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Best & Worst RU Football Games You've Ever Attended...

^This entire post is my experience exactly, though I would put VT as the worst due to the weather and the shitty play but both teams. The six picks Nova threw still shock my senses, losing to Tulane was so bad Schiano said it was the worst loss he ever coached, and that penalty against Louisville in 2012 still haunts me because there was no illegal lineman downfield. The rule says three yards, the refs normally allow five, and the freeze-frame replay shows he was three yards. We all knew what would happen from there once Teddy got in the game.
Even worse in 2012 because both of us thought the flag was on the defense because of the obvious hold on the receiver..,
 
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Best environment: PSU 2014
Best Game: 2008 drubbing of Louisville
Worst Game: 2012 Louisville or any of the OSU home beatdowns since joining the Big 10
 
Worst game / games …2006 Loss at Cincinnati and loss to West Virginia 3 OT periods.
 
Obviously, louisville 2006 is the best

Other best - 2005 navy . Just to become bowl eligible was a huge deal.
2008 - Uconn . Homecoming game and the season was a disaster . But defense played great and we got a little help from the Uconn kicker. It turned the season around
1991 or 1992 - Pittsburgh . First night game at rutgers stadium ! Fun time !

Worst - 2010 army game at MetLife . (Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned).

Other worst -2012 louisville
2014 - Penn state.
2007 - Maryland and Cincinnati games . That season had high hopes and BCS goal was derailed.
2009 - cincy opener . Another season and the BCS goal was over on Labor Day
 
Best- Louisville’06
Worst- in Morgantown in ‘-01.. 80-7 beat down and having Mountaineer hillbillies yell obscenities to us on the way out of the Stadium.
 
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hmmm... I have a very feint echo of a memory of a sad story from that time where someone lost someone just prior to that game... a longtime fan as well. But I don't "know".
Similar story, my fiancé, a few days later headed back from Houston when I got the news.
 
Best Louisville and close was Insight Bowl. Worse game lost to New hampshire.
 
Best - Lville 2006
Worst - Russell Athletic Bowl

Edit worst may actually be a Thursday Night game against Pitt we played at Giants Stadium. Felt like we would never get anywhere near respectable as Pitt destroyed us in evry facet.
 
The best? The bowl game in Houston in 2006.

The worst? Either the Boston College game in 1995 (late November, we lost 41-38 in a driving rainstorm that lasted the whole game) or the Syracuse game in 1997 (we lost 50-3).

The Syracuse game was particularly interesting to me because I was a high school coach at the time and Rutgers gave me tickets to take two kids they were recruiting to the game. In true Rutgers fashion, the tickets were front row, directly behind the Syracuse bench. As the beating ensued in the 4th quarter, the Syracuse players were high fiving my players and Donovan McNabb (who had a monster game), gave them his wristbands. The whole ride home, both kids wanted to go to Syracuse.
That game sums up the Shea era in a nutshell.
 
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Best and worst for me -- '92 Virginia Tech.

The comeback victory was great! Unfortunately, it was a damp, rainy day sitting on wood benches with some of my buddies and we left early when it looked like a beatdown so we could start homecoming drinking! What a mistake that was!
 
While the details are a bit faded, 87 or 88 against a Steve Spurrier led Duke team in the rain at Giants stadium. The topper was security confiscating our keg. Luckily, we got the keg back at the end of a dreadful game.
I was going to pick covering the 80-7 loss at West Virginia as the worst, until you reminded me of this one.

It was 1987, I was a sophomore and they were playing Duke at the Meadowlands in a driving rainstorm. Terrible conditions, worse game. Henry Henderson ripped off a big run (for that afternoon, that meant about 10 yards) to spark literally the only drive of the game and my friend starts jumping up and down celebrating. We hear a Duke fan behind us yelling "Get that (n-word)." I turn around, see who they're pointing at, and I tell my friend "Oh man, they ain't talking about Henderson. They're talking about YOU." My friend steps right over the two rows of chairs and punches the guy. There is a fight, security throws us all out, and we miss the only score of the day, Henderson's TD with five minutes left. RU wins 7-0 while we're being tossed out in the parking lot.

