clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Rutgers - Penn State: Bill Belton provides bulletin board material

Reviewing what's been said between opposing players from Rutgers and Penn State.

Jim O'Connor-USA TODAY Sports

In case you've been living under a rock the size of Mount Everest, there's a pretty important game being played this Saturday in Piscataway, New Jersey. Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood has done his best to keep his players focused, but the sheer magnitude of this game has made it impossible for some players to keep the hype machine turned off. Earlier Monday, members of the media caught up with Leonte Carroo and Jonathan Aiken about certain words uttered by Penn State RB Bill Belton from Big Ten Media Day. As a reminder, Belton is from Sicklerville, NJ:

"I wanted to play big-time college football, so I came to Penn State."

Some how, some way, those words made it to the Rutgers locker room. Leonte Carroo didn't sit too kindly with the sentiment from his fellow Jersey native:

"I wanted to stay home because I wanted to bring a championship back to New Jersey. You've got guys like Bill Belton, who's quoted as saying he wanted to go to Penn State because he wanted to play 'big-time football' instead of staying home. Well, I guess we're going to have to show him that he made a terrible decision."

Shots fired. BOOM.

Giphy_medium

A "terrible decision." Those are strong words coming from one of the leaders of the team. With the bowl sanctions being lifted off of Happy Valley, you can be sure there will be some excitement building in the Lions program. And now with Ohio State clearly reeling without Braxton Miller, the chase for the division crown just became that much closer, for both Penn State and Rutgers. Outside of Michigan State, the rest of the Big Ten is just above garbage, like that milk about to spoil in your refrigerator. More from Carroo:

"You have guys back in January, a lot of fans message you on Facebook saying 'I hope you beat the crap out of Penn State. We hate Penn State.' I feel like this is going to change New Jersey and Rutgers football forever."

So a wide open conference race, the battle for fertile recruiting ground, and oh yeah, a couple of teams that aren't too fond of each other. Aiken says he's ready for 'big-time' football. Is it Saturday yet?