Game 11: UConn

What happens when an infinitely movable object meets an infinitely resistible forces? I guess we will find out today when Rutgers visits UConn, the only other OG Big East school left in the conference.

The two teams have played some pretty fun games over the last decade or so, and it's kind of sad to see this mini-rivalry go out with such a whimper. You know about the Scarlet Knights' struggles, but Connecticut has had a much worse season. They are 1-9 and they have been under the watch of an interim coach since Paul Pasqualoni was unceremoniously fired in September.

The Huskies play a similar style of football as Rutgers, as they run a traditional offense with little success, and can stop the run on defense, but can not defend the pass to save their lives. I would expect an ugly, low scoring, grind it out game like we saw last year.

Rutgers will probably rely heavily on the run game, but unless Paul James rediscovers his September mojo (sorry, I just watched Austin Powers), I don't see them having much success doing so. If that is the case, the Knights are going to have to rely on Chas Dodd's arm to win. Making that task more difficult will be the absence of Leonte Carroo, who was concussed last Thursday after being victimized by a head shot against UCF (which wasn't called, love those Big East officials). Hopefully Brandon Coleman is healthier after the long week, and Tyler Kroft can keep finding holes in coverage over the middle. They really need their offensive line to step up and dominate today too.

I don't think the defense will have to worry too much about Connecticut's passing attack, so we should see a lot of defenders stacking the box. The secondary will still be worrisome left out on an island, but the Huskies don't have the quarterback or the weapons to exploit them. I expect a big day out of the four guys up the middle, Darius Hamilton, Steve Longa, Kevin Snyder and Ike Holmes. Those guys have been great all year, and they will face an offense more to their liking.

It's worth noting that Ruhann Peele will start at corner and also be Rutgers' primary slot receiver today.That's pretty cool, you rarely see guys play both sides of the ball at this level.

Injuries: Carroo is out, and Beteim Bujari and Delon Stephenson are both questionable. They have really missed Bujari, and it would be a tremendous boost to have him back.

Losing this game wold be very, very bad for Kyle Flood's job security.

Prediction- Rutgers: 23 Connecticut: 21

A safety by Hamilton will prove to be the difference.

Chas Dodd Named Starting Quarterback

 Kyle Flood announced on Monday that senior Chas Dodd will get the starting nod over Gary Nova at quarterback on Saturday against Connecticut in East Hartford. The change comes on the heels of Nova's fourth miserable performance in a span of five games, and Dodd will make his first start since the 2011 Pinstripe Bowl. The move marginally improves the team this season, but it really does nothing for the program going forward.

I have long been a big Nova supporter, but this change is probably over due. His Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act has grown old, and he's just not giving the team a great chance of winning right now, even though there are bigger problems than him. His gun slinging ways have resulted in many more turn overs than positive plays as of late, and all of those turn overs are killing the offense and putting an already struggling defense in tough spots. He has definitely been the victim of bad coaching over the last two years, but he's not a youngster anymore. It's late in his junior season and he is making the same mistakes over and over again. There may not be hope for a turn around.

Dodd did an alright job as the Scarlet Knights' primary signal caller in 2010 and 2011, but he was replaced by Nova for a reason. He was recruited to play in a wide open spread offense, and Rutgers has obviously changed philosophies since he first set foot on campus. He is at his best when he can get the ball out quickly on short passes out of the shot gun and be a distributor in the spread, not dropping back from under center and throwing vertically in the traditional offense they now run. He has played only garbage time minutes the past two seasons, and I honestly have no idea what to expect out of him. Hopefully he can at least manage the game.

Considering Dodd only has between two and three games left in his career as a Scarlet Knight, I would have liked to have seen Mike Bimonte or Blake Rankin get a shot since they will compete for the starting and/or back up spot next year. I'm not at practice every day, so I don't know how ready these guys are to play, but at some point you have to see what you've got in these two. The only thing Rutgers has left to play for at this season is a bowl bid, and considering they only need one more win with two very week opponents left, they could probably attain that goal with any of these guys. (You can throw in Chris Laviano here too, but it's not worth burning his redshirt this late in the season).

Dodd is no certainty, but this is probably the safest decision Kyle Flood could have made. The team is in an uncontrollable slide, the fans are angry, and he needs to save his own skin. A change was needed, but I'm not sure how this will payoff in neither the short term nor the long term.

Rutgers Craps the Bed Against UCF

Different stadium, different opponent, same story. Rutgers was blown out --this time on national TV!-- by Central Florida on Thursday by a score of 41-17. It was uglier than the final score indicates too, since two special teams plays set up both of Rutgers touchdowns. The secondary continued to be a major weakness, and Rutgers could not do a thing on offense. Bad, bad football, but this is what we have come to expect out of Kyle Flood's team. The Scarlet Knights are now 5-8 in their last 13 contests.

