How The Mighty Have Fallen; Rutgers on the Downside

           To cook something to perfection from scratch you need every single ingredient to be right, to be cooked properly and the recipe must be specifically followed. Certainly the Rutgers football program looked like a perfect dish until someone messed with the recipe this season.

The Rutgers football program is in a state of shock this season as the Scarlet Knights are now 1-4 (0-1) and are most likely not heading to a bowl destination for the first time since 2004. Every week another part of that recipe goes missing for Rutgers which causes another loss.

Against Fresno State in week one it was the offense not being able to score at big times and the defense giving up big plays. Against the up and coming Tar Heels of North Carolina, led by coach Butch Davis, the Rutgers defense looked clueless and the team’s heart stopped beating after the second quarter. Losing to Navy in Annapolis fell squarely in the hands of fifth year QB Mike Teel, as he could not lead his team to victory with under two minutes to go.

After a less than impressive win over FCS opponent Morgan State, Rutgers had the opportunity to right the ship and win in Morgantown against West Virginia for the first time in school history. The Scarlet Knights played slow, were coached poorly, and once again Mike Teel failed to lead his team to victory in the two minute drill as Rutgers had the ball inside WVU territory in the final seconds.

So what part of the recipe being tampered with is most to blame? It seems as if not one area can be blamed for this whole debacle but there are a few areas that may have led this program in the wrong direction.

Start with the man being paid all the money, head coach Greg Schiano. Schiano came to Rutgers in December of 2000 and promised there would be days of success and days of competing for a conference and national title. It seemed like crazy talk for where the RU program was at the time (now it seems crazy again this season).

Slowly though Schiano began to steal recruits away from Syracuse, other northeast schools and in places like south Florida. The talent began to rise and the attitude of the coaching staff had the players believing.

Schiano put competitive teams out on the field for the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Finally in 2005 he delivered a winning team and brought the Knights to their first bowl game since 1978. Then in 2006 the recipe for success looked good for RU as they went on to win 11 games and win the first bowl game in school history.

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