Paul Zeise from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is, yet again, an irascible windbag.
ZEISE: There is no way to pick against Rutgers, they have six wins against I-A competition and a loss to Navy, but they are the greatest 7-win team ever and deserve to be in the BCS -- just ask their fans who have yet to figure out that this Johnny-come-lately program is a long way from relevant.
A newsflash to Mr. Zeise - of course angry fans are going to flood your inbox when you continually take shots at Rutgers for no discernable reason.
Those emails and a few random internet message board posters (who the vast majority of us wish would shut the hell up) are not a representative sample. I don't think that everyone who works for a newspaper is a jerk because of one bad apple, or despise Pittsburgh fans because a few spoiled children have been misbehaving on Rutgers boards. No, Rutgers fans do not collectively believe that they are on the cusp of winning a national championship. The Scarlet Knights were, however, a handful of plays from winning the Big East's autobid this year, which is more an indictment of the system, or of RU's peformance in the first half of the season, than anything else.
It's close, but after West Virginia, Rutgers has won the second-most conference games n the "new" Big East.
West Virginia 22-6
Rutgers 17-11
Cincinnati 16-12
Louisville 15-13
Pittsburgh 14-14
South Florida 14-14
Connecticut 11-17
Syracuse 3-25
So yes, it would be fair to say that Rutgers is, right now, the second best football program in the revamped Big East conference. How big of an accomplishment is that? The hell if I know. But I can say this; Mr. Zeise should probably stop getting his jabs in. He just looks like an even bigger fool each time that he does.