Does that qualify as best or worst?
 
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Obviously, louisville 2006 is the best

Other best - 2005 navy . Just to become bowl eligible was a huge deal.
2008 - Uconn . Homecoming game and the season was a disaster . But defense played great and we got a little help from the Uconn kicker. It turned the season around
1991 or 1992 - Pittsburgh . First night game at rutgers stadium ! Fun time !

Worst - 2010 army game at MetLife . (Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned).

Other worst -2012 louisville
2014 - Penn state.
2007 - Maryland and Cincinnati games . That season had high hopes and BCS goal was derailed.
2009 - cincy opener . Another season and the BCS goal was over on Labor Day
Ugh - the '14 game vs. PSU is another that haunts me. Even with Nova's 5 INTs, RU still could've/should've won that one. With 2 min left, PSU was lined up to punt from the 30 on that final drive before KF took a timeout. Franklin put the offense back on the field and they hit a long pass that got them inside our 5. Bill "big time football" Belton" punched it in.
 
My best is quite possibly the 1988 win at Penn State. Freshman year, in the band. That stadium sure got quiet once their last 4th down pass fell incomplete!

Worst... I cannot really say off the top of my head.
But good news, everybody! We can all watch the 1987 Duke vs. Rutgers game!

 
Cal was 0 -10 and RU 1 - 10 as my bro from Cal Berkeley visits. Used to be My Bears, my return to NJ saw them win the first game on their last game of the season. Lamest. Year anyone?
 
For me, best was 'Ville 2006 of course.

Runner-up prob. at UNC, same year. Great game!!! I remember some obnoxious Chapel Hill fans giving me the finger on the way out, simply because I was a Rutgers fan. Phuck that snotbag fanbase.

Worst was prob. New Hampshire in '05. Or was it '04. Either way, to follow up a massive win vs. Michigan State by losing to them, and then to have to watch the fireworks go off as we walked back to our car? ROUGH.

A close second to the worst game I've ever attended was that Kent State game where Nova threw 6 picks. I went with a Kent State fan whose son was a true frosh RB on the team, and a neutral fan. I talked tons of pregame trash on the ride up and during tailgating, hyping RU up to the neutral guy. The Kent State guy kept warning me. I should've listened to him. I remember they had the jitterbug who had an NFL career... can't recall if he was a slot receiver or a RB. I think slot and PR/KR. They also had a MASSIVE rb who at one point in the game was literally just running over our players. I think he might've even steamrolled Khaseem Greene on one play, which is something I thought I'd never see.
Louisville 06 and Michigan 80-7 game
 
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Best = #2 USF in 2007 - 30-27 win with field rush
Worst = UNC 2008 - my first and last blowout (44-12)
Best
Louisville 06
Holloween game against VA Tech
Worst
New Hamshire
Ped State home first year in Big
We were better and gave it away
 
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Cal was 0 -10 and RU 1 - 10 as my bro from Cal Berkeley visits. Used to be My Bears, my return to NJ saw them win the first game on their last game of the season. Lamest. Year anyone?
November 23, 2001
California 20 Rutgers 10
Piscataway, NJ Rutgers Stadium 18,111

That was the game rescheduled from 9-15-2001 because of the 9/11 attacks.
 
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Best - 2006 Louisville.
Worst - That Army away game in the freezing rain. I can still feel the cold.
Rained all day and it was not cold enough to freeze but still close - that's worse than snow.
By fourth quarter there few people in in the stands, and I was sitting near Ray Rice's mother Janet.
I heard on the radio that Rice broke RU's single game rushing record.
I told her what I heard and she just had a "whoa!" look on her face.
A few weeks later I heard Janet in an interview decribing how "someone" told her Ray had broken a record at Army and she was "stunned."

Earlier in the morning the Army prachute team was practicing when one jumper's chute didn't open
I was at a tailagte in the upper lot when we saw jumper fall below the sloping tree line.
We assumed he was toast but he got his emergency chute out in time.
Kinda crazy that they were jumping in that weather because I've seen them cancel over less weather
 
My best is quite possibly the 1988 win at Penn State. Freshman year, in the band. That stadium sure got quiet once their last 4th down pass fell incomplete!