On defense, Rutgers played soft zone coverage for most of the game, but I think they did blitz a little more than they did last week. Hooray for one size fits all game planning! Blake Bortles predictably picked the secondary apart, and he even made some guys look bad tackling in the open field when he took off running. I would venture to guess that Rutgers didn't hit this week in practice since they had a quick turn around. If that is indeed the case, it really showed. They did a pretty solid job against the run, but Long Island native Will Staback ran over a couple Scarlet Knights on two different plays like he was a Humvee rolling through some high grass or something.

The lone bright spot on defense was Darius Hamilton, who recorded two and a half sacks, as well as a few other hurries on Bortles. He probably could have had like six sacks if they just let him go one on one against UCF's interior lineman, but they decided to stunt him to the outside (on a couple of running downs too!) and drop him into coverage quite often. I can not for the life of me figure out why. He was also once again a big part of the strong run defense. I legitimately feel bad for this kid, he could have gone anywhere he wanted and he picked Rutgers. He is developing into a star, but now he's stuck on a struggling team that is going nowhere in a hurry.

I have long been a believer in Gary Nova, but...I just don't know what to say anymore. He's not getting the job done right now. He shows flashes of brilliance, but he is just as often flat out terrible. He completed an impossibly bad 11-34 passes, and continued to make poor decisions and throw inaccurate balls. I would say he should be benched, but they don't have a viable replacement. I want him to succeed so much, and poor coaching no doubt is a big reason for his struggles, but he is just not giving them a chance to win.

Outside of Michael Burton's 38 yard run on a fake punt, the Scarlet Knights ran the ball 16 times for 31 yards. That is really bad. They have five offensive line coaches on the staff, and this is what they get? It took them four chances to punch the ball in from the 1 for their lone offensive touchdown of the game, and they threw the ball on a few 3rd and 1's. They have no faith in the running game I guess. Paul James has been a nonfactor since returning, even though he scored a touchdown Thursday. I'm not sure why they didn't even attempt to go no huddle.

Tyler Kroft caught a career high 9 passes in this one, but that was pretty much it for the positives. The team clearly misses Betim Bujari at center, since they seemingly can not set up pass protections or identify who to block in the run game with out him. Nova was very bad, but his receivers did not help him either. I think Brandon Coleman dropped three passes, Leonte Carroo two.

Burton had the run on the fake punt to set up the first touchdown, and Anthony Cioffi blocked a punt that was recovered by Andre Patton in the endzone. Hooray for two guys who should be redshirting! Special teams is the only reason Rutgers didn't get shut out.

UCF is a really good team. They might even have more talent than Rutgers, which I did not believe was possible before the season. But still, the Scarlet Knights should not be getting trounced like this. They were totally and complete dominated, humiliated, what ever you want to say. Enough is enough. I'm sick of watching this shit. Be competitive and beat an actual team once in a while. It is just flat out not fun watching this team play anymore.

Game 10: UCF

Rutgers has played better on the road than they have at home.......ah fuck it. Who the hell am I kidding?

Blake Bortles is a quarterback with a pulse, UCF is a winning team, and George O'Leary has a big edge over the opposing coach. Rutgers doesn't stand a chance.

I'm sure the Scarlet Knights will be flat and unprepared again. Why should this game be any different from the last five? They will play some soft zones on defense and run for two yards per carry on offense while playing at a lethargic pace again too.

Darius Hamilton is back, so he should make a few plays to make the final score slightly less embarrassing than it would be otherwise.

UCF 52 Rutgers 17

The Latest Controversy

 Unfortunately, Rutgers is once again in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons. And this time, the microscope is firmly on the football program, which has been the university's beacon of light. Considering recent history, the school, particularly the athletic department, is not getting the benefit of the doubt here, but these recent scandals are different from the previous ones. Much different.

The man at the center of these scandals is new NJ.com sports reporter Dan Duggan. Duggan joined NJ.com last week after working at the Boston Herald, and he appears to be an unethical muckraker. He has written not one, but two pieces attacking the character of two Rutgers football coaches, while only seeking comment from disgruntled ex-Scarlet Knights and not from either of the men whose character he is defaming, or anybody else.

The first controversial story he broke was allegations of bullying brought against defensive coordinator Dave Cohen by former cornerback Jevon Tyree, who recently quit the team. Tyree and his family allege that last spring, Cohen verbally abused him during a study hall session, getting in his face, yelling and calling him a pussy, amongst other things. Why he is only bringing these allegations to light now is sketchy. He is clearly unhappy because he was not seeing the field after all the attrition Rutgers has had in the secondary, especially after having a wide receiver jump him on the depth chart. That is one reason to question his motives. He may very well have been bullied, but there is plenty of reasonable doubt at the moment.

