Rutgers!!!!!!!!

[RaginCaucasian]

Hells yeah!!!!! :worshippy:

 

Unbeaten Rutgers shocks No. 3 Louisville for biggest win in school history

 

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) -- Rutgers arrived -- and kicked No. 3 Louisville right out of the national championship scramble.

 

The program that once set the standard for college football futility jumped into the title picture Thursday night by rallying from a big deficit for a 28-25 victory over the Cardinals.

 

On his second chance, Jeremy Ito kicked a 28-yard tiebreaking field goal with 13 seconds left and the second consecutive primetime showdown between Big East unbeatens went to No. 15 Rutgers (9-0, 4-0).

 

"This is the new Rutgers," said Scarlet Knights fullback Brian Leonard, the fifth-year senior who was a redshirt freshman on a 1-11 team. "This is a dream of mine."

 

Just a week ago, it was Louisville (8-1, 3-1) celebrating the biggest win in school history, a 44-34 victory over West Virginia that vaulted the Cardinals into the thick of the national championship race.

 

This time, it was Rutgers' turn to party.

 

The Scarlet Knights shut out the high-scoring Cardinals in the second half, erased an 18-point deficit and got the ball with 5:28 left in the fourth quarter at their own 9.

 

"You don't come back the way we did tonight unless you have believers," coach Greg Schiano said.

 

Leonard went 26 yards with a pass in the flats to get Rutgers into Louisville territory and Ray Rice broke a 20-yard run to get into field-goal range. Ito missed a 33-yarder with 18 seconds left, but Louisville was offside and Ito got another shot -- and it was perfect.

 

The final play, appropriately, was a sack of Brian Brohm by a Rutgers' defense that proved worthy of the No. 2 ranking in the country.

 

"We were totally out of sync in the second half, and that can't happen," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "Some of our goals are still out there, that we can reach. We're going to need some help."

 

After the game, Rutgers fans flooded the field and swarmed the players.

 

"It's so awesome with 44,000 fans on this field right now, all Rutgers fans," Leonard said.

 

There are now four undefeated teams in the country -- No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Michigan, No. 14 Boise State and -- it's probably hard for many to believe -- Rutgers.

 

Rice, the Heisman Trophy candidate, yes the Scarlet Knights even have one of those, ran for 22 times for 131 yards and two touchdowns.

 

Brohm, who looked like the Heisman contender last week, went 13-for-27 for 163 yards with a TD and an interception. He also was sacked five times, twice each by Jamel Meekins and Devraun Thompson.

 

When Schiano took over at Rutgers in 2001 the program was as bad as it got in college football, and it didn't get much better in the former Miami assistant's first few seasons.

 

The Scarlet Knights won three games in Schiano's first two years and 12 his first four, before finally turning it around last year with seven victories and a bowl bid.

 

This season, off to their best start 1976, the next step for the Scarlet Knights was to show if they could compete with the nation's best.

 

The answer: Absolutely.

 

Louisville jumped out to a 25-7 lead in the first half behind Brohm and a 100-yard kickoff return by JaJuan Spillman and it looked as if the Cardinals were on their way to a BCS boosting romp.

 

But laughingstocks no more, the Scarlet Knights came charging back to tie it in the fourth quarter behind speedy tailback Rice and a relentless pass rush.

 

Rutgers gave the 2,000 fans packed into the temporary stands behind the south end zone something to go crazy about when Kenny Britt reached high from a pass over the middle and broke free for a 67-yard reception right in their direction. Louisville's William Gay caught Britt from behind and stripped the ball, but it bounced right back to the Rutgers' receiver, who covered it at the 4.

 

And if that wasn't enough to swing momentum Rutgers' way, Rice's 4-yard TD sweep on the next play surely was. The 2-point conversion cut it to 25-22 with 4:42 left in the third quarter.

 

After struggling early to slow down Brohm and the No. 2 offense in the country, Meekins and the hard-rushing Scarlet Knights held the Cardinals without a first down for the first 26 minutes of the second half.

 

When Ito nailed a 46-yard field goal with 10:17 left in the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 25, the cannon behind the south end zone boomed and the record crowd of 44,111 was in a white-towel waving frenzy.

 

Students started lining up outside Rutgers Stadium more than four hours before kickoff for the most important college football game in New Jersey since, well, maybe the first one was played between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. Never before had Rutgers played in a game matching ranked teams.

 

Now the Scarlet Knights have won one and can start wondering where they will be ranked when the next Bowl Championship Series standings come out Sunday.

 

"Hopefully we go up," Rice said. "I'm just glad we won this game."

[hlb37]

WE R RU

[knarf]

I am glad to see they are living up to my Xbox 360 Ncaa version of them

[RaginCaucasian]

Well.... 9-1 aint so bad.

 

Backup QB Davila, Cincy end Rutgers' perfect season

 

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Nick Davila fought back tears while hugging his family and friends in the middle of a rare, raucous Cincinnati celebration.

 

He had good reason to get choked up.

 

Defending home turf

 

Cincinnati has been especially tough on defense on its home turf. In seven home games this season, no team has rushed for 100 yards against the Bearcats.

