I was actually a student there.  My father-in-law has contemplated renting out his generator.  Good Times.