The Knights Watchman

It's been a few hours since Rutgers was dismantled by Syracuse up at the dome, 31-13. And I gotta tell ya, it hasn't taken long to get over it, simply because the Scarlet Knights never made a game out of it. This was a baffling loss on many levels, but I could see how it could've happened. Not that it's excusable, but this was the perfect scenario for a letdown. Syracuse looked horrible last week at Louisville in a battle of the Big East bottom feeders. Meanwhile, Rutgers blew up USF , at the time ranked No. 23 in the country. That win caused everyone to take for granted that RU would be 9-2 heading into the game against WVU on December 5. Syracuse, on the other hand, was itching for its first Big East win and this game was basically their season, their bowl game. Rutgers has become the Orange's No. 1 rival because the rise of Rutgers has very much coincided with, and come at the expense of Syracuse. Still, the Rutgers defense needs to be held to task for coming o...

Rutgers is ranked No. 25 in this weeks AP Poll . This is the first time the Scarlet Knights have been officially ranked since the end of the 2007 season. RU also moved up among the "Teams Receiving Votes" ranks of the Coaches Poll, receiving 74 votes and placing at what amounts to No. 29.

Last night's 31-0 thrashing of the South Florida Bulls by the Scarlet Knights was a huge win for the program . With South Florida having recently defeated West Virginia and sitting pretty with a No. 23 ranking, Rutgers can make a case that it's the third best team in the Big East. Of course, RU will have to prove that over the next three weeks. Here's my breakdown of some of the things on game night as I saw it: The Atmosphere It was bone chillingly cold in the upper level where I sit. I think many fans elected to stay in the parking lot and drink or keep the grill going to stay warm. I can't say I completely blame them. Many people sitting around me left at halftime because they simply couldn't take it anymore. I bought a pair of what appear to be women's gloves from the merchandise trailer on my way in just to keep warm, looking manly be damned. Sure there should have been more fans there and more fans should have stayed. But the weather report and the way the...

The Rutgers/Syracuse game on Nov. 21 has been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. according to this article from scarletknights.com Unfortunately, ESPN 360 has decided to broadcast the game live via the Internet so there will be no available TV coverage. Someday I will rant on that ridiculous situation.

This Asbury Park Press article talks about Sayreville High School standout Dave Milewski's commitment to Rutgers. Early conjecture is that Milewski will likely play linebacker when he gets to the banks. I've been reading his clippings in some of the local papers and it seems to me that he is a game changer, so I'm excited about this commit in the sense that I think this is a kid with a tremendous upside who thus far has eluded most of the big programs.

The title of this entry links to an article written by Tom Luicci of the Newark Star-Ledger who states his case as to why it will be a hollow 10-2 even if Rutgers runs the table and finishes at 10-2. I agree with a lot of Tom says with a couple of minor exceptions... First of all, I'm still of the mindset that in relation to where the program was just five years ago, 10 wins is something that makes fans downright giddy. If you told me while I was attending Rutgers from 92 to 96 that we would have a 10-win season I would have plotzed . With the exception of my freshman year, when the team went 7-4 under Doug Graber , the other football seasons were pretty much god awful. Naturally, I want the team to take the next step and win the conference or play in a more meaningful bowl, but more importantly, I want the team to win its home games. As a season ticket holder, I leave happy when the team wins regardless of the opposition. So, if I'm witnessing 2 more home wins this year aga...

Just watched the video of Coach Schiano's weekly press conference, and admittedly I didn't get much from it. Bye week press conferences are always short on information simply because the team usually does a lot of cleaning up on fundamentals rather than closely preparing for the upcoming opponent. The main thing that came out is that safety Zaire Kitchen is very questionable for Thursday's game. Kitchen has had a lot of tough luck in his career and I hope he can make it for the USF game and the rest of the season. Apart from being a talented player, his determination to constantly work his way back from injury and back into the lineup is inspirational. A tougher man would be tough to find.

The above title contains a link to an excellent article written by Allen Barra for the Wall Street Journal giving a brief history of the first-ever college football game played this week 140 years ago on the Rutgers campus. He explains that although the game differed immensely from college football as we know it, there is still definitive proof that the game that day morphed into what we have now.