 

The senior quarterback who had never started a game led the Bearcats to their biggest upset in school history Saturday night, a 30-11 victory over No. 7 Rutgers that ended the Scarlet Knights' perfect season and national title aspirations.

 

"I'm just caught up in the moment right now," said Davila, who scored on a 1-yard run and threw an 83-yard touchdown pass. "I can't explain what's going on. It's so unbelievable. This is the greatest scene in the world."

 

Only nine days earlier, Rutgers (9-1, 4-1 Big East) was engulfed in a similar scene. Red-clad fans poured onto the field in New Jersey after a 28-25 win over then-No. 3 Louisville put the Scarlet Knights smack in the middle of the national championship debate.

 

Davila and the Bearcats (6-5, 3-3) watched that celebration on television, and dreamed of their own.

 

"I thought: That's going to be us," Davila said.

 

Rutgers players now know what it feels like to have to run away from one of those celebrations.

 

"It seems like it's happened to every team in the Big East," Rutgers fullback Brian Leonard said. "It happened to West Virginia, it happened to Louisville, and now it's happened to us. We know we won't make the national championship, but we can still win the Big East."

 

A big-play offense had its way against one of college football's best defenses and one of its most improbable success stories. Rutgers came into the day as one of only four unbeaten teams left in Division 1-A.

 

Playing as a Top 10 team for the first time in their 137-year history, the Scarlet Knights gave by far their worst performance of the season.

 

Rutgers single-season rushing

With 54 rushing yards against Cincinnati, Rutgers running back Ray Rice passed J.J. Jennings to set the Scarlet Knights' record for single-season yards.

 

 

"It's so hard to be at your best each week, and we weren't at our best tonight," coach Greg Schiano said.

 

Now, only No. 1 Ohio State and No. 13 Boise State have perfect marks.

 

In their second season in the Big East, the Bearcats have been looking for a signature win. They'd already played four Top 10 teams on the road this season, losing to all four.

 

This time, they got it right.

 

Rutgers' Ray Rice -- the nation's third-leading rusher -- couldn't find any holes in a defense stacked to stop him. Sophomore quarterback Mike Teel couldn't carry the offense with his erratic passing, and made the big mistake that got Cincinnati believing.

 

Cornerback DeAngelo Smith returned Teel's floating sideline pass 74 yards for a second-quarter touchdown that put the Bearcats in position for the big upset. They'd never beaten a team ranked better than No. 9.

 

"This is a program game," said coach Mark Dantonio, who got doused by players in the closing seconds. "This is the atmosphere we've been talking about."

 

Teel was 12-of-26 for 86 yards with four interceptions in the first three quarters, including a pass that was picked off in the end zone during the closing seconds of the first half.

 

Davila's short pass to Brent Celek turned into the clincher. The beefy tight end slipped through two defenders and spun away from another on an 83-yard touchdown in the third quarter, putting the Bearcats up 27-3 with their longest play of the season.

 

All the Scarlet Knights could do was watch in horror. The 30 points were the most given up by Rutgers this season -- the defense was allowing an average of only 10.9 per game.

 

It was quite a contrast from nine days earlier, when Rutgers overcame an 18-point deficit to upset Louisville. This time, nothing went right against a team missing its starting quarterback.

 

The left-handed Davila made an unannounced start in place of Dustin Grutza, who had a sore leg, hip and passing shoulder from all of the hits he took during a 42-24 loss at West Virginia a week earlier.

 

Schiano said the quarterback shouldn't have made a difference.

 

"I had reports that both were going to play," he said. "Quite frankly, there's not a whole lot you do differently, other than one is left-handed and the other is right-handed."

 

Davila fumbled his first snap of the game, giving Rutgers a chance to take the early lead, but Teel overthrew a receiver who got open beyond the coverage. Then, Jeremy Ito -- the kicker whose field goal clinched that win over Louisville -- was wide left from 31 yards.

 

That was the first hint of trouble ahead.

 

A defense that leads Division I-A in sacks barely got a hand on Davila, who completed 11-of-15 for 277 yards without an interception. The senior also scored his first career touchdown on a 1-yard run scramble for a stunning 10-0 lead.

 

Teel's poor pass then set the upset in motion. Smith easily intercepted his sideline throw and ran untouched past the Rutgers bench on the fourth-longest interception return in Cincinnati history.

 

Midway through the fourth quarter, the crowd of 27,804 -- Cincinnati's biggest of the season -- started the "Overrated!" chant. Players doused coach Mark Dantonio during a timeout with 41 seconds left, leaving cubes of ice on the field for the final seconds.

[charlietags]

Well.... 9-1 aint so bad.

Hey Ragin, I listened coming back from the mountains. That was one sick game. Now they still have to play at West Virginia for probably the Big East title and a chance for a BCS game.

[fishgutmartyr]

Were you expecting no worse than 10-2, with a chance at 11-1 at the beginning of the season? No matter what, this has been a fun ride.

[Reaper]

10-1 Never did I think Rutgers would get 10 wins this year!