Pressure on from day one, September 3rd

[RUforlife]

See, I love that approach. NW has the worst offense in the B1G, but somehow they will be able to score at will against our defense. What makes this statement silly is that they lost a ton of talent on offense and didn't replace all of it. Meanwhile, our fans mock our offense, which is better than NW. Somehow our fans see everyone else as superior to Rutgers without knowing the facts about either team. Btw, their defense is the worst in the B1G too.

See, I don't buy for one second that people who spend a fair amount of time on a Rutgers football board don't also read other college football related articles and generally keep up with the state of the other B1G programs. The main reason a lot of these "Rutgers" fans pretend ignorance over the current state of the other programs we play like Northwestern is to give an out to the head coach if he doesn't win the games. They are "Schiano" fans first and foremost, a lot of them would also have accounts on a Tennessee football board if they had gone thru with the hire. If we lose to either Temple or Virginia Tech they will give Schiano a free pass as well. Hell, they will even give Schiano a free pass if we play a close game against Wagner, just watch and be amazed at the spectacle.

 

[Knight Shift]

See, I don't buy for one second that people who spend a fair amount of time on a Rutgers football board don't also read other college football related articles and generally keep up with the state of the other B1G programs. The main reason a lot of these "Rutgers" fans pretend ignorance over the current state of the other programs we play like Northwestern is to give an out to the head coach if he doesn't win the games. They are "Schiano" fans first and foremost, a lot of them would also have accounts on a Tennessee football board if they had gone thru with the hire. If we lose to either Temple or Virginia Tech they will give Schiano a free pass as well. Hell, they will even give Schiano a free pass if we play a close game against Wagner, just watch and be amazed at the spectacle.

 

[brgRC90]

Why do RU fans always look at things from a negative POV? It's that mindset that opposing fans jump on and mock us. Those same RU fans are suddenly appalled that others think so lowly of us. 🤔

If we talk a good game like everyone else, opposing fans don't mock you over time because they believe the hype too.

They mock us because our teams are bad.

 

[brgRC90]

See, I love that approach. NW has the worst offense in the B1G, but somehow they will be able to score at will against our defense. What makes this statement silly is that they lost a ton of talent on offense and didn't replace all of it. Meanwhile, our fans mock our offense, which is better than NW. Somehow our fans see everyone else as superior to Rutgers without knowing the facts about either team. Btw, their defense is the worst in the B1G too.

Our offense was 5th worse in Div 1A football last year, 126th. Northwestern was 107th. 335 yds/game vs 282 yds/game. Ours was the worst offense in the Big Ten by a wide margin.

 

[Knight Shift]

 

[yessir321]

We can go round and round all we want, at the end of the day this season hinges on our offense and specifically QB play.

The defense is talented enough to keep us within striking distance in 6-7 games this year, will the offense be able to take advantage? Basically this whole season hinges on our ability to score more than 12 points per game vs anyone not named wagner

 

[Section124]

Really? Long time ago.

The question was related to why Rutgers fans tend to be negative. All those are examples where our hopes were up and the balloon popped. Being a Rutgers fan prepares you for the letdown. We all hope we are going to win but it's going to take some solid years to get that confidence back. Also, never really winning anything sucks for how good some of those teams were.

Despite my comments above, as a long time Rutgers fan and alumni, I pretty much go into every game expecting the team to win/being competitive. Not Al confident though.

 

[RUPete]

I've interacted with the OP on these forums. IIRC, he's not an alum, lives in Florida, but has some interest in Rutgers, perhaps because OP lived in Jersey or has some sort of Jersey connection. Has promoted SEC and Finebaum in the past. That's fine, as Rutgers could use all of the core and peripheral fans they can get. He does like to make provocative posts, and that's fine too, but he should expect some push back.

A post like the original post in this thread, however, is a dog whistle for the usual suspects (there are about 5-10 of them), and the dogs will come running at the fresh meat that has been posted. Whatever.

