As they say “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”  That’s my feeling about the Rutgers football team getting sent to the St. Petersburg Bowl to play Central Florida.  I don’t blame it on the Scarlet Knights.  After all, back in the summer, what R-U fan wouldn’t have signed up for an 8-4 record and virtually any bowl bid in what was perceived as a rebuilding season.  No, I blame the Knights’ situation on the Big East and its woeful bowl lineup.  It’s incumbent upon first-year league commissioner John Marinatto do something to upgrade this mediocre-at-best post-season scenario.  Once you get past the BCS bid and the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Day, you’re talking about the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte as being your third best bowl when, in reality…in a “big-time” league…it would be FIFTH best at best.  Then, you get done to the likes of the St. Petersburg, PapaJohn’s.com and International Bowls…and it’s a joke.  So, before anyone gets down on Rutgers for heading to a bowl on the very first night of the post-season, send an e-mail to Marinatto to tell him to get the Big East a bowl game lineup worthy of a BCS conference.

For the fifteenth straight year, the Rutgers football team has lost to West Virginia.  And this time, the loss knocks the Scarlet Knights down to another minor bowl game.  R-U lost at home to the Mountaineers 24-21 Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both Big East teams, heard on Good Time Oldies, 1450 WCTC.  The ‘Neers improve to 9-3 overall ; 5-2 in conference and accepted a bid to the New Year’s Day Gator Bowl after the game.  The Knights fall to 8-4 overall; 3-4 in league and now wait to see which bowl game from the Big East’s awful second-tier of post-season bids they’ll be going to—either the St. Petersburg Bowl in Florida, the International Bowl (again) in Toronto or the Papa John’s.com Bowl (again) in Birmingham, Alabama.  As for the West Virginia loss, true freshman starting quarterback Tom Savage came up way short in the biggest game of his young career.  His 62-yard touchdown pass to true freshman wideout Mohammed Sanu of South Brunswick aside, Savage was only 9-for-27 for 153 yards and two interceptions, one which W-V-U returned for a touchdown.  And the rushing attack was non-existent…just 65 yards on the ground.  So, despite a school-record fifth-straight bowl appearance, head coach Greg Schiano and his Scarlet Knight program fail to impress in the Big East, finishing below five-hundred, dooming them to a bowl game appearance that, in all honesty, will be a yawner.

The Rutgers football team plays its regular season finale Saturday afternoon, hosting West Virginia in a final bid to better its bowl situation.  The Scarlet Knights are one-and-a-half-point favorites over the Mountaineers.  Both clubs come in at 8-3 overall; the Knights are 3-3 in league, the ‘Neers 4-3.  If Rutgers can pull off the win, the Knights probably are headed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on December 26th.  If the Knights lose, they will drop way day to a lesser bowl…either the St. Petersburg Bowl on December 19th or the International Bowl on January 2nd in Toronto.  So, there’s a lot of pressure on Rutgers Saturday…and probably a tad too much for true freshman quarterback Tom Savage, who will be asked to make some key plays in the biggest game of his young career.  Meanwhile, I see a big game by West Virginia’s outstanding running back Noel Devine, the number-two rusher in the Big East at 112-yards a game.  So, I pick the Mountaineers to win at R-U 24-21.  Hello Florida or Canada.   Kick-off is set for high noon; coverage begins on Good Time Oldies, 1450 WCTC at  9:30 with Mike Pavlichko on the “Tailgate Party” live outside the West Gate of Rutgers Stadium.

The Rutgers football team has righted its ship once again during the 2009 season.  The Scarlet Knights, coming off last Saturday’s debacle at Syracuse, went to Louisville for a Black Friday Big East game heard on Good Time Oldies, 1450 WCTC and blew past the Cardinals 34-14.  R-U set the tempo early, scoring on its first four possessions for the first time in head coach Greg Schiano’s nine-year tenure on the Banks Of The Old Raritan.  The big offensive start was true freshman wideout Mohammed Sanu of South Brunswick, who set career highs in three rushing categories operating out of the “Wildcat” formation.  Sanu rushed 18 times for 148 yards and two touchdowns as the Scarlet Knights came up with 238 rushing yards overall, a new season high.  AND the defense did its part, holding Louisville to a season low 48-yards rushing on 27-attempts.  So, Rutgers heads back home for its regular season finale at home next Saturday against West Virginia with an overall record of 8-3 and a 3-3 mark in the Big East.  If the Scarlet Knights can knock off the Mountaineers in that noontime game, then they just might punch their ticket to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte.

