Scarlet Knights Newzer

Turnabout

Last year it was Rutgers in the 18-point hole. Last year it was Rutgers kicking the game-winning field goal with less than two dozen seconds left. Last year it was Rutgers' fans rushing the field, last year it was Rutgers showing all the moxie and last year, oh, last year feels like a lifetime ago.

After the game, I asked Greg Schiano if he noticed any discernible difference in his players when he'd told them, this afternoon, about the International Bowl's official invitation. He turned the query back on me, asking how we knew that (it was out on the wires, well before any of Schiano's players would have left their hotel rooms and their computers). But honestly, there was no reason for the coach to be defensive. It was blatantly obvious that these guys, as Ron Girault later said, "weren't playing for any bowl game."

Pedro Sosa hurt himself and when replacement Kevin Haslam got hurt, the senior left tackle tried to will himself back to healthy. (Sadly, a few plays later, it was clear it wouldn't work.) In the fourth quarter, with all the momentum in Louisville's corner, kicker Jeremy Ito made a full-on sprint to make a touchdown-saving (then) tackle, Kevin Malast ran faster than I've ever seen him run to corral a headed-for-the-end zone Brock Bolen two yards shy of the end zone and Eric Foster looked like a man possessed when he dropped George Stripling for a loss on the first play of Louisville's final drive. At no point did any Scarlet Knight look like he was letting up.

But having said that... what the heck? Up 18 with a minute to go in the first half and then give up a 52-yard touchdown? Up 18 3:41 into the second half and then give up a bleeding, 13-play, 5:01 minute touchdown drive? With a first-and-goal from the eight, settle for a field goal and then, still up a decent 38-24, give up 53-yard kickoff return, a 26-yard screen pass and an 18-yard touchdown run? In barely a minute? It was 17 unanswered points, and when Foster said, "I know we matured a lot and situations like this, I thought we'd learned how to finish off an opponent..." I could only nod my head.

I really thought I'd be writing about Jeremy Zuttah catching a lateral, rumbling 13 yards and making a shoddy attempt at the Leonard Leap over corner Rod Council. I thought I'd be asking freshman Chris Paul-Etienne about that first-ever pass, a 29-yard touchdown to Kenny Britt that ultimately got called incomplete but still had Schiano running onto the field and lifting him up.

"We did a lot of things right," corner Devin McCourty said, "but we did a lot of things wrong too."

Well, the good news is they have a month and five days to work on it.

No Meaningless Mood

So it's not quite Coach K scheduling a tipoff for the same time Duke's football team was playing its game. But Greg Schiano DID have Rutgers practicing while then-No. 5 LSU was taking on C. Vivian Stringer's then-No. 7 Scarlet Knights over at the RAC and so as soon as practice ended, Mike Teel made a beeline for Sports Info assistant Hasim Phillips, looking for a score. Mike heard the women won by two, he smiled in that understated way of his and then, a few minutes later, he told Tiquan Underwood. Who went nuts.

Jumping nearly to the roof of the stadium's tunnel, Ti pumped his helmet in the air and started screaming, "We beat LSU! We beat LSU!" With his teammates looking at him funny, Ti kept shouting, "Our girls! They did it!" and I have to tell you, the excitement, for his school and his classmates, was really endearing.

The energy level's actually been admirably high all week. Most of the talk, among fans and in the newspapers, has been that this game is meaningless. While Cincinnati fans have been kept busy e-mailing Meineke Car Care Bowl officials (what a great idea, btw) and UConn fans have been on edge waiting for the Meineke folks to make their decision, Rutgers fans know their team is headed to the International Bowl regardless of what happens Thursday. Blowing out Louisville won't change anything. Momentum can't count desperately for a game on Jan. 5. The Cardinals aren't some hated rival. And yet... the players aren't feeling any of that.

Mike Teel's been throwing the ball extremely sharply. The DBs are working hard to make the receivers' lives uncomfortable (Today's Record). Drills have been loud and they've been spirited and by now, the Scarlet Knights surely know the 5-6 Cardinals are gunning for them (Slay Knights).

Yes, the energy's high. And it's good.

Hoop Horror Picture Show

Courtney Chandler turned the ball over, Hamady Ndiaye pushed his big body upcourt and blocked Marlon Sanders' shot, the crowd went off, the Scarlet Knights raced back to their end of the court, and with the whole Rutgers bench standing behind him, Jaron Griffin pulled up for a three. And clanked it.

The sweet little grandmother in the first row behind me leaned forward over the railing and said, "At least you didn't have to pay for your seat."