I recall listening to a discussion on Twitter with the eternally optimistic Aaron Breitman (of the Scarlet Faithful blog) and @mb5789 a few days ago, and the general tenor of the discussion is that the ante is certainly raised with all of the crap that has hit the fan in Evansville. They could be a mess and circling the wagons, letting a DC be the interim HC with no P5 coaching experience.

The other side of the coin, however, is sometimes a situation like the one in Evansville can galvanize a team in one of two ways: (1) if the team was mostly behind the former HC, they are going to show the world that the higher ups were wrong about Fitz; (2) if the team glad Fitz is gone because of all of the dysfunction, this will galvanize the team. It's a fair question to ask what was going on under Fitz and the effect on the team looking at:
2019: 3-9/1-8
2020: 7-2/6-1 (covid year fluke?)
2021: 3-9/1-8
2022: 1-11/1-8 (ironically, Fitz' last victory was over dysfunctional Frost-led Nebraska)

As a student of leadership and its tactics, this will be an interesting one for Northwestern.

I see someone identified the error already. Carry on.

 

[RUPete]

I think you should be more respectful of your fellow posters. Lightning striking the ass of an ass is not respectful.

 

[Knight Shift]

I think you should be more respectful of your fellow posters. Lightning striking the ass of an ass is not respectful.

No ass inference intended. The gif feature fails to provide the Eeyore under the rain cloud. A couple of posters make Eeyore look like an optimist.

 

[RUPete]

No ass inference intended. The gif feature fails to provide the Eeyore under the rain cloud. A couple of posters make Eeyore look like an optimist.

I'm just bustin' your ass.

 

[scarletbergen]

Why are we a year away from significant wins? The staff has had 3 full years to put their plan into place. We have heard endlessly about the majesty of the “culture” that is being built. With access to the transfer portal and now 3 full recruiting classes in place, I would anticipate much improvement on the field in regard to wins/losses. 4 or 5 wins with 1 or 2 conf. wins and several blowout losses isn’t getting it done. The RU fan base should expect 6 wins and a bowl bid this year at least. This is big time college football, not let’s try hard to win some games.

Ashe and others dug a hole so deep, it’s amazing we have come this far or that we can ever recover. All the while in the B1G east! Even pulling that off in 10 years would be more than a great job, doing it in 5 will be a miracle!!

 

[yessir321]

Ashe and others dug a hole so deep, it’s amazing we have come this far or that we can ever recover. All the while in the B1G east! Even pulling that off in 10 years would be more than a great job, doing it in 5 will be a miracle!!

Bro it’s been 4 years since ash. Horrible as ash was he also wasn’t fully to blame for our downfall, after all it was under flood that 5 defensive players got arrested at practice and the program went under ncaa investigation.

It’s been a lot of bad moves, but it’s also now about to be year 4 of Greg in the transfer portal era where teams can reload quicker than ever. I’m not saying we have to move mountains this year, but we can’t be ending our season this year the way we did last by going 1-8 in our last 9 and never crossing our own 40 by being routed by Maryland to close out the year. We’ve gotta be better than that and no, there is no excuse not to be

 

[RUBigJ]

This is a key game. Hoe well we do will determine how we now this season. In addition to losing their coach at this late date they have very few returning lettermen. Going to be tough to put together a new team with a new coach. If we lose we will be lucky to win 2 games. If we win a close games maybe we win 4 games. But if we win big 6 wins are possible and maybe a bowl game .

 

[cubuffsdoug]

Our offense was 5th worse in Div 1A football last year, 126th. Northwestern was 107th. 335 yds/game vs 282 yds/game. Ours was the worst offense in the Big Ten by a wide margin.

Look at the difference in schedule, and you'll see Rutgers is better. NW lost to a sub .500 FCS school (Southern Illinois). Also, add the fact NW loss all three starting WR and QB. Tennessee Titans drafted NW's best O-lineman. None of this matters because some Rutgers fans are dead set on believing Rutgers is worse than every team in the B1G. Therefore, we have no chance of winning. I'll say it for the millionth time, look beyond the surface of stats. You have to look at personnel, schemes, matchups, etc., to get an accurate view of how Rutgers might do against Northwestern.

