Bleed Scarlet

R U being served?

August 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment

I guess Brazinski to UPenn is a done deal.

Less than 24 hours after Immaculata High School center Mark Brazinski de-committed from Rutgers, the Knights found his possible replacement: Center/guard David Osei of Abington (Pa.) High School, who gave the Knights a verbal commitment on Friday according to Scout.com.

Osei, a standout wrestler, boosts the recruiting class for 2009 to 19 verbal commitments.

Coach Flood works in mysterious ways. There were several names that I thought might receive an offer soon on the OL, but I have never heard of Osei.

Reminder: the annual kickoff celebration is being held on Sunday from 5-7 pm.

Kudos to ”gene 0″ at Rivals for spotting this:

Rutgers will pay KSU $750,000 in 2012 to play a football game at its soon-to-be renovated stadium. That’s an unusually big payday to play at Rutgers, but the Scarlet Knights apparently can afford to pay larger guarantees thanks to a $102-million renovation that will increase the capacity of their Piscataway, N.J., stadium from 41,500 to 56,000.

UNC just added a top recruit to their 08 class.

Dwight Jones has decided to play football at North Carolina and will join the program on Saturday, his mother, Deborah, said this morning.

Jones, who is attending Valdosta State in Georgia, decided yesterday to return home and play for UNC. He learned earlier this week that he was academically eligible for NCAA Division I-A play because of a mixup in applying the NCAA academic rules.

Mrs. Jones said she considered the turn of events a miracle and was glad that her son would be closer to their Burlington home. Valdosta State is an NCAA Division II school.

“I guess he feels like I do: I’m still pinching myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming,” Mrs. Jones said.

“He said he worked hard for it. He said he was coming back to claim what belongs to him.”

He’s getting a late start, but Jones might be good enough to make an impact this fall as a freshman.

Ray Rice did not have the greatest debut last night (hopefully Leonard and others will do better this weekend). Here’s a photo, wherein Jerod Mayo proves who really is the best player in the NFL with a food-themed surname.

Between Gannett, the Star-Ledger, and the Bergen Record, the local press is really overboard in its excessive criticism of Rutgers athletics. If you have an opinion, fine, but you should probably check your facts first.

Fiscal responsibility is absent at Rutgers. And state officials refuse to rein in the excesses. While these same officials argue for reductions in benefits for state employees and a reduction in state spending, they allow Rutgers to spend and borrow millions of dollars for its football program.

Money that that comes from student fees, not taxpayers. Rutgers football was actually 5m in the black in 2007. The university as a whole is in the mess because they’ve lost a considerable amount of funding during the past few budget sessions.

Bob Mulcahy was certainly right about the fact that the athletic department was an absolute pariah 8 years ago. The Record is going into a tizzy over a potential conflict of interest with a contract that no sane person would have wanted.

Ben Doody echoes my incredulousness at the New York Times and their lazy, hackjob of piece that they published this morning. How about some more stories about what a great human being Tiquan Underwood is?

Categories: Rutgers Football

2008 Season Preview: Secondary

August 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Projected depth chart:

CB Jason McCourty (SR 5′11, 190 lbs), Brandon Bing (SO 5′11 165 lbs)

CB Devin McCourty (RS-JR 5′11, 185 lbs), Billy Anderson (6′0 185 lbs)

FS Courtney Greene (SR 6′2, 215 lbs), Glenroy Lee (SR 6′2, 195 lbs)

SS Zaire Kitchen (JR 6′2, 215 lbs), Joe Lefeged (SO 6′1, 200 lbs)

The hardest part of evaluating secondary play is that it’s so dependent on having a pass rush up front. Rutgers not only uses a defensive scheme relying on smaller, quicker linemen that often twist and stunt, but Schiano loves to blitz from all over the field as well. Linebackers, safeties, even corners; while a George Johnson drops back into coverage. Perhaps the New York Football Giants were taking notes. Rutgers generated 41 sacks in both seasons, ranking sixth and fifth vs. the pass, respectively. It’s a high risk/high reward scheme, one that’s very vulnerable to big plays when everything does not go as planned.

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Categories: Rutgers Football

Knight Watch

August 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Final line for Ray Rice: 6 carries for 12 yards, 4 catches for 17 yards. Apparently Rice dropped one easy catch. The Baltimore offensive line was dreadful, which could be a problem this year. It certainly hampered Leonard last season. NFL.com has video here. Several other Rutgers alumni should see time on the field in games tomorrow night.

Tiquan Underwood was nominated for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. Sargeant has more on what a great person Underwood really is.

I want to see Antonio Lowery play, and I want it now.

Mase and Kordell should both see a lot of carries in 2008.

The Ledger countered with their own San San Te profile.

The Trentonian looked at the heated competition at safety.

Kevin Haslam, who’s reportedly looking much bigger, is the feature of the latest ”argh why does NJ.com wait until 8:30 am to publish this” piece.

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Categories: Rutgers Football

Is Rutgers a top 25 team?

August 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment

I’m on the fence, but leaning towards ‘no’ at the moment. Intuitively, closer to the 30-40 range with all of the question marks going into 2008.

The reason I ask is because this blog has been accepted into the blogpoll. Please direct any bribes or angry rants towards the email address in the upper left-hand corner.

I plan to make my selection process transparent, and am willing to listen to arguments from the other fans here, both regarding Rutgers and other teams. We’ll start going into further detail on the topic next week.

Categories: NCAA