Rutgers' Bowl Winning Streak: Let's Not Kid Ourselves

I'll admit it, I got excited about Rutgers' 27-13 win over Iowa State in Yankee Stadium's second Pinstripe Bowl.  It was nice to see the team show up prepared and determined and play smart error-free football.

This took took some of the sting out of last month's 40-22 debacle in East Hartford at the hands of UConn.

But I'm not going buy into the importance of the five-game consecutive bowl-win streak, the nation's longest current consecutive bowl-win streak.

It's hard to believe this statistic has any importance at all.  It certainly doesn't indicate Rutgers has proved anything outstanding.

After all, isn't a six-consecutive bowl appearance streak, with a loss sandwiched between two or three of the wins, better than Rutgers' five consecutive bowl winning streak, when last year they only won four games and didn't make it to a bowl?

This streak doesn't mean as much as ESPN made it seem, even though they flashed statistics of bowl win streaks on the screen throughout the Pinstripe Bowl.

One thing it means is that Rutgers has won five consecutive low-level bowls and played five low-level teams they were expected to beat.

Now that the thrill of beating 6-7 Iowa State, 7th place finisher in the Big 12, is thinning, I'm leaning more towards Steve Politi of the NJ Star Ledger and the NY Daily News' Dick Weiss when they write about where Rutgers football really stands at this time.

Politi, one of the only columnist at the Star Ledger  who doesn't write puff pieces about how good the local teams are, writes, "Rutgers wins another bowl, but a bigger stage is waiting." He goes on to say that next year's bowl needs to be a better one.

The nationally-heralded Weiss writes, "...the Scarlet Knights still need to escape from the shadow of these second-tier bowl games and play in a BCS game."

Rutgers is in a position where they have to ask themselves is it worth the investment to stay at the level of football they've been at during this five-consecutive bowl-win streak.

The sport is getting pretty expensive.  The Star Ledger recently published a piece about Rutgers having to make cutbacks in its academic programs to offset the rising cost of football.

And what about the attendance?  It's not growing at the pace expected when Rutgers made the case that the stadium expansion will be largely funded by future ticket revenues.

Rutgers needs to improve its schedule

Wouldn't the fans rather see some national powers on Rutgers' schedule even if it meant losing more games? Wouldn't it put more fannies in the seats?

North Carolina is probably the toughest non-conference team Rutgers has played during the years of their five-consecutive bowl-win streak.  Some years North Carolina is on the edge of the top 25; most of the time they're not.

While Big East teams like Cincinnati have played home and home series with Oklahoma, and UConn has played Michigan, Rutgers plays a steady dose of North Carolina, Navy, Army, a team from the MAC and an FCS team on a yearly basis.

Greg Schiano has done a good job

Greg Schiano has taken Rutgers from the joke of college football to a level of respect it hasn't enjoyed since the late 70's-early 80's.  He's done a great job of resurrecting Rutgers Football.

Schiano is an excellent recruiter and has brought a huge amount of talent to Piscataway.

He sends a high percentage of players to the NFL and it's hard to imagine a better defensive coordinator than Greg Schiano.

And maybe Schiano's best quality is his incredible loyalty to his players.  He cares about them and he makes sure they graduate..

Still, there's one thing he needs to do better—he's not regularly regularly against teams from BCS conferences. Since the Rice-Leonard team of 2006, where Rutgers went 11-2 and ended up ranked No. 12, Schiano is just 19-24 against these teams.

Granted, he's beating  the FCS teams, the MAC teams, and the service academies, but I think the Rutgers fan wants more.

 Looking towards 2012

It was great to see Rutgers rebound from last season's 4-8 record, a year where everything went south after the horrific injury suffered by Eric LeGrand.

2011's recruiting class was possibly Shiano's best, and 2012's could be better.  There are a number highly-ranked prospects still out there who had to have been impressed with all the young talent on display in Friday's Pinstripe Bowl win.

So the expectations have risen, and so has the anticipation.  Everything is pointing towards 2012.

Two inexperienced quarterbacks have gotten a lot of playing time this season and have shown potential.  There's more speed in the program than anyone could have imagined.

There's still a chance that Mohamed Sanu could return for his senior year, but if he doesn't, the receiving core is going to be excellent.

The running game has gotten better as the season progressed, and if Savon Huggins can return from his injury, they'll have depth at this position.

Nevertheless, the offensive line needs to be improved, and the defensive line will feel the loss of JustinFrancis.

 The defensive backs are really getting good and hopefully Khaseem Green's injury won't affect him at all as 2012 approaches.

So how many games do the Scarlet Knights have to win in 2012 for the season to be a success?

The usual weak non-conference opponents are lined up.  Tulane and Kent State are on the 2012 schedule.

If West Virginia remains in the Big East in 2012, does Rutgers have to make a statement and finally beat them?

Does Rutgers have to win their first Big East title?

Does it have to go to a quality bowl game?

It's time for Rutgers to step up.  If it doesn't, it's hard to imagine the program can financially sustain itself.

Now there are plenty of schools out there that put a very mediocre product on the field every year.  They don't win conference championships and they don't go to bowl games.

How do they survive?  Most of them are steeped in tradition and receive huge donations from alumni. Rutgers hasn't reached that point yet. 

If Rutgers is going to make it, stepping up to the next level is the only way to get there.