We need Everyone's assistance
Most, if not all, of the
Rutgers graduates and students would not like to see the name of our institution
changed. We can let our voice be heard.
Please contact your
state legislator and let her or she know on no uncertain terms that you disagree
with this action and it will effect your vote come election time. Below you
will find a link on how to find out your legislator contact information. Please
let them know today.
State
Legislator by District
Announcements
POST SEASON AWARDS
BANQUET
The 64th annual Rutgers Touchdown Club Football Awards Banquet will be held
on Sunday December 8th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown New Brunswick.
The reception will begin with cocktails at 5:00 p.m. with dinner and the awards
program at 6:00 p.m. If you are interested in attending please contact Pat
English at the football office at 732-445-5126. If you are interested an advertisement
of booster ad, please call Doug Dolan at 973-334-6051.
Rutgers
Touchdown Club - News
Football
Saturdays game marks
the fourth time these schools have met on the gridiron in a series that was
first played in 1921. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 3-0. The most recent
meeting between the schools came on Nov. 18, 2000 when the Fighting Irish
broke open a close game to post a 45-17 victory at Rutgers Stadium. The last
time these teams met at Notre Dame Stadium was on Nov. 23, 1996 when the Irish
posted a 62-0 victory. The Scarlet Knights are coming off a hard-fought 20-17
loss to BIG EAST rival Temple in their regular season home finale. Rutgers
jumped out to a 17-3 halftime lead on a pair of touchdown passes from true
freshman QB Ryan Hart before Temple rallied in the final minutes to pull out
the win. Notre Dame is the fourth ranked opponent that Rutgers will face this
season and the Scarlet Knights have played some of their best football against
those ranked foes.
RUTGERS
(1-9, 0-6 BIG EAST) at #8 NOTRE DAME (9-1)
Rich McManis thought Rutgers'
days of sneaking up on people were done.
But then the Scarlet Knights guard switched on "Live with Regis and Kelly"
on Tuesday morning. And saw Notre Dame alum and self-avowed uber-Irish fan
Regis Philbin holding up a clipping on USC quarterback Carson Palmer.
"Regis was all worried about Carson Palmer," McManis said. "They've
got to play us first."
Put-downs
inspire Rutgers' McManis
Everyone waited upstairs
for his football luncheon, but Greg Schiano squinted inside his office Tuesday
morning, resolved to make sense of the scribbled scouting report that had
spit out of the fax machine. Someone sent him the secrets to stealing salvation
out of the shadows of Touchdown Jesus on Saturday in South Bend, Ind., a manifesto
out of the tortured mind of one of college football's most tortured fans.
"The next possible scenario," the coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights
reads out loud, "is the QB, Holiday, resorts to passing, a variety of
passing. Never let the QB sit in the pocket more than three seconds ... ."
Schiano
is the eternal optimist
Rutgers has only two games
remaining on its season, which does not appear to be enough time to save its
offense from the ignominious fate of a last-place standing in Division I-A.
Going into this Saturdays game against Notre Dame the team is averaging
a mere 217 yards per game, roughly 50 yards fewer than No. 116 Buffalo.
RUTGERS
CLOCK IS RUNNING OUT
They have won eight national
championships, the most of any Division 1-A football program. They have the
highest all-time winning percentage of the same group. They are the only college
team to have all of its home games televised nationally.
Not to mention they have Touchdown Jesus.
They are the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and they are Rutgers next opponent
on its brutal 2002 schedule.
"Notre Dame is like a sacred place," Rutgers linebacker Brian Hohmann
said.
RU not bothered by Irish
aura
Coach Greg Schiano said
there won't be any dramatic changes in Rutgers' offensive approach Saturday,
when he sends the nation's least productive unit against Notre Dame's defense,
which ranks among college football's best.
Statistics and recent performances suggest that Rutgers trying to run the
ball against the eighth-ranked Irish would be the competitive equivalent of
the Washington Generals trying to beat the Harlem Globetrotters. Still, the
Knights probably will try to establish their ground game.
Trying
to balance the rush
A desperate afterthought
in Notre Dame's coaching search a year ago, Tyrone Willingham has authored
one of the biggest turnarounds in school history. Willingham has returned
the Irish to the Top 10 and national prominence a season after they were 5-6
under Bob Davie. With a victory Saturday against Rutgers, Willingham, the
first black head coach in any sport at Notre Dame, will become the winningest
first-year coach in the program's storied history.
With the Irish 9-1 and poised for BCS bowl berth, Willingham used his weekly
media press conference yesterday to discuss Notre Dame's surprising season
and Saturday's game:
Rutgers
Q&A: Instilling the will to succeed
It's an instant jumpstart
for a program whose battery needs recharging -- an enticing carrot on a stick
for a team whose appetite might be waning with a seven-game losing streak.
Saturday's Notre Dame game comes at a great time for Rutgers, which is coming
off a disappointing 20-17 defeat to Temple last week.
But out in South Bend, Ind., the Golden Dome glitters, Touchdown Jesus beckons
and the Scarlet Knights get a chance to strap it up on national TV against
the best team the Fighting Irish have had in years.
