James Franklin...OMG

[SHUSource]

Source, I don't expect you to be impartial. That's what makes a fan. As far as "national news", no national news organization did any of the reporting. They just picked up the SL's impartial reporting. So, no, that's not the way the national news treated RU. It's just lazy coverage of someone else's pseudoreporting. I'm sure lots of SHU fans feel the SL treats SHU also. I'm happy to see some exclusives being released to nonSL outlets.

But that's like saying the larger outlets aren't able to discern news from non-news, which is unfair. I do believe that NJ.com's treatment of the story was fair and appropriate (though they did package it with a lot of click-bait crap, like polls over whether Flood should be fired, but the actual news coverage was fine, I thought. I also think they generally treat Seton Hall fairly (though many of my fellow alums disagree). Both schools' athletics' programs have earned a lot of bad press, but that's the thing - they've earned it. I don't like reading it - who does? - but I know its the school making the news, not the people reporting it.

One thing Rutgers does have is some leverage, so I kind of chuckled to see they let ESPN break the news of Laviano starting. It's kind of immature, but it does send a pretty clear message to the local scribes.

 

[willisneverrana43]

This isn't entirely true. RU's D was very bad against the best teams. It was more than adequate against opponents of similar talent.

I'm not even sure how to respond to this, as the "opponents of similar talent" part of it makes my point.

But I'll say this. If you're point is that the defense had better numbers against bad teams than against the good ones, you're right. That's one of those things that's always right.

But over the course of the entire year -- and this is not just last year but the year before -- RU's defense was one of the worst in the country and in RU's history.

So now you expect there to be a sea change this year. Sure, it can happen. But it hasn't yet, and it certainly didn't happen against Norfolk State -- nor could it. We'll have to see. But, until then, saying that this defense is very bad is the more then reasonable. Saying otherwise is hopeful guesswork.