It had been three years since I went out to Phoenix to see Rutgers play in the Insight Bowl. Now I have just returned from Birmingham, AL after Rutgers' fourth straight bowl appearance and third consecutive bowl victory.
Now the scenery may have been different and the weather was not as nice as the Arizona heat but Rutgers provided enough joy this past Monday to forgive the setting.
Who would ever think we would be talking about a bowl victory after the 1-5 start? It’s a tale of two halves and the second is surely the way a Hollywood script would end. This bowl trip was certainly quite an experience, not just for the players, but for the fans as well.
For the 7,000 or so Scarlet Knight fans who made the trip you are certainly true fans. For those, like my friends and me, who drove all the way to Alabama, no one can ever question where your loyalty lies.
To go down and travel to a third tier bowl, in a crummy city, it took a lot of faith to even make the trip. With how bad the economy is and the state of New Jersey not backing the football program, those 7,000 fans made a difference.
Maybe they weren’t as loud as the Wolfpack faithful but you could tell by looking at the face of former athletic director Bob Mulcahy in his last days fulfilling his job he was so grateful to the fans who kept chanting his name.
Maybe it’s time for New Jersey to open its eyes and to welcome big time college football to its area. My father was sitting at a bar after the game when a few NC State fans sat next to him. After a few minutes of game talk one of the fans politely asked why the state of New Jersey does not support its team.
My dad tried explaining to him the politics involved with what has gone on but simply put the NC State fan did not find the answer acceptable. He could not fathom how a state could not be proud of a program that has come from nothing to something.
And he’s right! It’s time for people in the great Garden State to stop acting like spoiled professional fans and start supporting its State University. It appears that only a National Championship would change things, even then who knows if they would even applaud Rutgers.
Whether it’s the fact the state government barely funds Rutgers, or a growing football program which can bring in revenue is ridiculed everyday by shaky journalists, brings the question: Why is New Jersey so different?
10 comments Last one added 3 months ago — Leave a Comment
Josh Rosenberg 6 months ago
Great article. Completely agree with this and its some thing that has bothered me this entire season. They not only criticized the team, every "Rutgers fan" that I talked to would tell me how terrible Mike Teel was. They were even booing him at games. Besides the 7000 at the bowl game, Noone even knows how to be fans! You boo the other team not YOUR team. With real football fans, No matter how bad your quarterback does, you always back him. ALWAYS. I bet if nobody had booed Teel during the Navy game the wouldv'e not thrown the game losing interception and would've won it and maybe went to the Meineke Bowl instead of the Papajohns.com Bowl. And journalists in newspapers like The Star Ledger: Mulcahy is the wrong man to blame. They accused him of excessive and irresponsible spending while not being supervised. It is University President Mcormick's fault for not supervising him. Mulcahy went over the limit of what he was allowed to do or give to people because there was no limits set by Mcormick! Get rid of the person really responsible for Rutgers' "problems", not the person who essentially built the entire Rutgers program. Mulcahy got Rutgers to where they are now. He hired Coach Schiano and was a factor in recruiting which was what brought this program to its rise. Mcormick should be the one leaving. New Jersey made a huge mistake.
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Adam Helfgott 6 months ago
It certainly is just unbelieveable to fathom how Mcormick was able to scapegoat Mulcahy. Not only that no one at the univeristy stuck up for Mulcahy but it was clearly obvious he was let go for unidentified unclear reason.
I do believe sooner or later some fans will learn how to be "college fans" with having to do with booing. But it just doesn't help to build fan base when you have constant negative press and the state shows no support to something that can be very positive for New Jersey.
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Drew Shapiro 6 months ago
Hey Adam, I enjoyed your article. I gave you a shout on my blog: http://dangerfielddivision.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-links-of-year.html
Hope you enjoy. Take care.
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Josh Rosenberg 6 months ago
And Rutgers is the only school that has state writers calling for the stadium expansion to be scaled back when they started 1-5 , because "Rutgers isn't being succesfull anyway." Soo? Does Syracuse make the Carrier dome smaller because they suck? NO because they are a real football school with a state fanbase that is actually supportive. Hopefully our top 15 recruiting class will gain Rutgers some more support but I doubt it.
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Adam Helfgott 6 months ago
It's hard to say what will make the people of NJ support Rutgers football. I still believe it all stems from a few things. I think the PR and marketing department ar Rutgers has always been poor. If they were good the Mulcahy firing would have never happened for the simple fact the man would have been protected. The next biggest thing is the support of the NJ government. Take a look around the country and RU is one of the worst funded state universities out there. So of course people get mad when money that is not really there goes to something like a stadium expansion. The people running the state can help mold the views of others who are on the fence about the program. They need to make it known they need Rutgers and that Rutgers football can be a major positive thing.
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Josh Rosenberg 6 months ago
Yea that is very true. I know other people that went to the Papajohns.com Bowl and they said they didn't even see McCormick their. Did you see him there?
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Adam Helfgott 6 months ago
It's actually a very ironic story. Throughout the entire trip we saw Mulcahy and him being followed by so many people, and everyone chanting for him and making him look like the golden boy. Then after the game my friends and I were walking to our car when we had to stop when someone was taking a photo in front of the bear bryant statue. It was a man and his wife and there was President McCormick in the middle taking the photo with them. So yes he was there but he did not make his presence well known to the Rutgers faithful.
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Josh Rosenberg 5 months ago
Haha that was smart of him because he porbably would've gotten booed out of the stadium. Mulcahy should get McCormick's job.
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Jayson Love 5 months ago
Great article Adam. You are also doing a wonderful job with the RAC PAC, I hope the team eventually takes off. It's students like you that make this a proud university with outstanding potential. As for what you have said about NJ's support of RU, you are SPOT ON with a capital SPOT ON. It is awful how the state treats this jewel of New Jersey. You go to any other state university, you will see smart boards and white boards in the classrooms, wireless internet, laptops for students, beautiful dorm rooms. RU is 20 years behind the times. Chalkboards in the classroom, no chalk at times as I can attest as a former teacher and I was grossly underpaid. The state needs to step up. It's sick what goes on in NJ.
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Robert Zendzian 3 months ago
Great Article!
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