A favored haunt?

In winning these three straight games and getting on the verge of righting this season, the Scarlet Knights haven't done anything but Keep on keepin' on. Today I wrote how the players say there have been no drastic changes, how South Florida coach Jim Leavitt says there's nothing desperately different in these Knights and the ones of five weeks ago and how that even-keeled approach has served them well.

Interestingly enough, we first saw that steady composure two years ago, on a trip to Tampa. 

The Scarlet Knights went into South Florida that October night in 2006 with their first national ranking (no. 23) in 30 years. They went up 10-0 and then they went into halftime having allowed two straight touchdowns and having not tried anything after getting the ball with 2:23 to play. They came back with 12 straight points in the second half, they gave South Florida the ball with 2:32 to play and, in a 22-14 hole, the Bulls drove confidently from their own 33. Two consecutive 15-yard penalties by Rutgers put South Florida on the six-yard line and after a first touchdown reception was whistled back, Matt Grothe completed another one. With 15 seconds to play, Grothe threw the two-point conversion at Amp Hill, the ball bobbled in Hill's hands, Greg Schiano later said he thought it was a catch and somehow, in some way, Jason McCourty made sure it wasn't.

The "signature" win everyone looks at in that 2006 season was the Thursday night one over Louisville four games later, the one with the rushed field and Jeremy Ito's nod to ESPN's skycam and the lit-up Empire State Building. But I remember that win at South Florida really showed me Rutgers was no pretender. It was the first time Rutgers was in a mega-spotlight, under mega-pressure and the Knights didn't blink. Ray Rice carried the ball 35 times - and kept demanding it. Eric Foster's post-game freelance chant officially hit the morning shows and that Friday night was Rutgers' introduction to the national scene.

Raymond James Stadium was good to the Knights, it was good to Jason McCourty and it was even good to a vegetarian reporter, who got a four-star, specially made quinoa dinner. Ultimately, though, Jason said no one's making this trip with any sort of fond memories, or good vibes. "That game, that play, they affected the 2006 season," he said. "Not the 2008 season."   

There's no question this one is as big as it's been at Rutgers for a few years. If Rutgers wins this one, its bowl destiny is in its hands. If it doesn't, and even if it does win the last two games (against Army and Louisville), nothing's promised. The last trip to Tampa asked if Rutgers was real. This one asks if Rutgers' return is real. What do you think?

Comments

[rutgersguy]

I'd say most definitely we're real. We may not have started out great but I think around the WVU game there were signs that things could get better. Since then things have slowly come together and the last 2 games have shown we can definitely beat USF, but we can't have so many turnovers again.

We'll have to match/outmatch their phyicality and I don't mean running the football. Have to block and tackle well, make them know we're there. Nothing dirty, although USF can be borderline dirty at times, but just hard football when it comes to blocking and tackling.

This is from another post I made elsewhere and my thoughts from the last game and the possibilities of the future. We most definitely are a "real" team and can become a "real" program as long as the coaches continue on this path.

My thoughts:

Teel did a great job spreading the ball around and utilizing the whole field, making the defense have to respect long/short and the entire width of the field. I'm happy to see Corcoran get some catches out in the flat steadily more game to game. He's a good safety valve, use it. I know people think Teel threw 2 bad INTs. I'm not so sure if it was 2. The first one I think was a miscommunication of where the ball was suppose to go between Teel and Brown so I don't know whose fault that was. I will say that he didn't step into that throw and it was off the back foot so that's not good. The second INT just before half was really bad though. You can't make that throw deep in our side with little time left unless you're absolutely sure we're gonna catch it. Stick with an out route or some short pass in the flat and hope someone can break one for big yards. You don't wanna be too conservative but not too risky either.

Also great job by Teel of getting back on the horse after the INTs in front of what can be a hostile home crowd and leading the team. Everyone makes mistakes point is to learn from them, correct them and move on and keep your confidence up. It took a couple series after the first INT to get going again but he did so that was good.

Play calling was great, that Martinek play design, play call, and execution was superb. One of my favorite plays of the season for sure. I know people think the play calling has just improved these last 2-3 games especially Pitt and Syracuse. But if you look back it started around the WVU game. They were calling reverses, screens, playactions, quick outs, using Mike's legs around that game and the following games. I think since it was new stuff that the players still weren't acclimated to the execution. I was saying during that time I like some of these calls but I thought the execution and the "selling" of some of those plays weren't great yet. Now fast forward a few weeks and some of those same plays are being called with additional wrinkles even but now it's all coming together. The players are executing and selling the plays very well and the coaches are calling them at opportune times.