Worst... I cannot really say off the top of my head.
But good news, everybody! We can all watch the 1987 Duke vs. Rutgers game!

Even if I drink as much as I did that day in the parking lot, I don't think I can bring myself to watch it again. The only way to possible to make it through that game a second time is to turn it into some sort of drinking game to keep it interesting.
 
My best is quite possibly the 1988 win at Penn State. Freshman year, in the band. That stadium sure got quiet once their last 4th down pass fell incomplete!

Worst... I cannot really say off the top of my head.
But good news, everybody! We can all watch the 1987 Duke vs. Rutgers game!

The win at Penn State was nice. And now I can finally see the touchdown I missed; thanks!
That experience started my lifelong hatred of Duke.
 
The best was L’Ville in 06 followed closely by the first two bowl games ( Phoenix and Houston ). Third is a nerd one. Playing Miami in 03 or 04. We ended up
Losing the game but I remember sitting in the stands at half time feeling we belonged on the field versus Miami. Sucked we had to lose that one
 
My favorite / least favorite have probably been mentioned, but:

Underrated great game- Navy ‘05

Underrated kick in the nuts- Maryland ‘07
 
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Mine are not necessarily Best or Worst but, instead, for purposes of comparison:

1991 vs. BC in the very first Big East football game. And, our first conference win.
2014 vs. Michigan in our first B1G conference win.

The changes to the program over that quarter-century couldn't be any more striking.
 
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Ugh - the '14 game vs. PSU is another that haunts me. Even with Nova's 5 INTs, RU still could've/should've won that one. With 2 min left, PSU was lined up to punt from the 30 on that final drive before KF took a timeout. Franklin put the offense back on the field and they hit a long pass that got them inside our 5. Bill "big time football" Belton" punched it in.
One of the dumbest TO's in college football history.
 
Best
Louisville 06
Holloween game against VA Tech
Worst
New Hamshire
Ped State home first year in Big
We were better and gave it away
We bolted at halftime to get to D'Jais closing party instead of watching the inevitable during the 2nd half!
 
Best:

2006 Lousville
Insight Bowl
2014 away 25-3 MD comeback (road win always great watching other teams fans cry and a great ride home!)

Worst:

Shea ‘Cuse and Va Tech annilations at home
Kent State
 
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Best:

2006 Lousville
Insight Bowl
2014 away 25-3 MD comeback (road win always great watching other teams fans cry and a great ride home!)

Worst:

Shea ‘Cuse and Va Tech annilations at home
Kent State
This was the game...I knew THAT day that Flood was gonna start the "****ing it all up" process....we were 7-0, having won at Arkansas BUT we had struggled against Howard - HOWARD - at home winning only 26-0. Anyway....I saw Kent come out with a game plan that worked to perfection (run, run, and run some more) and Flood had NO CLUE how to stop it. So freakin' embarrassing. This team SHOULD have been 10-0 going to Pitt but FLUBBED to....again...KENT STATE, at HOMECOMING, for ****'s sake!!!
 
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This was the game...I knew THAT day that Flood was gonna start the "****ing it all up" process....we were 7-0, having won at Arkansas BUT we had struggled against Howard - HOWARD - at home winning only 26-0. Anyway....I saw Kent come out with a game plan that worked to perfection (run, run, and run some more) and Flood had NO CLUE how to stop it. So freakin' embarrassing. This team SHOULD have been 10-0 going to Pitt but FLUBBED to....again...KENT STATE, at HOMECOMING, for ****'s sake!!!

That Pitt game sucked too. Doesn’t make the list for me because I wasn’t there; but holy hell that was a stinker
 
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That Pitt game sucked too. Doesn’t make the list for me because I wasn’t there; but holy hell that was a stinker
We were there. It was FREEZING there that day, the winds off the rivers WHIPPING through that stadium, and we STUNK UP the place. Just awful. We NEVER had a chance that afternoon.
 
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