 

[Knight Shift]

I'm just bustin' your ass.

Somebody has to. I live a life of leisure.

 

[Yeah Baby]

I too expet is to bring pressure from Game 1 on. First we have to stop the run.

 

[brgRC90]

Look at the difference in schedule, and you'll see Rutgers is better. NW lost to a sub .500 FCS school (Southern Illinois). Also, add the fact NW loss all three starting WR and QB. Tennessee Titans drafted NW's best O-lineman. None of this matters because some Rutgers fans are dead set on believing Rutgers is worse than every team in the B1G. Therefore, we have no chance of winning. I'll say it for the millionth time, look beyond the surface of stats. You have to look at personnel, schemes, matchups, etc., to get an accurate view of how Rutgers might do against Northwestern.

Maybe yes, maybe no. You're claiming your ability to look beneath the stats is superior to the stats. However you look at it, our team undeniably HAS BEEN one of the worst in the Big Ten for some time, including last year. That's not pessimism, that's reality. 13th instead of 14th is still crap--and boring af to watch. They struggled all year to beat unquestionably bad teams including a team that had fired their head coach just weeks before, and that was at home. If we're better than Northwestern it's not by much unless there's a big improvement this year. The problem is not posters who are down on a program that by everyone else's estimation has been terrible for years. It's not up to fans to be more optimistic or to pick out bright spots in the gloom. It's up to the multi-millionaire coach to just win more games already, and over better competition. This is sports. You do it to win and it can't hurt to win in an enjoyable fashion, too.

 

[dconifer]

win big 6 wins are possible and maybe a bowl game .

That is national coach of the year material if Schiano pulls that off...

 

[scarletbergen]

That is national coach of the year material if Schiano pulls that off...

Pull that off and it’s coach of the decade

 

[scarletbergen]

Bro it’s been 4 years since ash. Horrible as ash was he also wasn’t fully to blame for our downfall, after all it was under flood that 5 defensive players got arrested at practice and the program went under ncaa investigation.

It’s been a lot of bad moves, but it’s also now about to be year 4 of Greg in the transfer portal era where teams can reload quicker than ever. I’m not saying we have to move mountains this year, but we can’t be ending our season this year the way we did last by going 1-8 in our last 9 and never crossing our own 40 by being routed by Maryland to close out the year. We’ve gotta be better than that and no, there is no excuse not to be

I want to win too!

Schiano has done a masterful job AGAIN!
Look what he has already done in an amazingly short time. Really, the guy is amazing.
-we are recruiting like a middle B1G team
-we have beaten the teams we should beat
-we have been to a bowl
-we have good academics
-we aren’t cheating
-Covid didn’t smother the program
-we are succeeding despite weak NIL$$
-our schedule is a freakin killer
-the players are coming to play for Schiano

We are already winning!!! The scoreboard will come, be patient, practice your cheers, get your tailgate ready! This is gonna be great!

 

[Plum Street]

This is a key game. Hoe well we do will determine how we now this season. In addition to losing their coach at this late date they have very few returning lettermen. Going to be tough to put together a new team with a new coach. If we lose we will be lucky to win 2 games. If we win a close games maybe we win 4 games. But if we win big 6 wins are possible and maybe a bowl game .

I agree if we lose , this team is going to stink again . But I wouldn’t put much stock into margin of victory . Just find a way to win this one and move on

 

[colbert17]

Of the three games at the start of the season VTech is the one that worries me most.

 

[RUforlife]

I want to win too!

Schiano has done a masterful job AGAIN!
Look what he has already done in an amazingly short time. Really, the guy is amazing.
-we are recruiting like a middle B1G team
-we have beaten the teams we should beat
-we have been to a bowl
-we have good academics
-we aren’t cheating
-Covid didn’t smother the program
-we are succeeding despite weak NIL$$
-our schedule is a freakin killer
-the players are coming to play for Schiano

We are already winning!!! The scoreboard will come, be patient, practice your cheers, get your tailgate ready! This is gonna be great!

