The B1G Bowl XXXIII
This weekend we host one last time for a few years our longtime conference mates, the Scarlet Knights of Snookiland. Out of all the programs we’ve ever played football against in the Big East/AAC, Rutgers is the program we’ve played the most.
Rutgers and Princeton claim to have played the first game of college football but that is truly a myth. Mob football was certainly being played for quite a while by colleges before the infamous Rutgers vs. Princeton game in 1869. But eventually, a widespread ban of mob football was established due to the amount of violence and injuries. Football began to return to college campuses by the late 1860s. Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, and Brown all began playing “kicking” games during this time. In 1867, Princeton used rules based on those of the English Football Association.
On October 20, 1873, representatives from Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Rutgers met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to codify the first set of intercollegiate football rules. Before this meeting, each school had its own set of rules and games were usually played using the home team’s own particular code. At this meeting, a list of rules, based more on soccer than on rugby, was drawn up for intercollegiate football games.
Harvard, which played the “Boston game”, a version of football that allowed carrying, refused to attend this rules conference and continued to play under its own code. While Harvard’s voluntary absence from the meeting made it hard for them to schedule games against other American universities, it agreed to a challenge to play McGill University, from Montreal, in a two-game series. The McGill team traveled to Cambridge to meet Harvard. On May 14, 1874, the first game, played under “Boston” rules, with a round ball, was won by Harvard with a score of 3–0. The next day, the two teams played under “McGill” rules, with an oblong ball, to a scoreless tie.This series of games represents an important milestone in the development of the modern game of (North) American football. A year later, on June 4, 1875, Harvard faced Tufts University in the first game between two American colleges played under rules similar to the McGill/Harvard contest, which was won by Tufts, 1–0.
The first edition of “The Game”, the annual contest between Harvard and Yale, was played on November 13, 1875, under a modified set of rugby rules known as “The Concessionary Rules”. Yale lost 4–0, but found that it too preferred the rugby style game. Spectators from Princeton carried the game back home, where it also became popular. Then came along Walter Camp of Yale, who is considered the most important figure in the development of gridiron football. The rest is history.
Rutgers may have dominated us early in the history of the series, but now parity exists. Rutgers does have a very deep history with the Ivies, claiming to have invented the game along with one of their members. But we have a long history with the Ivies, too. Maybe not as long and deep but definitely a long one. We started playing Ivy League schools in 1915, ending with our yearly game against Yale once we began to dominate. But Rutgers has the very unique and imaginary mystique of playing them back to the very start. The supposed “birthplace of college football”. Nonetheless, Rutgers also has an intimate place in the history of UConn football as their wide receiver and friend of the Huskies’ murdered player Jasper Howard, Tim Brown, scored the winning touchdown for Rutgers in their visit after Howard passed away. Rutgers is the strongest link at the FBS level to our nostalgic past.
We are 10-22 against Rutgers, 5-6 in our last 11 meetings going back to 2001. This will be the this the third time this season we can show the Big Ten that we can compete with their present and future programs. We did play well in first 2 out of 3 games so far. But not well enough to win. This will be the last one. A victory against Rutgers would be very nice to add to the program’s resume.
Given their overwhelming abundance of human life and cosmetic products, leading to television shows such as “Jersey Shore”, Rutgers is headed for the Big Ten because Big Ten alumni of other schools make money off Rutgers alumni, fans and residents of New Jersey. And New York. Now the Big Ten itself wants to try to do the same. Rutgers fans might want to think they are big-time now but they won’t be able to shake off the stigma of having a 16-10 all-time record against Temple when both programs were on a similar level of play for a very long time. They have 4 more games scheduled in the future, hoping to make that 20-10 against Temple all-time. Let’s hope by then Temple can shake off the stigma of, well, being Temple and defeat Rutgers in all four future games.
Rutgers has been downtrending over the past 5 games, losing 4 out of 5 games, only winning at home against Temple by a field goal. Right before their next game against us, head coach Kyle Flood demoted quarterback Gary Nova and replaced him with Chas Dodd, who has defeated us before. Rutgers has played mostly a very weak schedule out-of-conference, losing only at Fresno State in overtime, but defeating Norfolk State (again), Eastern Michigan and a bad Arkansas team. Their greatest strength by far has been their passing game. But Gary Nova only completed 54.5% of his passes, throwing 18 TDs and 14 INTs. Chas Dodd is not a major upgrade, throwing a 55.2% completion rate, 11 TDs and 7 INTs. UConn and Rutgers seem to match up very well for this game. Except we are riding a high after our first win of the season and Rutgers is sliding, demoting their starting QB.
The key to the game is to contain Chas Dodd. If we can carry the defensive momentum of the second half of the Temple game into this game and do that, and have Casey Cochran maintain his poise and game smarts, we have a very good chance of earning a second straight victory. Max DeLorenzo had more carries than Lyle McCombs in the last game. We may want to maintain that split of carries and see how it pans out in first half of the next game. Quarterback play supplemented by the running game will decide this game. Another slobberknocker between the two schools seems to be lined up.
Congratulations to the UConn women’s field hockey team for winning a national championship over the past weekend. UConn has done something Rutgers has never done. Win a meaningful championship in a meaningful sport.
Whoever gave the halftime speech in the game against Temple: THANK YOU!
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