Rutgers Goes For First Bowl Win

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Rutgers lost so much in a season-ending, triple-overtime defeat at West Virginia — the Big East Championship, a bid to the Orange Bowl — that the natural tendency is to suspect the Scarlet Knights (10–2) won’t be motivated to play Kansas State (7–5) tonight in the inaugural Texas Bowl at Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

But viewers captivated by the Scarlet Knights’ story, who tune in to NFL Network at 8 p.m. (see below), are likely to see a team that is still hungry. Hungry for an 11th win to cap perhaps the greatest season in 137 years of football — at the school that gave birth to the sport. Hungry to send a still-young team into the offseason with another run at a Bowl Championship Series berth. Hungry for the first bowl win in school history. And hungry to get where its opponent has already been.

Before Rutgers took the college football world by storm with its rags-to-riches tale — an ascendancy that was marked by a nationally televised, stunning, come-from-behind win over then no. 3 Louisville on November 9 — those who follow Kansas State were already familiar with the plot.

Prior to Bill Snyder’s arrival as head coach in 1989, Kansas State was an even worse program than Rutgers. Between 1935 and 1991, when Snyder posted his first winning record, the Wildcats had six non-losing seasons. During that stretch, they went winless eight times. And Snyder’s immediate predecessor, Stan Parrish, went 2–30–1 in three seasons.

But Snyder built a winner in Manhattan, taking the team to 11 consecutive bowl games between 1993 and 2003, including a pair of Fiesta Bowls. The turnaround under Snyder is generally considered the greatest reclamation project in college football history, and Rutgers and Schiano have a long way to go to match it, despite the recent success in Piscataway.

Snyder retired after back-to-back losing seasons in ’04 and ’05, and was succeeded by a former Virginia assistant, Ron Prince, this fall. Prince’s team has defied low expectations and a 4–4 start — the Wildcats were the consensus choice to finish last in the Big 12 North — to finish strong and earn the Texas Bowl bid.

Much of the Kansas turnaround this season can be attributed to the play of freshman quarterback Josh Freeman, who at 6 foot 6 inches and with good mobility and arm strength, draws easy comparisons to a very raw Vince Young. A recruiting coup for Prince, Freeman earned playing time right away and was the starter by midseason. He led the Wildcats to a comeback win against Oklahoma State and later a three-game winning streak that culminated with the biggest triumph of the season: a 42–39 home upset of then no. 4 Texas.

It was in the Texas game that Freeman began to garner national recognition after throwing for 269 yards and three touchdowns and running for another score.

For Rutgers, national attention built for much of the season, reaching a crescendo after the upset of Louisville turned the New York area into college football country for 10 days — or as long as it took the Knights to fall from the ranks of the unbeaten in an ugly loss at Cincinnati. But Schiano’s team has shown resolve since that disappointment, rallying to crush Syracuse in its home finale and taking favored West Virginia to the brink on December 2.

Rutgers may have lost the Big East title and Orange Bowl bid that night (both of which went to Louisville) but it found a quarterback. Even as Rutgers built a 9–0 record, questions surrounded the play of sophomore Mike Teel, who was often little more than a bystander as the Knights won with defense and the two-headed rushing attack of tailback Ray Rice and fullback Brian Leonard.

But Teel played the best game of his career against the Mountaineers, completing 19–of–26 throws for 278 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions in a hostile environment and against a quality defense. The numbers would have been even better had Teel not had a perfect pass dropped in the end zone late in the fourth quarter.

Teel’s emergence will be critical for Rutgers as it pursues greater goals next season, but to win this game, the Scarlet Knights will likely go back to the smash-mouth game that served them so well all year. Kansas State’s defense ranks just 70th against the run, allowing 143 yards per game and nearly four yards per carry, numbers that would be worse without the Wildcats’ 40 sacks. Rice has the potential to go for 200-plus yards, but some of his carries may go to Leonard, a team-first senior playing his final game. Leonard, the subject of a preseason Heisman campaign by the school, has conceded the spotlight to Rice without complaint. Schiano went out of his way to get Leonard a touchdown record in the Syracuse game, and a similar gesture could be in order here if Rutgers has the game well in hand.

Defensively, Rutgers will come after Freeman, hoping to force the freshman into padding his interception total of 13. With 38 sacks, Rutgers can also rush the passer, so Kansas State will try to slow the front seven and ease the burden on Freeman by using running backs Leon Patton and James Johnson on a variety of draws and screens. If Rutgers contains the run, it will be open season on Freeman and a long night for Kansas State.

Rutgers is the superior team in this matchup, but needs to play with some urgency because motivation can often trump talent in bowl games. Expect the Scarlet Knights to take the field with the understanding that an upset loss would undo much of the good derived from this season, while an impressive win will propel them into the off-season with momentum.

Viewers’ Guide to the Texas Bowl

For a while it appeared this game would be unavailable to many cable households in the New York area. The NFL Network squabbled with local broadcast stations in the teams’ markets over exclusivity rights, but has agreed to offer a free preview this week. Localarea, digital-basic subscribers of Comcast, Cablevision, TimeWarner and Patriot Media can all see the game for free as part of the preview. In addition, Cablevision will air the Texas Bowl on its basic tier. Comcast basic customers are entitled to a free digital receiver and one month free service. The DirecTV and Dish Network satellite services both offer the NFL Network as part of their basic packages. The Rutgers vs. Kansas State matchup airs 8 p.m. ET. For more information, go to the Rutgers football official site at scarletknights.com/football.


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