Seriously?
You realize some of those statements are redundant?
We aren't cheating. Shouldn't that be a given.
We have been to a bowl. I believe that was partially based on the APR established under the Ash program, so does that loser get some credit?
How did Rutgers emerge from COVID better than any other FBS program under Schiano?
The schedule is killer? Well, yes, three games are PSU, OSU, and Michigan. I don't consider Wagner, Temple, BC, Syracuse, Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, etc., etc. as killer.
The fact that we are struggling with NIL right now falls partially on the head coach's ability to fund raise, yes?
When you say this is gonna be great do you mean this year, or some other year, like 2030, 2035, 2040?

 

[scarletbergen]

Seriously?
You realize some of those statements are redundant?
We aren't cheating. Shouldn't that be a given.
We have been to a bowl. I believe that was partially based on the APR established under the Ash program, so does that loser get some credit?
How did Rutgers emerge from COVID better than any other FBS program under Schiano?
The schedule is killer? Well, yes, three games are PSU, OSU, and Michigan. I don't consider Wagner, Temple, BC, Syracuse, Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, etc., etc. as killer.
The fact that we are struggling with NIL right now falls partially on the head coach's ability to fund raise, yes?
When you say this is gonna be great do you mean this year, or some other year, like 2030, 2035, 2040?

I hope you enjoy this season! Good luck! Go RU!!!

 

[e5fdny]

Despite my comments above, as a long time Rutgers fan and alumni, I pretty much go into every game expecting the team to win/being competitive. Not Al confident though.

#MeToo

Same with the PowerBall and MegaMillions…always think I have the winning 🎟️ 🙂

 

[yessir321]

I agree if we lose , this team is going to stink again . But I wouldn’t put much stock into margin of victory . Just find a way to win this one and move on

Agree, any early season Big 10 victory gives us something to build upon

 

[cubuffsdoug]

Maybe yes, maybe no. You're claiming your ability to look beneath the stats is superior to the stats. However you look at it, our team undeniably HAS BEEN one of the worst in the Big Ten for some time, including last year. That's not pessimism, that's reality. 13th instead of 14th is still crap--and boring af to watch. They struggled all year to beat unquestionably bad teams including a team that had fired their head coach just weeks before, and that was at home. If we're better than Northwestern it's not by much unless there's a big improvement this year. The problem is not posters who are down on a program that by everyone else's estimation has been terrible for years. It's not up to fans to be more optimistic or to pick out bright spots in the gloom. It's up to the multi-millionaire coach to just win more games already, and over better competition. This is sports. You do it to win and it can't hurt to win in an enjoyable fashion, too.

You're trying to twist what I said because I think you don't understand what I was saying. Stats can be used for or against any argument. If you follow baseball, then this may help you to understand. There was a time when a hitter batted over .300, he was considered an exceptional hitter. Analytics has shown that hitting .300 is far from the truth as a great hitter. Now you consider the hitter's on-base percentage (OBP), on-base plus slugging (OPS), and total bases (TB) to develop a clearer picture of a great hitter. Translation, you're surface approach with stats is what fans do and still don't understand why the gut feeling never matches results.

Team One can put up 1000 yards against Sisters of the Blind and a goose egg against Michigan. Meanwhile, Team Two can put up 300 yards against two average teams, but does that mean Team One is better because they are averaging more YPG? No, because the context in which the teams are judged doesn't occur on equal ground. You use other metrics to understand better how the two teams match up. Start by looking at personnel (returning & leaving), match-ups, schemes, etc.; now the picture becomes more apparent.