Rutgers
can't wait to play Notre Dame under the Golden Dome
Men's Basketball
Telemarketers have the
most disheartening job in America. The constant rejection, the stream of hang-ups,
and the occasional tirade about calling during dinner must beat down even
the most enthusiastic of souls.
Gary Waters can identify.
After being named head coach of the Rutgers mens basketball program
19 months ago, Waters got the telemarketer treatment as he began perusing
New Jerseys rich recruiting market.
We couldnt even get in the house, Waters said at the teams
media day last month.
Waters
not hung up on tradition
Gary Waters thinks this
game could establish his program.
Matt Doherty thinks that's hogwash.
"I don't look at betting lines, but they're the ones that won 18 games
last year," the North Carolina coach said of Waters' Rutgers squad. "We
won eight. We have the youngest team in Carolina history. We have the youngest
team in major-college basketball. To say we're favored is ridiculous."
Rutgers
relishes N.C. test
The home for Rutgers basketball,
last season it served as a 8,000-seat good luck charm, leading to a minor
renaissance for a struggling program and helping the Scarlet Knights defeat
all but one of the Big East teams that visited there.
Coach Gary Waters said last year Rutgers surprised opposing teams at home
with an aggressive style of ball, invigorated by the raucous RAC crowd.
"Now," he said, "we need to take that on the road."
WILL
RUTGERS RULE THE ROAD?Scarlet Knights challenge North Carolina in Chapel Hill
When the Rutgers men's
basketball team took the court Monday night, it possessed a new fire, scorching
the Columbia Lions while cruising to a 60-36 win in the first round of the
Preseason National Invitation Tournament.
Now the Scarlet Knights plan to use the same fire that propelled them to victory
against the Lions as they will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to take
on the UNC Tar Heels tonight.
Knights head to Chapel
Hill
The powder-blue seats
-- 21,572 of them, to be exact -- are still filled for every home game at
the Dean E. Smith Center.
The retired and honored jerseys -- 40 of them, if you're counting -- still
hang in the rafters like an overcrowded laundry line. The names are legendary.
Jordan. Scott. Worthy. Perkins. Carter.
Then there is the record. North Carolina is 183-36 when playing in its cavernous
home arena, a winning percentage of .835.
Team
faces renewed aura
The basic tenets of physics
tell us that what goes up must come down. Those laws of gravity apply everywhere,
except the University of North Carolina, where the men's basketball program
has always been on top. Nobody understands that better than third-year head
coach Matt Doherty, who played on North Carolina's 1982 national championship
team alongside Michael Jordan and James Worthy.
With a record 15 Final Four appearances and three NCAA titles, expectations
may be greater at North Carolina than any other school.
Rutgers
ready to face North Carolina
Women's Basketball
No player in Rutgers
womens basketball history has had more pressure thrust on their shoulders
than Cappie Pondexter as she enters her first collegiate season.
But thats just the way she wants it.
I dont mind all the expectations everybodys putting on me,
said Pondexter, a 5-foot-9 sophomore guard. Im not really focusing
on any of it. I just want to come out and win and the pressure will take care
of itself.
Pressure
is on for Rutgers Pondexter
Site Information
We have been bringing
a lot of articles on-line over the last month. For those who are having problems
accessing the archives, please click this link: Story
Archive.
Please visit our Message
Board. We will provide updates and information. We also like to start some
interesting discussion.
Message Board
For those high school
players who would like to get their tapes on-line, you can mail your tape
to:
Mike and the Big Dog LLC
P.O. Box 431
Plainsboro, New Jersey 08536
PLEASE
NOTE THAT THE TAPE WILL NOT BE RETURNED. Please send HIGHLIGHTS or your best
game. WE WILL SELECT THE CLIPS TO BRING ON-LINE.
NOT ALL TAPES WILL BE BROUGHT ON-LINE.
Prospect
Back in September, Isaac
Redman, one of the best running backs in South Jersey history, was a known
commodity for the Paulsboro High football team.
The Red Raiders' offensive line? Well, that was another story.
Let's fast-forward the film. Nine weeks into the season, Redman has done nothing
to diminish his far-reaching reputation.
Paulsboro's
offensive line deserves some cheers
Basketball
The sun hasn't yet begun
to creep over the Surfside Gardens projects and Sebastian Telfair has already
ripped through 100 sit-ups and 100 push-ups in the living room of his family's
small apartment.
It's 5:45 in the morning, and Telfair is running up the building's dim concrete
stairwell for the fifth time, 15 flights at a steady, automatic-pilot pace.
Sweet
dreams
Around the Big East
No game this Saturday,
but still, no doubt: He's the best player on the best team in the country. Slowly
but surely, he's asserting his place in the minds of level-headed national media.
Now if only the rest of the voters would pay attention ...
CNNSI.com's
Heisman Watch
Donald "Big
Dog" Forbes: BigDog@Rutgersfootball.com
Mike and the Big Dog LLC