Welcome to the first day of the rest of the season. It hurts, for now. Not so much losing (especially to a very good team), but rather, the manner in which it occurred. There are eleven games to go in the season. Rutgers fans don't feel very well this morning. They'll get over it, and hopefully the team will too. Let's enjoy a kickoff to the start of NFL season this Thursday, and maybe our Knights will be back in form a week from then.
Fans and the press need to relax. Both in hyping the team when things look well, and panicking when it does not. It's not going to happen overnight. No matter how much New York-area fans think that their team's performance is directly proportional to the amount of CO2 that exits their mouths.
Star rankings only matter so much - I doubt Fresno State gets much respect from Rivals, but Pat Hill certainly knows how to develop players. According to Rivals, Rutgers had three four-star players in its starting lineup yesterday on offense (Anthony Davis, Kenny Britt, and Kordell Young) and one three star player (freshman guard Caleb Ruch). On defense, the only four-star player is linebacker Manny Abreu. Silvestro, Johnson, D'Imperio and Kitchen were three-star players, and the rest of the starters were rated two stars.
Stars only matter to an extent. Fresno State doesn't have many, and neither does UConn, but they seem to get by. RU has developed its fair share of lesser-heralded players, and is getting better players every year, but the team won't turn into world beaters overnight. Be patient, and be humble. As to the links:
Reading the media reports today, there's not all that much in new information. Kivlehan and Rowe were the only true freshmen to play.
Navy's starting quarterback missed their opener vs. Towson, and is expected to be out for a few weeks.
The Star Ledger has video of the newly completed club seats.
Brandon Renkart made the Jets' practice squad.
Tom Luicci is as schizophrenic as you might expect. The man loves Rutgers, but I wish he'd have more of an even keel. Did the team's beatwriters go to far this summer in hyping expectations? More notes.