I have to hope last night really was an aberration, that that's why Jim Carr jokingly ordered me not to come back to the RAC. Because, see, a reporter being bad luck may be the best explanation for what we saw last night. (Almost Poison Ivy)

First, it's great that Rutgers somehow pulled this one out against Dartmouth. But Dartmouth was shellacked by Air Force and James Madison, Dartmouth was picked to finish l-a-s-t in the Ivy League and Dartmouth was supposed to be a prime opportunity for the Scarlet Knights to start getting their game in order. In four games, the Knights had been terrible from the free throw line (63.5 percent), terrible from long range (31.4 percent) and terrible in their ball movement (10.5 assists per outing). The Big Green, meanwhile, don't play much defense - their three previous opponents shot 46 percent and averaged 75 points. What better way to start a six-game stretch of potentially winnable games before North Carolina comes to town?

The Scarlet Knights went 14-23 from the free throw line. 1-14 on threes. And had seven assists.

The biggest fix going forward, though, might have to be Hamady Ndiaye. The 6-11 sophomore from Senegal plays with incredible verve, a contagious grin, and all the fire a team bound to frequently be the less-talented one needs. The Scarlet Knights were a different team with him on the court yesterday, and the crowd, paltry as it was (2,822?), fed off him. His dunks are thunderous, he rebounds hard, he's becoming a very adept shot blocker, and he doesn't any longer look like a kid who first picked up a basketball at 16. (Which he is.)

So the problem?

"Fouls," he said, with an incredibly appealing, self-chastening smile. "The excitement always gets to me. I gotta calm down." He played only 20 minutes Tuesday (and had eight points, nine rebounds and four blocks) and when asked if he recognizes how different his team is with him on the floor, he modestly said, "I would say yes. I'm trying to bring the energy from the bench, but I know it is not the same."

Rutgers coach Fred Hill is still cutting Ndiaye a bunch of slack ("He's still a little bit long and gangly and I think he gets some tough calls," Hill said), but point guard Anthony Farmer said Ndiaye's teammates aren't going to be quite so nice. "Definitely the energy level is different with him," Farmer said. "We have to get him better at when to take one (foul) and when not to take one."

And Ndiaye, kind of like the little lady behind me, said he's fine complaining about the seats at the RAC. "I want to play," he said, "not sit."

Bowl Bafflement

Well, contrary to what a New Haven Register blog presumed (Runway Ramblings), Rutgers is not entirely out of the Sun Bowl picture. John Folmer, the president of the bowl, just told me so this morning. To read everything he has to say, make sure you check out The Record before tomorrow's game, but in a nutshell: El Paso is not off the table. If Rutgers can win two games.

Now, if Rutgers can't, we may have some other interesting possibilities. I talked to Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese too and it turns out, the league will allow one of its teams to take an at-large berth to a non-affiliated bowl. And the league can even allow that if all its own bowl spots aren't filled. Basically, Tranghese said, "we orchestrate a trade. That can always be done."

But before anyone starts think Las Vegas Bowl, Tranghese swore, "we haven't gotten into those things yet. It's so early. I know the fans and everyone else says it's not early, but it's too early. We haven't had a bowl partner who has yet said to us, this is the direction I'm leaning in."

And Folmer said that's basically true. His 10-person committee meets every Monday night and after sharing what happened at this last Monday meeting, and going over a zillion different "what-ifs" with me today, he laughed and said, "Now make sure you call me next Tuesday because my answers could be all different."

Ray-Ray

Courtney Greene only stopped calling Ray Rice "Ray-Ray" to me this year. Of course, when you grow up with a kid, it's hard to start referring to him formally. And when the kid's Ray, well, he has to be one of the most unassuming superstars in college football. So much so that, most of the time, I forget he IS a superstar.

And that has everything to do with the way he was raised. With Tara Sullivan writing on why this Saturday's kickoff with Pitt should be Ray's last home game (Don't Stay Ray), I thought it would be fun to chat with the person who's a key part of Ray's gameday (Mama Rice). Ray is the oldest of his mother's three boys, she's an incredibly hard-working - and high-energy - single-mother and as tough as the tailback is, he gets a little choked up when asked about her. "She's been the one that's been here for me," he said. "I'm her oldest child and it's kind of a weird feeling. Like a brother-sister relationship."

Well, big sister or mom, Janet Rice is exactly the sort of person someone would want in his corner. She's goofy and funny and unconditionally supportive. (Saturday, she'll be driving the hour and a half from New Rochelle to Rutgers and then the three hours from there to Kingston, N.Y., where No. 2 son Markell has a high school game. And she's already told her seven-year old daughter, Durasia, to not even think about whining during either game!)