We have no idea what actually happened here, so nobody on the outside -fans, media, etc- should rush to judgment either way. But of course, in today's society that is impossible. All we know for sure is that there was a verbal confrontation between Cohen and Tyree in April and Kyle Flood was made aware of it in September and reprimanded Cohen in a way he deemed fit. Julie Hermann was also made aware at some point, but all she has done in this situation is continue her pathological lying, so she is irrelevant here. Say what you will about Flood as a coach, but he is a good honest man and I believe him when he says he handled the situation. This brings me to the next controversy.

Just days after breaking the Cohen/Tyree story, Dugan went back to his muckraking ways and contacted former Rutgers cornerback Ian Thomas, who had also  recently quit the team. When Thomas left the program, Flood announced that it was because he had decided to pursue a baseball career. Thomas denied that, and said he has no idea where that came from. Dugan never reached out to Flood to comment on his story, in which basically called the coach a full on liar.

The next day, Flood was reportedly as angry as anybody had ever seen him, as he stood by his word, mentioning that Thomas told not only him, but senior linebacker Jamal Merrell about his intentions to play baseball as well. Tom Luicci of the Star Ledger spoke with an academic adviser at Rutgers who had helped Thomas pursue baseball opportunities, solidifying Flood's word.

Two big stories on Dugan's first week on the job, one turned out to be a bold face lie, and the other is still up in the air. He appears to just be trying to make a name for himself, ethics be damned. And it's working for him personally. He got to make an appearance on ESPN! And in that appearance, he spoke about how well Tyree played in Rutgers spring game, which was seven months before he started covering the team.

Seeking comment from more than one side of a story is journalism 101. And it's not like he is a rookie, he covered sports in Boston for six years. If you are going to flat out call someone a liar or a bully or anything else, you need to seek comment from them so they can tell their side of the story. It would also help if maybe he could talk to some other people with in the program about these two issues, rather than just the two disgruntled ex-players. Luicci did that with the academic adviser, as well as some players on the team. He is a true pro. Dugan, on the other hand, is just a self promoter who is doing a good job of that at the cost of his journalistic soul. Sadly, those are the people who make it big in the industries now a days coughJason WhitlockcoughSkipBaylesscough.

Rutgers Gets Embarrassed at Home Once Again

 As I write this, I am watching Central Florida play Temple because Rutgers is so unwatchable, and I realized that the Owls will give the Golden Knights a more competitive game than Rutgers will on Thursday. The Scarlet Knights currently trail Cincinnati 31-7 with 4:54 left in the second quarter. God only knows how awful the final score will end up being. This is Rutgers football under Kyle Flood.

Rutgers has --oh Cincinnati just scored again-- played extremely passively on defense and Brandon Kay has thrown all over them as a result. They keep playing soft zone coverages with two deep safeties, and Kay splits them every time on the post like an extended hand off. The few times they have brought pressure, Kay has rushed his throws and thrown incompletions. But why be aggressive and reap the benefits when you can sit back and be soft and get beat? Rutgers football under Kyle Flood.

Paul James is back, but he hasn't kick started the running game like you would have hoped. Cincinnati is giving Rutgers receivers a lot of cushion, but why take the open short throws when the defense is handing them to you? Run the ball and throw deep! Rutgers football under Kyle Flood. Why go uptempo to give your offense a jolt when you can use the entire play clock and go three and out? Rutgers football under Kyle Flood.

Tommy Tuberville has pulled out all the stops with an onside kick, a fake punt and some trick plays. His team is fired up and having fun. They came ready to play. Rutgers looks unprepared and flat yet again. Rutgers football under Kyle Flood. 

Gary Nova threw a nice touchdown pass to Brandon Coleman for a touchdown, and that was Rutgers only highlight of what I watched.

The program is a disgrace right now, Kyle Flood is emulating Nero, and they will probably go 3-9 next year and be competitive again when they have a different coach in 2015 or 2016.

Game 9: Cincinnati

Cincinnati scored a total of six points in their last two games against Rutgers, but those games might as well have been a lifetime ago. Rutgers defense isn't nearly that good anymore.

In those last two contests with the Bearcats, Rutgers has had a dominant ground attack, and I would expect to see that again today.

Rutgers is banged up and will be with out Darius Hamilton and Betim Bujari, but Lorenzo Waters and Paul James will be back.

Cincinnati is a winning team, Brandon Kay is a QB with a pulse, and Tommy Tuberville has a huge edge over the head coach opposite him. Rutgers is probably going to lose.

Cincinnati 38 Rutgers 31