http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/14/s...shocks-syracuse-and-breaks-losing-streak.html
Still a game that sticks out to me 16 years later and I still think it's our biggest upset win ever based on the spread (34 points). I was 19 at the time and in my second year at Rutgers. I don't regret much in my life but am sometimes fond of saying that if I could do certain things differently, I would. On that token I say I would have changed plans and gone to that game.
I had started dating my girlfriend (now wife) late that summer and we had made plans for her and her friends to come down for 2 games that year. The first was the Texas game, with us looking at one of the November games for the 2nd. I chose the Navy game, which was the week before the cuse game, figuring we had a better chance at seeing a win. True to my prowess when it comes to calling our outcomes, we lost 34-7 in one of the most boring 34-7 games anyone could ever imagine, with the score not even being remotely that close. If Navy would have only scored 7.00001 points then they would have won 7.000001 - 7.
Discouraged, my best friend and I were talking about the cuse game the following weekend. Neither of us had any love lost for cuse and between us we had missed 2 games over 2 seasons there (I had a family birthday party to go to which lead to me missing the '99 BC game). We didnt want to see cuse stomping around like they owned the joint and both decided to take the train home that Friday, which should have been a giant neon signal to anyone around that Rutgers was going to win.
I remember driving my girlfriend around somewhere that Saturday and was listening to the game on the radio. It was 14-14 at the time we arrived to wherever it was we were going and I remember saying, "I seriously think they're going to win today." Remember, this is 1999- no smart phones, no 74748 channels with college football, Internet was just starting to become more widespread on homes, etc- it was CBS, ABC, NBC for Notre Dame, ESPN, maybe MSG for a local 1AA game and that was it. If you weren't on there, you had to hope your game made the ESPN+ PPV lineup that week to see the game on TV (the RU-cuse game did make the cut, but I was a 19 year-old college kid with no job at the time; you figure out if I ordered the game or not). If the game wasn't on TV, you either listened on the radio, watched other games to follow the out of town score ticker, waited for an ESPN Gamebreak, or if someone had Internet you went to a sports site and kept refreshing.
By the time we had to leave the game was near the end and I remember not wanting to listen to the radio out of fear of 'jinxing' it; we drove to her house with me planning on jumping on the computer as quickly as possible. We got to the front door and her parents were there, with them saying, "Joe, you're not going to believe this bu-" and I just finished the statement-"they won." They thought I'd be upset for missing the game but I was so giddy I almost started running around and yelling for joy. Almost at that exact moment, the ESPN Gamebreak came on with the shot of the game-winning OT FG and the team going nuts on the field. I immediately asked to use the phone and called my best friend Chris; we then proceeded to talk like 12 year-old girls who just saw One Direction at the mall. Of course we ended the call with, "MAN wish we were there", though we were just overjoyed with the win.
...a win is usually always good, but that one was like finding a freaking oasis after 3 months in the Saharah Desert. The fact that it came when it did, and that it came against cuse (back when that still carried weight) made it that much better.
Joe P.
Still a game that sticks out to me 16 years later and I still think it's our biggest upset win ever based on the spread (34 points). I was 19 at the time and in my second year at Rutgers. I don't regret much in my life but am sometimes fond of saying that if I could do certain things differently, I would. On that token I say I would have changed plans and gone to that game.
I had started dating my girlfriend (now wife) late that summer and we had made plans for her and her friends to come down for 2 games that year. The first was the Texas game, with us looking at one of the November games for the 2nd. I chose the Navy game, which was the week before the cuse game, figuring we had a better chance at seeing a win. True to my prowess when it comes to calling our outcomes, we lost 34-7 in one of the most boring 34-7 games anyone could ever imagine, with the score not even being remotely that close. If Navy would have only scored 7.00001 points then they would have won 7.000001 - 7.
Discouraged, my best friend and I were talking about the cuse game the following weekend. Neither of us had any love lost for cuse and between us we had missed 2 games over 2 seasons there (I had a family birthday party to go to which lead to me missing the '99 BC game). We didnt want to see cuse stomping around like they owned the joint and both decided to take the train home that Friday, which should have been a giant neon signal to anyone around that Rutgers was going to win.
I remember driving my girlfriend around somewhere that Saturday and was listening to the game on the radio. It was 14-14 at the time we arrived to wherever it was we were going and I remember saying, "I seriously think they're going to win today." Remember, this is 1999- no smart phones, no 74748 channels with college football, Internet was just starting to become more widespread on homes, etc- it was CBS, ABC, NBC for Notre Dame, ESPN, maybe MSG for a local 1AA game and that was it. If you weren't on there, you had to hope your game made the ESPN+ PPV lineup that week to see the game on TV (the RU-cuse game did make the cut, but I was a 19 year-old college kid with no job at the time; you figure out if I ordered the game or not). If the game wasn't on TV, you either listened on the radio, watched other games to follow the out of town score ticker, waited for an ESPN Gamebreak, or if someone had Internet you went to a sports site and kept refreshing.
By the time we had to leave the game was near the end and I remember not wanting to listen to the radio out of fear of 'jinxing' it; we drove to her house with me planning on jumping on the computer as quickly as possible. We got to the front door and her parents were there, with them saying, "Joe, you're not going to believe this bu-" and I just finished the statement-"they won." They thought I'd be upset for missing the game but I was so giddy I almost started running around and yelling for joy. Almost at that exact moment, the ESPN Gamebreak came on with the shot of the game-winning OT FG and the team going nuts on the field. I immediately asked to use the phone and called my best friend Chris; we then proceeded to talk like 12 year-old girls who just saw One Direction at the mall. Of course we ended the call with, "MAN wish we were there", though we were just overjoyed with the win.
...a win is usually always good, but that one was like finding a freaking oasis after 3 months in the Saharah Desert. The fact that it came when it did, and that it came against cuse (back when that still carried weight) made it that much better.
Joe P.
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