Both Kordell and Martinek did a nice job running the ball. Kordell still got way too many carries for my liking and should have split more with either Martinek or Brooks. I think 20 carries a game is enough, pushing 30 again is asking too much. I thought it was too much for Rice and I think it's too much for Kordell. With regards to Martinek, this guy is just hard, tough nosed football player who knows how to make plays both on special teams and in the running game. His unselfishness is great to see. Also didn't realized until Kordell commented after the game, the wildcat play wasn't designed to go outside but Martinek obviously had the vision to see something better and made the most of it. Great vision in a rb is a huge asset to have.

The wide receivers have been stepping it up as of late. Catching most of the easy ones and making some difficult ones. Tim Brown's comeback on that short ball was great, he's the only one I've seen make these dives and adjustments consistently. I will say that Britt had a very nice play on a comeback too which could have been easily a pick 6 if he didn't fight off the db comeback and get the ball. In that same drive the next play Campbell did a nice job too catching in traffic, and fighting his way for a TD which the typical lousy Big East refs screwed him on. I think both of those plays could've been INTs but the WRs did a great job fighting and making sure they were caught and weren't INTs.

The oline pass blocking has been pretty decent all year long and the run blocking improved some the past game. I hope the continue their steady trajectory upward. They're still young and in time I think will be very good.

The defense had their one boneheaded secondary play a game with the Greene missed tackle but after that they shored things up. I don't think I've ever seen them swarm to the ball like they did in this game. I swear consistently I felt like all 11 guys were on someone immediately after they had the ball, it was great to see and I hope it keeps up. Great job by Kitchen again with another timely caused fumble just like the Pitt game. Good to see the D causing some turnovers too, we've been due.

I know some may think I'm crazy but I have to say if we can continue this and go 7-5 or maybe even if we don't but as long as we perform well, I'd say this is Schiano's best coaching effort even better than the 11-2 season. To hold the team together after such a lousy start and get them to execute can be extremely difficult and he seems to be doing it for now.

I've never been the biggest Schiano advocate in terms of coaching. I thought he deserved tremendous credit to lift us out of the dregs we were in to the mediocre level and he deserves an A+ for all off the field issues like academics etc.. However, I've never fully believed he could take us to the next level because he always seemed to stubborn and made too many head scratching decisions. Even after the 11-2 season I wasn't sure if he could keep us at a high level consistently. But this season because he's finally showed some ability to adapt/evolve I'm much more hopeful than I've ever been. By either telling or letting McNulty to open up some and letting go of some of his stubbornness he's shown some flexibility to adapt to the situation. Now mind you he still makes some head scratchers like the 2 timeout icing the kicker(one would've been enough for me) and keeping our starters in so deep into a blowout game, etc.... But he's shown finally that he's not in a bubble and so set in stone and will change to get better, something that I haven't seen in all his years here. The stubbornness and tunnel vision was a great attribute to have when lifting the program out of the dumps but not so much for coaching the games, need to have a little more balance between being fickle and being stubborn. I think he's finally come around and if he continues this path, the future looks brighter than it ever has been, at least from this fan's eyes.

[BosKnight]

RutgersGuy - great analysis (where did you earlier make that post?). I am trying not to be negative, but I think the Teel issue still is the problem with this team. He did have two ints, and I think they were both dreadful. But what you refer to as the two "comeback" plays could (or even should) have been two more ints. What I see in the Cuse game is the same great defense we had all along this season, with only one big play (instead of 3 or 4 that killed us in Fresno, and other games), and a horrible team as our adversary. In any other game, I am not sure that Teel's errors would been absolved. On the other hand, I think about QBs like Favre -- cowboys who make things happen but take risks and throw alot of ints but still win most of the time. But I just don't think that is Teel. On that pass he threw to Brown, it was a critical time, Brown was way open, and Teel was rolling and off balance and did not mentally adjust to put more juice on the ball than had he been standing still. That Brown happened to be able to comeback 5 yards, and that neither of the two defenders happened to look back, is pure luck. In fact, of all the ints, that pass was worse than I remember seeing - it wasnt even close. The Britt comeback was less of a bad pass, but it was still a big mistake. Now good teams have good receivers that do things like that, but in the Cuse game I saw nothing but a great defensive show, and Teel getting lucky, and a terrible defense in Cuse to make it look even better. Young looked great making them miss alot, but I am not sure whether to attibute that to him any more than I think Ray Rice is ready for the Hall running on Cleveland. I just hope that the good luck for Teel keeps rolling because he is just a mediocre QB and the key to this team's underachieving all year. Indeed, he looks the same to me this year as last when he was excused all year due to "the thumb."

[bobkclass80]

I cannot believe we are still Teel-bashing. This guy has played through a lot of adversity and has been a stand-up guy one hundred percent. I've never heard of him pointing a finger at the drops, and there have been many. Could we have a better QB? We'll find out next year and beyond with DC and Savage but for now can we enjoy and appreciate this lineup.

On another note, I too have been concerned about the coaching but it finally does appear that they are learning adaptation - hope it continues and evolves!

Enjoy the kids.