Gut feelings have very little to do with how games are played out, but the more I read this board, the more I realize it's part of the DNA of this board. 🤣

 

[brgRC90]

You're trying to twist what I said because I think you don't understand what I was saying. Stats can be used for or against any argument. If you follow baseball, then this may help you to understand. There was a time when a hitter batted over .300, he was considered an exceptional hitter. Analytics has shown that hitting .300 is far from the truth as a great hitter. Now you consider the hitter's on-base percentage (OBP), on-base plus slugging (OPS), and total bases (TB) to develop a clearer picture of a great hitter. Translation, you're surface approach with stats is what fans do and still don't understand why the gut feeling never matches results.

Team One can put up 1000 yards against Sisters of the Blind and a goose egg against Michigan. Meanwhile, Team Two can put up 300 yards against two average teams, but does that mean Team One is better because they are averaging more YPG? No, because the context in which the teams are judged doesn't occur on equal ground. You use other metrics to understand better how the two teams match up. Start by looking at personnel (returning & leaving), match-ups, schemes, etc.; now the picture becomes more apparent.

Gut feelings have very little to do with how games are played out, but the more I read this board, the more I realize it's part of the DNA of this board. 🤣

The bottom line is our offense sucks. Whether it's worse than Northwestern or better, it sucks. It's not negativity or pessimism to point that out.

 

[colbert17]

The bottom line is our offense sucks. Whether it's worse than Northwestern or better, it sucks. It's not negativity or pessimism to point that out.

Our offense sucked last year. I'd like to see more than a spring game in a rain storm before I pass judgement on this year's edition.

 

[Shelby65]

Year four of a rebuild in the transfer portal era and anything short of an earned bowl game is unacceptable. Throw in the fact that we will likely never play four weaker teams in the first five games going forward and there is no excuse why the head coach should not be held accountable to win 6 or 7 games this year. There are no more free years, it is time to win.

you are forgetting we don’t have a fieldhouse. all years are free until we’ve had a fieldhouse for 5 years .

 

[Salvi's Headband]

Unless we finally have a legit quarterback I wouldn't be surprised by a loss in any game against an FBS opponent.

 

[scarletbergen]

The bottom line is our offense sucks. Whether it's worse than Northwestern or better, it sucks. It's not negativity or pessimism to point that out.

you are being a bit negative, just a bit, just a bit.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Why opening day against Northwestern is a must-win for Rutgers football

Rutgers will face an immediate test with a wealth of implications in its season opener.

247sports.com

 

[e5fdny]

Why are you linking this stuff?

 

[robjknight]

This first game is very important as a confidence builder and for recruiting purposes. Our defense will give us field position all day and the offense will cash in On some of those opportunities. RU will win by 10+. Sam Brown will have a very big day and Langdon will be a contributor.
Bailey, Lewis and Toure will give their QB trouble all day. A good win increases our chances of beating MSU for a 6th win. Hopefully we have a good crowd to support the team.

 

[Mr_Twister]

I’ll be as happy as you when we win this game.

 

[RU#1fan]

This first game is very important as a confidence builder and for recruiting purposes. Our defense will give us field position all day and the offense will cash in On some of those opportunities. RU will win by 10+. Sam Brown will have a very big day and Langdon will be a contributor.
Bailey, Lewis and Toure will give their QB trouble all day. A good win increases our chances of beating MSU for a 6th win. Hopefully we have a good crowd to support the team.

This. Fans are underestimating the impact the new OC, new OL Coach, stud TE transfer, and a healthy RB Brown will have on the team this season. This win be a 14+ victory over Northwestern. Mark it down.

 

[Shelby65]

This. Fans are underestimating the impact the new OC, new OL Coach, stud TE transfer, and a healthy RB Brown will have on the team this season. This win be a 14+ victory over Northwestern. Mark it down.

Not underestimating. Remembering how this movie always ends. New OC, check, stud TE transfer, check, healthy RB, check. Near worst FBS, check.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I don’t like that we’re playing against them their first game since the scandal. It seems like they’ve really banded together as there were hardly any transfers. Kind of makes you wonder about the whole thing. If hazing was so bad you’d think all these kids would have experienced it and would’ve looked to move on once it was exposed.

I will be happy with any win. I don’t think being the first to play them is so easy.