Rutgers Has Rejuvenated a Football Tradition in New Jersey

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Walter Seward is 110 years old, having celebrated the milestone near his West Orange, N.J. home yesterday. Surrounded by family and friends, Mr. Seward greeted party attendees at a table that held two items: his birthday cake and a Rutgers hat.

Mr. Seward, a 1917 graduate of Rutgers and the school’s oldest living alumnus, has seen a lot of Rutgers football — a full 90 seasons having passed since he earned his degree.It’s also quite possible that he has never seen a Rutgers team better than the 2006 edition.

That’s not an entirely bold statement given Rutgers’ checkered history in the sport it helped pioneer.Though Rutgers played Princeton in the first college football game in 1869, it is better known for futility. From 1999–2002, for example, the Scarlet Knights went 1–27 in Big East conference play.

Rutgers did enjoy a brief period of success in the mid-1970s, compiling nine straight winning seasons from 1972–1980, including a perfect 11–0 mark in 1976. But that team, which finished 17th in the AP poll, beat only four programs that currently compete in Division IA, and the Scarlet Knights were not invited to a bowl.

Thirty years later, Rutgers stands 7–0 following its best win of the season, a 20–10 pounding of Pitt on the Panthers’ home field. The win, along with a 34–0 rout at Navy last week, served notice that Rutgers intends to be more than an afterthought in the Big East, previously believed to be a two-team conference with Louisville and West Virginia both ranked in the top-10.

The win over Pitt moved Rutgers to no. 16 in both the AP and coaches polls, helping to shiny up the Knights’ résumé as they prepare to spend the next few weeks in the national spotlight.Rutgers gets one more tune-up for the key Big East battles ahead when it takes on Connecticut on Sunday night in a game televised on ESPN, which will also air the Knights’ next contest: a home-date against Louisville on Thursday, November 9.

In another sign that things are changing in New Brunswick, both the Louisville contest and the November 25 game against Syracuse are already sold out at Rutgers Stadium.

It appears that the significant investment the school has made in its football program is finally paying dividends on the field.Rutgers joined the Big East as a charter member in football for the 1991 season and found some immediate success, going 7–4 and 4–2 in conference play in 1992. But Rutgers wouldn’t win more than two conference games in a season again until last year, when coach Greg Schiano led the Knights to a 7–5 mark and an Insight Bowl bid in his fifth season.

Many teams struggle following a breakthrough campaign, but Rutgers has only built on the success of last year.It is led by an outstanding power-running game and a run-stuffing defense. Against Pittsburgh, sophomore Ray Rice carried 39 times for 225 punishing yards and the defense limited a powerful Pitt offense to just 236 yards while piling up five sacks of Tyler Palko.

What’s more, this Rutgers team has shown the ability to withstand adversity and win close games. Case in point: It appeared Pitt had seized the momentum by scoring a touchdown to pull within 13–10 early in the fourth quarter and then bottling Rutgers up at its own 10-yard line on the subsequent kickoff. But Rice immediately got the Knights out of trouble, ripping off a 63-yard carry on the first play of a drive he would eventually cap with a two-yard touchdown to salt the game away.

Rutgers has now won three close games on the road this season after earlier beating North Carolina and South Florida. In each of those contests, Rutgers looked like it might surrender a late lead before coming up with a big play to ultimately decide the matter.

Schiano’s success at Rutgers, which is beginning to rival the work of Bill Snyder at Kansas State in terms of an all-time reclamation project, has not gone unnoticed. Miami, where Schiano served as the defensive coordinator before getting the Rutgers job, is having a down year and is likely to be looking for a new coach in the off-season. Schiano’s name has already surfaced in the rumor mill, and he’s very likely to be a target if the Hurricanes do indeed fire Larry Coker.

Still, jut because Miami comes calling, there is no guarantee Schiano would bite. Rutgers was patient with him during his early struggles — a 3–20 mark his first two years — while it worked to improve facilities and increase the football budget. Schiano rewarded that patience by five, four, and seven wins the next three seasons.

Schiano’s biggest coup has been in recruiting. New Jersey has long been a top producer of college-bound talent, but most of it went to Penn State, Notre Dame, or other far-flung institutions. Many a Rutgers coach arrived promising to keep the New Jersey kids home, but Schiano opted for a different approach.With his recruiting ties to Florida, he began raiding the Sunshine State for some of its leftovers.The plan was to use outsiders to build up the program, then come for the New Jersey kids once the team turned the corner.

So far, so good.The roster is still dotted with Floridians, but quarterback MikeTeel is a New Jersey product, as is impact defensive linemen Ramel Meekins. Rice and backfield mate Brian Leonard are both from nearby New York and were kept away from Syracuse by Schiano.

Rutgers has already equaled its win total from a season ago and will go to another bowl. Rutgers will be a significant underdog against both Louisville and West Virginia in the coming weeks, but Louisville has appeared vulnerable against lesser Big East teams of late, and West Virginia’s run-based offense would appear to be a good matchup for Rutgers’ stout run defense.

Even a split in those two games might stamp this as the greatest season in program history.

Even Mr. Seward might agree.

Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.

AP TOP 25

1. Ohio St.
2. Michigan
3. USC
4. West Virginia
5. Texas
6. Louisville
7. Auburn
8. Tennessee
9. Florida
10. Clemson
11. Notre Dame
12. Clalifornia
13. Arkansas
14. LSU
15. Boise St.
16. Rutgers
17. Wisconsin
18. Boston College
19. Oklahoma
20. Nebraska
21. Georgia Tech 22. Texas A &M
23. Missouri
24. Wake Forest
25. Oregon


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