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Around SBN: Despite Relocation Drama, Coyotes Overcome Adversity

As usual, there is a lot of useful information in this article - but it's distorted by a wildly misleading lede. If you look at Bloomberg's own figures (page 25), the vast majority of student fees goes to non-football sports.

The stuff about concessions, future revenue projections, uniforms, etc... is really great though.

As Pernetti says, students get free tickets in exchange for their student fees, and this is a practice that literally happens everywhere, even at big time SEC programs. If you want to be upset about something, be upset about the school's direct institutional support, which, again, largely goes to non-football sports. Not football.

Edit: the claim about each student paying $1000 for athletics is ludicrous too. That assumes that tuition pays for 100% of the Rutgers budget, when it actually is 36%. Using the official Rutgers count of full-time undergraduates, that makes the actual per student contribution to $506. Which is mostly going to olympic sports.

20 days ago Tiny On the Banks 2 comments

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sign Eric LeGrand

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - NOVEMBER 19:  Eric LeGrand #52 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights enters the stadium to be honored on Senior's Day at center field with head coach Greg Schiano of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights before a game against Cincinnati Bearcats at Rutgers Stadium on November 19, 2011 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. LeGrand was paralyzed during a kickoff return in October 2010.  (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

Yes, you read the title correctly. Greg Schiano announced the signing of Eric LeGrand today for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a move that has been highly praised by not only NFL analysts, but also fans, and people in general across the globe.

As you may know, LeGrand was paralyzed playing football for Rutgers, and the diagnosis looked terrible. LeGrand defied all logic by his quick recovery, and is still working hard to get to full strength this day.

Schiano said:

"Leading up to the draft, I couldn’t help but think that this should’ve been Eric’s draft class," Schiano said in a statement released today by Rutgers and the Buccaneers. "This small gesture is the least we could do to recognize his character, spirit, and perseverance. The way Eric lives his life epitomizes what we are looking for in Buccaneer Men."

What a class move by not only Schiano, but also the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization. It shows that Schiano, while leaving Rutgers, is still loyal to the men he brought up in his system and treated like a father (sometimes an angry father, to be fair) for years.

While Schiano left, he is still a member of the Rutgers family. Great to see this move.

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Multiple Rutgers players sign to NFL rosters

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Last week's NFL Draft is in the books, and in a small upset, Mohamed Sanu was the only Rutgers player drafted. Not only that but as a third round pick, Sanu fell a round later than most pre-draft projections had him pegged. That happened for any number of reasons. Running a slow time in the 40-yard dash at the pro combine in Indianapolis didn't help, but more so in that it reinforced what NFL teams had been seeing on film, and was reflected in his average yardage per catch last year. Sanu is a possession receiver. He may have been the best possession receiver available this year, and NFL teams may not properly value possession receivers, but the book on him was written.

Even though Mohamed was as close to a sure thing as was available in the draft, NFL teams like the Rams and Jets preferred to gamble on more high-risk, high-reward prospects, while other teams like the Giants simply needed more of a vertical threat. The latter is fine; the former more-questionable to say the least. While it is unfortunate that he fell so far into Friday, Cincinnati as as close to an ideal situation as he will find for ideal playing time. A.J. Green is established as the clearcut #1 star receiver, but after that it is a series of question marks, with Jerome Simpson and Andre Caldwell leaving for free agency. Jordan Shipley is an interesting slot receiver, but is coming off a bad injury. Brandon Tate is a burner who hasn't been the same after his own gruesome setback. There are a few other lower-profile names in the mix, but Sanu could well be a slight favorite to start opening day as a rookie. That really would be something, pairing Sanu and Brian Leonard as the league's most dependable third down combination. The Bengals really are putting Andy Dalton into a great position to succeed.

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3 comments  | 

Rutgers releases Nike Pro Combat uniforms

After much fanfare, Rutgers today publicly revealed their new Nike Pro Combat uniform designs right in the football program's backyard in New York City. The uniforms seem to closely fit the template from other Nike re-designs at programs such as Oregon, barring the color scheme of course. (The traditional scarlet, white, and black are new joined by silver.) The block R is staying put, but now Rutgers is wearing metallic silver helmets, with the jerseys themselves being a radical departure from the traditional Schiano-era duds. Out is a simple, clean, sleek design, and in is an overcomplicatd getup that looks like a garish Arena-league uniform.