Ms. Rice told me she wears three rings around her neck - Ray's high school championship one, his Insight Bowl one and his Texas Bowl one. She's hoping for two more she said, one from Markell for winning his state championship and another from Rutgers' bowl trip.

Just like Ray, Ms. Rice says he doesn't yet know if next year will bring more game-watching at Rutgers. And her response to all the people who keep asking her that is absolutely hysterical: "The only thing I tell them is we're playing one game at a time. As Coach says, 'We're chopping.'"

Greg Schiano's got even the parents trained!

Rutgers fans or Football fans?

This past April, I wrote a story for Sports Illustrated on the whole Don Imus mess. I argued with the editors there over the final line, which they wanted to read (and which did read): "The Scarlet Knights open their season against... and you can bet the cameras will be there for at least one game." I thought it should read, "... and they can only hope the cameras will still be there."

Well, sadly, I was right. The young team who'd stunningly marched to the national title game, the young women who'd so classily represented the university to the country (cover of Newsweek anyone?), finally got back on the court Sunday night ... and were welcomed by a half-empty arena. Forget the cameras - there were no fans.

There was a ring ceremony before the game, the team's Big East championship and NCAA title game banners were hung from the rafters, No. 7 Stanford was in town for an ESPN audience and... the band was about the only thing keeping the student section from being barren. It was a great match-up, featuring two Hall of Fame coaches, C. Vivian Stringer and Tara VanDerveer, who've got a combined 1,500 victories and a genuine friendship. (I've never seen so long, nor warm, a pre-game greeting.) Stanford was bringing in one of the country's three best players, All-American Candice Wiggins, and anyone watching got the show expected: 11 ties, 15 lead changes, and a game-decider with 0.1 on the clock. It was the kind of game that a sixth man could've made a difference.

Four thousand three hundred and seven people do not a sixth man make.

Quarterback Mike Teel and wideout Tiquan Underwood were two of the 4,307, hustling over after football practice. Yesterday, I told Mike he was a rock star for going and he said the funny thing was he didn't even know the game was happening. He hadn't seen anything on campus, he hadn't passed one flyer or heard one pitch, and if he didn't personally know some of the women's players, who'd off-handedly mentioned their season opener, he'd never have been there.

Now, considering the athletic department sent out an e-mail to students Monday, saying there were extra seats to Saturday's football game against Pitt and encouraging students to bring guests, couldn't the department have sent out an e-mail encouraging a similar support of the women's team? 

Monday Maneuvers

Stretching was done, the players had raced up the tunnel and the field was clear. Except for Chris Paul-Etienne and Tiquan Underwood.

The redshirt freshman quarterback and the junior wideout were out at midfield, practicing routes and throws and doing it for a good 20 minutes after everyone else had left. I didn't know if Underwood had pulled his younger teammate aside and said, "Hey, let's get you some work," or if Paul-Etienne had gone to his team's leading receiver and asked, "Will you help me out?" Greg Schiano didn't know either, but the look on his face as he turned to the pair, and the way he shook his head and said, "That's two very hard workers" was absolutely like a proud dad. Call me hokey, but it sure looked like one of those this-is-why-I-coach moments.

Of course, part of coaching is lighting fires and Schiano seems to have done some of that with his defensive line. After losing his starting spot to true freshman Alex Silvestro two games ago, Jamal Westerman's apparently won it back as Schiano said the junior "may get a chance to get back there." At the other end, Gary Watts got the nod over George Johnson - a player Schiano's repeatedly referred to as a physical freak - this past week at Army. Monday, Schiano said, "I think Gary played well enough to keep the starting role." Lots of bodies get on the line at Rutgers, but no player will say being the starter doesn't matter. Not any honest player.

The other big maneuvering during practice was down the field on punt returns. For a while it looked like open auditions out there, with each guy just as into winning the job as the next. Schiano's always stressed special teams as an equal one-third of the game (and until this year, the results have borne that out), but I had to ask him if he was hesitant to use regular skill guys in an area that produces such beatings. Schiano frankly said yes, he does think twice about it. But hey, even in the NFL, coaches are calling on their best players to help out on special teams. Field position changes games, right? What do you think - play the best? Or save the best skill guys for regular downs?

One last note: I would encourage all of you to please check out the comments under the Poaching Recruits post. Brian Hohmann, a starting linebacker on the first two Rutgers teams I covered and now a teacher, has gotten into a very interesting back and forth with a few of our other readers. I think you'll all find the exchange enlightening.

