Rutgers needed this one. After putting together the most successful season in school history a year ago, the Scarlet Knights had seen a little bit of the shine come off their armor this season with disappointing back-toback losses to Maryland and Cincinnati after starting out 3-0.
And with those losses came the trumpeting of the naysayers – praise-weary critics who despite RU’s success last season were not yet convinced that the Scarlet Knights have become a legitimate Top 20 program under head coach Greg Schiano.
Then on Thursday, in front of a national television audience and a Rutgers Stadium-record crowd of 44,267 fans, Rutgers once again proved them wrong as the Scarlet Knights handed the No. 2 team in the nation, University of South Florida (USF), its first loss of the year, 30-27.
It was just about a year ago when Rutgers officially won the hearts of the tristate area’s college football fans, upsetting third-ranked Louisville, once again in front of a national television audience. With the memories of that game and the area’s reaction to it still fresh in their minds, the Scarlet Knights took the field ready to duplicate the feat against a Bulls team that was also looking to legitimize itself in the eyes of the nation.
With Heisman Trophy candidate Ray Rice (181 yards rushing on 39 carries) and junior wideout Tiquan Underwood (five catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns) leading the way offensively, Rutgers used some trickery on special teams and some strong defensive play down the stretch to secure the win. The trickery came early, as Rutgers used a fake punt at midfield on its first possession of the game to take an early lead.
Senior Jeremy Ito lined up for an apparent punt on fourth-and-eight, but instead threw the first pass of his career, hitting a streaking James Townsend for a first down at the USF 13-yard line. The Bulls defense kept the Scarlet Knights out of the end zone, setting up Ito’s first field goal of the night from 26 yards out.
South Florida quickly tied the game on its first possession, getting a 47-yard field goal from Delbert Alvarado, then took the lead on its next possession courtesy of a five-play drive that was capped by quarterback Matt Grothe’s 18-yard scramble into the end zone.
Then it was Rutgers’ turn to respond, and they did, putting together a 13-play, 73-yard drive sparked by Rice’s hard running. The score came on a third-and-goal, with quarterback Mike Teel hitting Underwood for the first of his two scores.
After the RU defense forced a South Florida punt, return man Tim Brown muffed the kick, giving the Bulls the ball on the Rutgers 18-yard line. Grothe then gave USF the lead once again, connecting with Jessie Hester for a 28-yard TD. Just like that, it was 17-10.
A second special-teams miscue nearly burned RU on its next possession as a 48- yard Ito field-goal attempt was blocked, with the Bulls apparently scooping up the ball and returning it for a touchdown. An official signaled touchdown, but the play immediately went to the booth for a review. It was ruled that the second USF player to touch the ball performed an illegal forward pass and USF gained possession at the RU 44. Eight plays later, the Bulls attempted a 45-yard field goal, but the try was wide left.
Following the game, the two opposing coaches aired opposing views of the call.
“I thought it was illegal touching, moving the ball forward,” Schiano said. “I’m a little bit embarrassed about how adamant I was about showing it to the officials, but there was a lot on the line and I really felt strongly about it, so I was going to make it known. I felt this was a tough game to officiate. There was some real speed on that field. Things are moving fast and I thought the officials did a very good job.”
South Florida coach Jim Leavitt didn’t necessarily agree.
“We blocked a field goal and picked it up and I thought we scored,” he said. “Somehow the replay showed we did not score. That would have been a big part of our defense also. I was not in the replay booth and I was certainly disappointed by that, but they have to go what they think is right. That was big, a turn of events of 10 points.”
Rutgers managed to get another score; a 40-yard field goal from Ito, with just five seconds left in the first half to get within 17-13. Though it did mark the first time the Scarlet Knights trailed at the half, it was a short-lived deficit once the second half began.
In fact, after forcing a three-and-out on USF’s first possession of the second stanza, the Scarlet Knights needed just three plays to regain the lead, as Teel found Underwood at the RU 40-yard line. The elusive junior then raced 60 yards down the sideline to give RU a lead it would never relinquish.
Up 20-17, the Rutgers defense again did its job in stopping the Bulls’ attack, however, a second muffed punt set up another USF field-goal attempt, this one from 27 yards out. However, it was the Rutgers special teams’ turn to make the big play, as Eric Foster busted through the line to block the kick, giving the Scarlet Knights the ball at their own 30.
The result was a nine-play drive that appeared to set up another Ito field-goal attempt. However, Schiano had another trick up his sleeve, as back-up quarterback Andrew DePaola took the snap and instead of putting the ball down for the kick, immediately stood up and hit Kevin Brock with a strike for a 15-yard touchdown. With the point after touchdown (PAT), RU led 27-17 with just over four minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
“I thought it was an extraordinary play by Andrew DePaola and by Kevin Brock,” Schiano said. “Kevin Brock really struggled to get out. They were grabbing him and he just fought threw it and then made a tremendous catch.
“Sometimes things are there and you think you have a chance to run it and sometimes they’re not,” he added when asked about the two successful trick plays the Scarlet Knights used in the game. “So some weeks you don’t even work on it. You work on it in training camp and when you think there is an opportunity, you look for it. We don’t do a lot of that around here, we try to stick to the nuts and bolts but when there’s an opportunity we try to take advantage.”
South Florida managed to cut the lead to seven on a 34-yard Alvarado field goal, capping a 10-play, 2-yard drive. However, Ito made it a two-possession game once again as he booted a line-drive 51-yard field goal, and RU led 30-20 with 11:59 to play in the game.
