The winds in Newark delayed me in Tampa for several hours yesterday and so I never got to blogging. I apologize for that. But... the delay did give me a chance to chat with Joe Martinek's dad, who told me a pretty cool story about Joe's website. Apparently, a complete stranger e-mailed him a couple years ago, before Joe was even at Rutgers, asking if he could set up a website just for the fun of it. Joe's dad very frankly told me he didn't quite know if he should give up Joe's domain name, but he did, the webmaster has now become a good family friend and Joe's dad sweetly hushed me when I said Rutgers would have to find something else when it came time to putting together Joe's Heisman campaign. The world really is changing with these websites, isn't it? I haven't Googled every other Scarlet Knights' name to see who else has one... definitely let me know if you know of any.
Mondays have become awfully fun again over at the Hale Center. The kids joke around, Greg Schiano smiles and we have interesting little moments. Like...
when I asked Kordell Young what was the bigger bonehead move, Kordell throwing - and throwing high - to quarterback Mike Teel when he was double covered, or Mike leaping up and catching the ball. Kordell started protesting that he didn't see Mike was covered and that Mike's tall enough to jump and then center Ryan Blazczyk leaned in and whispered to Kordell, "Tell her you were just trying to showcase Mike's athleticism."
or when I saw Ryan sitting between Kordell and his fellow tailback Joe Martinek and I made a crack about the linemen looking out for his backs even now and Ryan said, "No, they're protecting me. In case my strength coach comes up here and sees me eating this brownie." For the record, Ryan also had a cookie on his plate. Kordell and Joe only had sandwiches.
or maybe when someone else asked Greg Schiano about a college football playoff, he said "this one's getting way off the mark" and I piped in that the president-elect had just discussed it last night. Then he said "I know eight teams is a popular number, I think four is plenty," before quickly adding that he didn't want to go against the president-elect. And hey, he went on, it's good that "people are talking about it in diners and bars and classrooms... so it makes for a great debate." Greg Schiano in a bar? "I go to diners, not bars," he clarified.
Okay, but in all seriousness, there was some important news today. Long snapper Jeremy Branch's MRI was "not good," Greg said, and he will need surgery. The fifth-year senior may be able to put that off till after the season, but that's not known for sure yet. Either way, Andrew DePaola is totally "capable," Greg said, and punter Teddy Dellaganna should have no issues handling the holding duties Andrew was.
Kenny Britt and Jason McCourty are the Big East Players of the Week, Rutgers hasn't had a player snag those two honors in the same week since 1995. Jason also got a helmet sticker from Mark May and May made Kenny one of his top five college plays of the weekend on ESPN's College Football Final. ESPN apparently sends the kids an actual sticker - Greg said there's one in his office he still has to give Mike Teel, who earned one after that six-touchdown show at Pittsburgh.
SNY has some new times for Rutgers Rush Hour. The one-hour version of the previous game will now air at 11 p.m. on game night, and 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday mornings.
And lastly, we have some good stuff in the Record today. Tara Sullivan went out to Giants Stadium to chat with Ray Rice and Shaun O'Hara about being Rutgers guys in the NFL and I did my best pitching for a return trip to Florida tried to clarify Rutgers' bowl picture.
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