Poaching Recruits

As Rutgers has struggled to this 5-4 mark, there's been the inevitable talk that the year represents a step back from last year's 11-2 season. That, in turn, has dialed up the also inevitable negative recruiting, and perhaps made Rutgers fans nervous that Greg Schiano will once again be susceptible to the poaching he used to suffer.

Well, Teaneck tailback and Rutgers commit Rashad White tells Tara Sullivan today (White Unstained) that he is indeed getting a lot of calls from college coaches. And that none has had any luck swaying him.

While Tara was writing that, I was most struck by the fact that Butch Davis, Schiano's old boss at Miami and a mentor, was one of the coaches courting White. I had to ask Schiano if he thought that was shady and you know what? He just laughed.

"There is no more poaching," he said. "Unfortunately, it's gotten to where you don't have a choice. I don't hold grudges against anybody who's going after our kids that are committed. Because kids that are committing are de-committing... We'll be fine on that front."

I guess the system is what it is. Here's one little other tidbit Tara couldn't squeeze into her column. Rashad said just like Rutgers' record won't affect him at all, Ray Rice's decision to stay for his senior year, or go on to the NFL, won't factor into his thinking either.

"If he goes to the NFL, I'd be excited because of the opportunity," Rashad said. "But if he stays, I'll be happy because it's better for the team and I can learn from him."

Now does that sound like a Schiano-prepped Scarlet Knight or what?

Disappointing Dad

Greg Schiano really made me think of my dad yesterday. It's why I wrote in today's paper about the introspection, and personal questioning, he's doing right now. (Schiano Studying Schiano)

When I was younger, my dad - who, by the way, is brilliant - would every day teach me something. Sometimes it was long division, sometimes it was how to hit a baseball, but whatever it was, it was always something he fully, absolutely knew I was capable of learning. Well, the lessons sometimes took very easily. Sometimes, because I wasn't focused, because I wasn't interested, because I was maybe just being lazy, I didn't do what I was supposed to. And my dad always questioned himself. He knew what he was asking me to do was not out of my physical abilities, or my mental abilities, and so he figured my failure had to be because he was doing a lousy teaching job.

And that's exactly what Greg Schiano was saying yesterday. "Any frustration, I'm a part of," Schiano said. "I'm not frustrated at them, I'm frustrated with them. I think for a coach to stand up there and say 'they're not,' well, as a head coach, 'they're' is YOU. I'm frustrated with myself. I'm frustrated that, as a head coach, I have not been able to pull it out of this program."

There's a lot more of that when you read the story, but what really painted the similarity for me was the bit at the end, where Ray Rice and Mike Teel are clearly bothered that their coach is feeling this way. Talking to them last night reminded me of how I'd get when I realized my dad was blaming himself for my concentration issues. It was wrong and unfair, it made me feel like a jerk, and it would always push me to get it right.

I'm guessing Schiano's "kids" are feeling the same way right now.

Knife News

How's this for good news? Manny Abreu won't actually need surgery on the knee he wrenched last week. The freshman is still probably shut down for the year because of the hip trouble that's sidelined him for most of the season. And that's fine, really, because he's only appeared in two games (Buffalo and Norfolk State) and if Rutgers can get him the medical redshirt, it should. Still, it's better to have Manny NOT coming off surgery in the spring than the alternative.

While we were talking surgery this afternoon, Greg Schiano said that James Townsend's went off without a hitch. "He did come through well," Schiano said, "and the surgery was a quote-unquote success." Whether it was enough of a success to return James to his pre-op form, and thus allow the wideout to work out for pro scouts, only time will tell.

Kordell Young, meanwhile, has had enough time to assure his coaches that he'll return to his pre-surgery form. "He's a great worker," Schiano said of the rehab work Kordell's put in. Of course, that came after Schiano waxed on a bit about how much the Scarlet Knights miss Kordell on special teams. "We've blocked some punts," the coach said, "but we would've blocked more if he was here."

As for immediate injury news, Mike Teel didn't do much today, though neither he nor Schiano seemed particularly concerned about that. Schiano said Teel would be fine to go tomorrow and Teel, who doesn't have so much as a band-aid on his thumb, said he's simply "a little sore." His right tackle Jeremy Zuttah, who's been bothered by foot trouble for a few weeks now, gave about the same assessment. Incidentally, how impressive is Jeremy that he's playing this well despite only half-weeks of practice and maybe two-thirds of sound body?