USF showed their heart in coming back again, putting together an eightplay, 70-yard drive that ended with a 1- yard touchdown run from Mike Ford. With 9:17 left on the clock, USF was within three.
However, the RU defense made it stand up. Though the Bulls seemed poised to tie the game, moving the ball to midfield in the waning moments, Big East Defensive Player of the Week Joe Lefeged came up with a big quarterback sack to keep South Florida out of field-goal range.
An offensive pass interference call pushed the Bulls back farther, and on a desperation fourth-down play with just 49 ticks left on the clock, Rutgers’ Zaire Kitchen sealed the deal with an interception, setting off yet another raucous celebration in Piscataway.
Rutgers generated 400 total yards for the game, while South Florida amassed 362. The Rutgers defense had seven sacks against USF and now has 12 in the last two weeks. Showing a penchant for making the big play in big spots, the RU defense held USF to 2-for-14 on third-down attempts in the game.
“I thought the defense played hard all night,” said Schiano. “We made some mistakes, which makes beating a team like South Florida tough, but they played hard. I’m very proud of their effort.”
Along with the usual cast of defensive standouts, true freshman George Johnson was superb, registering a career-high seven tackles against USF. His previous career high was five stops against Cincinnati.
Offensively, Rutgers held USF defensive end George Selvie to two total tackles and one quarterback hurry. Selvie entered the game as the NCAA leader with 11.5 sacks and 21.5 tackles-forlosses.
The Scarlet Knight offense was also at its best in key spots, going a perfect 3-for- 3 in the red zone, and improving to 25-of- 26 inside the red zone this season.
What this game further proved is that as Rice goes, so does the RU offense. Rutgers is 7-0 when junior Rice has at least 30 attempts in a game, and 16-3 when he rushes for 100 yards or more in a game.
“I think Ray has run tremendously all year,” Schiano said. “He just keeps running harder and harder. Last week, he ran as hard as I have seen him run, and I think he did it again tonight. He was carrying people on his back. He’s on a mission.”
With his superlative effort, Rice surpassed West Virginia’s Amos Zereoue (1999-2002; 3,907) for second place alltime in Big East history in rushing yards with 3,913 for his career (and 999 for the season), and also became the first USF opponent in 15 games to rush for at least 100 yards against the Bulls. He was also the last one to do it in last season’s victory when he amassed 202 yards on 35 carries in Tampa. In three career games against USF, Rice is averaging 180.3 yards rushing per contest.
Rice has 999 yards through seven games this season, making him 1 yard shy of 1,000 yards for the third consecutive season. He would be the first player in 138 seasons of Rutgers football to post three straight 1,000-yard seasons.
Underwood’s effort also had some historical implications, as he passed 100 yards in receiving for the fifth time this year, becoming the first Scarlet Knight to record five 100-yard receiving games since Tres Moses (2001-05) achieved the feat in 2004. With Underwood’s total against the Bulls, he moved up to fourth place in Rutgers single-season history in receiving yards with 789 yards on 39 catches.
Following the win, Schiano put the experience in perspective, noting that although there were certainly some similarities to last year’s historic win over Louisville, this victory was different.
“Last year it was new,” he said. “We hadn’t had that opportunity. I’m not saying it’s old habit by any means, but it’s one game in the Big East conference. It’s a very tough conference. You see people getting knocked off every week. It’s one of seven and now we’re 2-1 in the league.”
Rice echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“Tonight’s win does feel different than last year’s win against Louisville,” he said. “I guess because we’ve been in this situation before and our team was ready to have another huge win.
“It feels great to have a big win against the No. 2 team in the country,” he added. “And Thursday night games are special to play. It’s like Monday Night Football in the NFL. The atmosphere is electric and we love it.”
Following the game, Leavitt said he was proud of his team’s effort, and was quick to credit Rutgers with its solid overall play on both sides of the ball.
“Rutgers played a heck of a ballgame, they really did,” he said. “Rutgers is a good football team; nothing surprised us there. We prepared well. They made more plays than we did tonight. Big East football, the Big East is a pretty good conference. You better be locked in every game because I imagine they are all going to be like this every game.
“Boy, if people out there saw this game, they would think it was an unbelievable game, unbelievable plays, the highs and lows,” he added. “For a fan watching it, it was unbelievable. For a coach watching it, it was a little bit of a strain.”
Next up for the Scarlet Knights is another Top 10 team, as the seventh-ranked Mountaineers of West Virginia University (WVU) come to Piscataway on Saturday for a noon kickoff. WVU, who beat Rutgers, 41-39, in a thrilling triple-overtime affair last season, beat Mississippi State, 39-13, on Saturday, and improved to 6-1 on the year with its lone loss coming to South Florida, 21-13, on Sept. 28.
Rutgers will need another strong defensive performance in this one, as WVU is among the better offensive teams in the nation, led by the outstanding backfield of quarterback Pat White and tailback Steve Slaton.
Now that Rutgers has proved it can once again play with the best teams in the nation, a win over West Virginia would likely be enough to get them back in the picture for a big-time bowl bid. They’re not quite where they were at this point last year; however, following Thursday’s win over South Florida, Rutgers has certainly made its way back into any conversation regarding the nation’s top football teams.
Should the Scarlet Knights beat WVU on Saturday, no one will be able to doubt their credentials anymore. Not many can beat two of the Top 10 teams in the nation very often. Rutgers has a chance to complete that feat on Saturday. It needed to beat South Florida to regain some of the momentum it lost against Maryland and Cincinnati.
Now Rutgers needs to beat WVU to earn its shot at a second consecutive major bowl bid.