The Rutgers football team will look to bounce back from last Saturday’s debacle at Syracuse when it plays a Black Friday Big East game at Louisville.  The Scarlet Knights are 7-3 overall; 2-3 in league.  The Cardinals, heading into their season finale, are 4-7 overall and 1-5 in conference.  R-U is a four-and-a-half-point favorite and, although it’s Senior Day for Louisville, I expect the Scarlet Knights to be a fired up team off that loss at Syracuse…so I pick R-U to win today, although they will not cover the spread.  Rutgers 27  Louisville 24.  Kick-off at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium is eleven-am; air-time on WCTC for our pre-game show “Rutgers Gameday” is 9:30.

The Rutgers Athletics Department was just one Greg Echenique buzzer-beating lay-up away from having the “weekend from hell.”  First, you had the R-U football team and coaching staff not showing up for its Big East game at Syracuse, getting blown out by the cellar-dwelling Orange 31-13 and basically being relegated to an insignificant and lesser-paying bowl game.  Then, you had the Scarlet Knight women’s basketball team blowing a 12-point lead with about seven-minutes left at number-16 Georgia, eventually losing to the Lady Bulldogs 49-48.  And, you had the Rutgers men’s basketball team losing at home to Vermont 77-71 less than 48-hours after needing a last-second basket from Echenique to hold off winless Drexel at the RAC.  It’s just the Scarlet Knights’ revenue teams way of saying to all of its fans “Happy Thanksgiving.”

Any dreams of playing in the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Day have turned into a nightmare about returning to play in Toronto the day after in the world-renowned International Bowl.  The Rutgers football team came crashing back to earth on Saturday afternoon with an inexplicable 31-13 Big East loss at last-place Syracuse.  The Scarlet Knights came in as an eight-and-a-half-point favorite but head back to New Jersey with a shocking loss that drops them to 7-3 overall and 2-3 in league.  In trying to explain what happened, you can start with the fact that quarterback Tom Savage was sacked nine times and you can go from there.  Now, Rutgers heads to Louisville for a Big East game on Black Friday on short rest…haunted by the thought that it might have sealed its bowl fate with another post-season trip to Canada because of a lost afternoon in nearby Syracuse.

You can call it the first sign of possible things to come for the Rutgers men’s basketball team.  The Scarlet Knights, picked to finish next-to-last in the Big East by the league’s coaches, needed a lay-up at the buzzer by sophomore forward Gregory Echenique Friday night to beat winless Drexel of the Colonial Athletic Association 58-56.  Yes, R-U improves to 2-0 but it also is the first proof of evidence to support the Big East coaches that a long winter could be looming for Scarlet Knight fans.

The Rutgers football team looks to make it four wins in a row when it plays a Big East game at Syracuse Saturday afternoon.  The Scarlet Knights are 7-2 overall…2-2 in league…and an eight-and-a-half-point favorite over the Orange, who are 3-6 overall and 0-4 in the Big East…bad enough for last place.  I pick R-U to win simply because it’s better than an injury-depleted Syracuse team in every facet of the game.  So, let’s go with the Scarlet Knights 31-14 over the Orange.  Kick-off time at the Carrier Dome is 3:30; air-time on Good Time Oldies, 1450 WCTC for our pre-game show “Rutgers Gameday” is two-pm.

The 25th-ranked Rutgers women’s basketball team dropped its 2009-2010 season opener at home Sunday afternoon to number-two Stanford 81-66…and it will be the first of a number of defeats that will translate into a non-NCAA year for head coach Vivian Stringer and her Scarlet Knights.  They simply lost too many important pieces from last year’s team including Epiphany Prince, Kia Vaughn and Heather Zurich and don’t have enough upperclass talent to offset those losses.  I predict that R-U will be 7-7  in its non-conference schedule including losses to Stanford, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, George Washington and to two of three teams in the Paradise Jam.  (Take your pick.)  Then, in the Big East, the Scarlet Knights will go 8-8.  Don’t forget—even with Prince, Vaughn and Zurich, the Knights were only 9-7 last season.  Then, add in a 1-1 record in the Big East Tournament and you’re looking at a 16-16 record, not even good enough to get into the WNIT.  Hopefully for the Scarlet Knights’ sake, Stringer can get enough consistent quality playing time throughout the season for the likes of Khadijah Rushdan, Nikki Jett and April Sykes and her freshman class to get ready for a better 2010-2011.