November 29, 2012: To paraphrase Boromir in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: One does not simply blow an 11-point 2nd-half lead at home and lose, on national television, and still call oneself Conference Co-Champions. It is folly. With fifty thousand men, you could not do this.
Rutgers University had played the 1st college football game in 1869, and won it -- and they hadn't done a damn thing since. That was an exaggeration, but not much of one. They had undefeated seasons in 1961 and 1976, but both came as independents, not as members of a conference.
And, in so doing, they played what was, before such a classification became official, a schedule full of NCAA Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS) teams. It was only in the wake of not getting a bowl big despite going undefeated in 1976 that they decided on what was then called "bigger-time football," scheduling whatever Division I-A (now Football Bowl Subdivision, of FBS) team was willing to take them.
They joined the Big East Conference in 1991, and never came close to winning it until 2006: They beat the University of Louisville, then ranked Number 3 in the country, at home at Rutgers Stadium. They should have won the Conference Championship. But late-season losses to the University of Cincinnati and West Virginia University cost them the title.
In 2012, with their home now renamed High Point Solutions Stadium (since 2019, it's been SHI Stadium), Rutgers began the season 7-0. They won away to Tulane and home to Howard; away to South Florida, a Big East game; away to Arkansas; then home to Connecticut and Syracuse and away to Temple, all Big East games. They were ranked Number 18 in the country.
Then, embarrassingly, they lost at home to FCS team Kent State. Fortunately, it wasn't a Big East game. Nor was their next game, a home win over Army. On November 17, they traveled to Cincinnati, and beat the Bearcats, 10-3. The Scarlet Knights had clinched no worse than a tie for the Big East title.
All they had to do to win the title outright, and possibly gain a berth in a New Year's Day bowl game, was beat either the University of Pittsburgh away or Louisville at home. But they lost to Pitt, 27-6. And so, in a Thursday night game televised nationally on ESPN, they had to defend their home "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" to take the title.
Rutgers wore all-black uniforms for this game, including silver helmets instead of their usual scarlet red, but looked from a distance like they were black. They scored first, when Gary Nova threw an 85-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Coleman. Louisville kicked a field goal to make it 7-3. Early in the 2nd quarter, Mark Harrison caught a pass from Nova, and broke a tackle to make it a 68-yard touchdown reception. 14-3 Rutgers. That lead held into the 3rd quarter.
But in the last minute of the 3rd quarter, Louisville scored a touchdown to make it 14-10. And then, in true RU fashion, the ensuing kickoff was fumbled, and Louisville recovered, leading to 2 touchdowns in 15 seconds of game-clock time. 17-14 Cardinals.
With less than 8 minutes left in regulation, the Knights tied it with a field goal. And, with 4 minutes left, Rutgers were driving for the go-ahead score. But Nova threw an interception, and, with 1:41 to go, John Wallace kicked a 29-yard field goal to give Louisville back the lead. With 1:06 to go, Nova threw one last interception, and Louisville had it won, 20-17.
The season ended with Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati and Syracuse all 5-2 in Big East play. The title was shared. Louisville emerged as the highest-ranked team, so they got the Big East's major bowl bid, and upset Number 4 Florida in the Sugar Bowl, 33-23.
Rutgers were invited to the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando -- formerly known as the Tangerine Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl -- on December 28, against former Big East team Virginia Tech, now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and lost in overtime, 13-10. After starting the season 7-0, they ended it 9-4.
That was RU's last season in the Big East, which was breaking up. Most of its teams ended up in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Rutgers didn't: They spent a stopgap year in The American Conference, and then, in 2014, joined the Big Ten Conference, which made no sense, either geographically (it's a Midwest-based league) or competitively (going into this weekend, their record in Big 10 games is 12-56).
Either way, they are now in a league with national powers Penn State (their arch-rivals), Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska; and perennial contenders Michigan State, Wisconsin and Iowa. They are not winning the Big Ten title anytime soon.
A few years ago, Greg Schiano said, "It's time." But as Keith Sargent wrote in the local newspaper, the Home News Tribune, after a similarly missed opportunity in 2011, "For Rutgers, the future never seems to come."
That 2012 game against Louisville was supposed to be the night that Rutgers won a Conference Championship outright, without sharing it with another team (and they'd never even done that), and get invited to one of the traditional New Year's Day bowl games. This was supposed to be Rutgers' "We have overcome" night.
Instead, it was their Bill Buckner Game. The one that will have those of us who are Scarlet Knights fans muttering in our beds late at night for the rest of our lives.
Why does Rutgers always have to do this? Why can't they come through and be a true champion? To paraphrase Tevye in the Broadway musical Fiddler On the Roof: Would it spoil some vast eternal plan?
*
November 29, 2012 was a Thursday. This was the only college football game played that night. There was 1 NFL game: The Atlanta Falcons beat their arch-rivals, the New Orleans, Saints, 23-13 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Baseball was out of season. And the NHL team owners had locked the players out, so the season didn't begin until January 19, 2013. But there were 2 NBA games played. The Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-100 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. And the Golden State Warriors beat the Denver Nuggets, 106-105 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.
No comments:
Post a Comment