I really don't want to sound like crotchety old man here, I don't. I love modernism in architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright and such) and in art (all of that weird stuff in MoMA that your parents hate.) Futurism for the sake of futurism is great. This getup may appear to be that, but it isn't quite. This isn't a jersey for your great grandchildren; it's one for your little brother that grew up on Halo and Red Bull. That's the fundamental issue with this rebranding. It isn't design for design's sake. If they just wanted to throw caution to the wind, that would be one thing, and it would be awesome. This, this is a bastardization born out of marketing concerns, patched together by a committee to appeal to solely to the whims of 17-year old boys, or at least the ones in their focus groups. Can anyone put together an animated graphic of Jon Hamm repeatedly shedding a single tear for the occasion?

Poll
What do you think of the new uniforms?
I like them.
268 votes
I am indifferent.
48 votes
I don't like them, but understand why they changed.
76 votes
These are the biggest atrocity since Jersey Shore first went on the air.
76 votes

468 votes | Poll has closed

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14 comments  | 

Josh is uniquely qualified for this position . . . He has achieved success at many levels, while building a reputation as a hard worker with a great knowledge of the game. We are very excited to welcome the Loeffler family into the program."

22 days ago Tiny Dave White 0 comments

State of Rutgers has a great feature up about who were the breakout players during the spring.

23 days ago Tiny On the Banks 2 comments

Sorry, was not able to do anything but watch yesterday (no live notes=no recap with no replay available) to do some other commitments.

As expected though, the deck was pretty stacked for the Scarlet team, with most of the upperclassmen on that side - QBs Gary Nova and Chas Dodd shared reps under center. With such a big talent advantage on one side, Scarlet understandably took this one running away. Plenty of starters were sitting out on both sides of the ball recovering from injuries. It was nice to see Brandon Coleman and Mark Harrison catching passes, although they weren't exactly lined up against Logan Ryan out there. The Scarlet defense was similarly impressive against overmatched competition.

Another attraction was the chance to view a revamped OL, featuring Maryland transfer R.J. Dill, and a re-motivated Antwan Lowery. As far as the running game goes, it was more of the same as last year. Savon Huggins has more raw talent than Jawan Jamison clearly, but Huggins's bruising style probably isn't as good as a fit for Kyle Flood's zone blocking scheme as Jamison's tendency to make quick cuts on a dime.

Last year Marcus Thompson was a game standout as a receiving FB, which didn't mean all that much in the end with him soon to switch to DE. This year, Tyler Kroft definitely showed something as a receiving for the white team.

It was nice seeing the younger players in general, with a very young roster finally starting to come of age - DE Ka'Lial Glaud (who strangely enough is already a senior), OL Taj Alexander, and LB Quentin Gause received the three spring practice awards. Some of the other fans were talking up Al Page at DT, although who knows as it is difficult to evaluate line play in real time beyond general trends.

24 days ago Tiny On the Banks 0 comments

2012 Rutgers spring game preview

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It is a gorgeous day in New Jersey today, which should lead to another superb Rutgers Day. The campus-wide event combines the long-standing Rutgers traditions of Ag Field Day and the New Jersey Folk Music Festival with a smattering of events around the other campuses, capped off with the Scarlet-White football spring game scrimmage on Busch.

Rutgers football head coach Kyle Flood has offered up measured praise of some of the team's younger players such as Miles Shuler and Max Issaka lately, but to the public eye, this spring offered little change from 2011 in that Rutgers looked very strong defensively, but not so hot on the other side of the ball. Reasonable explanations are abound - the defense is always ahead of the offense this time of the year, the weather, injuries on the offensive line. However, that still isn't really what people were looking for. The assumption is that the defense will be good, so them grabbing all of the accolades is getting a little old.

The fans in the stands today aren't looking for suffocating defense, and that probably won't be on tap regardless with the first teamers squaring off with the second stringers. No, we want Gary Nova firing bombs downfield to Brandon Coleman and Miles Shuler frantically grabbing a screen and taking it to the house. The people want to see Savon Huggins running through the defensive line like a bulldozer. The whole thing is not fair, and hardly realistic or representative, but that's the truth. With the spring game actually being a scrimmage with strong limitations on hitting, the chance that a game of effective flag football would break out were already high to begin with.

Now that the customers are craving offensive firepower, what's the harm in taking the reigns off and giving everybody what they want to go home happy? That means a shootout, with Mohamed Sanu and Brandon Coleman passing the breakout moniker to Huggins (or possibly Shuler.) The real work from this spring campaign is complete, having largely occurred away from the public eye. There are not critical reps at stake here today. In fact, the spring game is probably more for the fans than anybody else, with a chance to have lots of top recruits on campus an added side benefit. The past few months have been extremely trying by any possible standard. It is long since time for those flowers to bear fruit. Basically, give us our ice cream before bed. Even if completely vacuous of substance, the time is nigh today to just give everyone what they want.

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