Are you ready for the beatdown in New Brunswick? Just in case you aren't, fill the competitive juices with 10 reasons to hate the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
10. night games at rutgers
Hate Rutgers and Big Ten basement-dweller teams in general for scheduling night games in matchups they know they will lose.
Ohio State got a prelude to Big Ten road games at the end of August in Bloomington. It's a classic example of an inferior team making a game start late at night to bring more fans to the seats because it's a big deal they're about to get drubbed.
Saturday night at Rutgers is nothing different. The Buckeyes are nearly four touchdown favorites. So why the need to play at 7:30 p.m. against an unranked team states away for the second time in five games?
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer says on his weekly radio show that he thinks teams should only have to play two road night games each year.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) September 28, 2017
9. RAY RICE
It's fairly self-evident as to why Ray Rice makes this list. Rutgers' most famous football alumni was arrested in 2014 for domestic violence against his fiancée in a hotel elevator. He was then only suspended two games by oh-wise-one Roger Goodell despite being charged with a crime that carried a sentence of 3-5 years in prison.
To his credit, since his football career ended as a result of what happened, Rice has done everything to atone what happened in 2014. Though what happened doesn't just go away and Rice would be the first to tell you that.
On a quasi-positive note, if Rice's situation did anything good it was expose the league's flawed system for domestic violence.
8. KENNY BRITT
Have you been watching the Browns this season and gotten close to internally combusting thinking that Kenny Britt is the wide receiver the Browns got to replace Terrelle Pryor?
I'm (regretably) here to make your brain dissipate into a pink mist. Your least-favorite underachieving Browns wide receiver once actually did something while playing football, and it was for Rutgers.
Britt average yards per catch during his sophomore and junior seasons were 19.9 yards and 15.8 yards, respectively. 1,232 yards and 1,371 yards those years.
Kenny Britt's stats entering week four with the Browns? Five catches for 69 yards and a touchdown.
To sum it up: love the Browns, hate Rutgers and Kenny Britt.
7. DAVID STERN
David Stern was a graduating history student from Rutgers in 1963 before attending Columbia Law. After being hired by the law firm that represented the league out of law school, Stern worked his way up to being named commissioner of the NBA in 1984.
As commissioner, he did a lot of shady, shiesty stuff.
The shiestiest in my opinion was making sure that Clay Bennett could move the Supersonics to Oklahoma City. David Stern even led the NBA to thwart former Sonics owner Howard Schultz from preventing Bennett moving them out of Seattle.
Whether it be rumors of fixing the NBA Draft Lottery, instituting a dress code because of one iconic point guard or Stern vetoing trades, Rutgers trained the man.
6. POOR CHRIS ASH
When former Ohio State defensive coordinator Chris Ash took the job to become the head coach at Rutgers in the winter of 2015, it was undoubtedly well-deserved.
He deserved better.
Hate Rutgers for sticking Ash in an untenable situation. This isn't to say that Ash can't turn around a program like Rutgers. They could get to a bowl game sooner rather than later hopefully. But unless Ash can somehow get all of the top recruits within New Jersey to stay at home versus going to a more prominently-known powerhouse, Rutgers is nothing more than a stepping stone.
5. Knights aren't even scarlet
There is nothing in written history that says grown men went around in scarlet-covered armor clanging swords and jousting on horseback like a dinner show at Medieval Times.
The only reason the Knights ever became scarlet and knights in the first place was a 1955 poll around campus held to replace the old mascot. The student body decided on knights through a vote and then the university slapped scarlet on it for good measure. What was the old mascot you ask? The chanticleers.
Here is a reminder a chanticleer is another name for a cockfighting chicken.
To be honest, they should have stuck with the Chanticleers. If you've ever seen a cockfighting chicken in the ring (I have: Eastbound & Down; S2 E1), they never give up until they either win or die. Rutgers football could use a lot of that.
4. i CAn make a list just for scandals
I'd sure like to give every one of the scandals that's plagued the Rutgers athletic department the hate they all equally deserve, but that'd take too long and this isn't 17 Reasons to Hate Rutgers. Although it certainly could be.
To break them down, here's a running list as follows (I'll update if anything happens before kickoff):
- Athletics: Former Rutgers AD made a Jerry Sandusky joke.
- Basketball: Kevin Bannon made two players run sprints while naked.
- Basketball: Mike Rice slurred and threw balls at players.
- Football: Kyle Flood contacted Rutgers faculty to change a player's grade.
- Football: Five players pillaged and broke a student's jaw over two weeks in 2015.
There's more that technically could qualify, but they don't make this list of lists.
3. "The War BEfore the shore"
Scandals and bad ideas — when Rutgers has both of these, they come in numbers.
The 2017 Rutgers home opener was dubbed the "War Before The Shore," which took place Friday, Sept. 1 and saw the Washington Huskies come into Rutger's yard and lift their leg on it, leaving with a 30-14 win.
Besides the terrible name that alludes yet again another example to equating football to war, Rutgers installed a jacuzzi/pool/water receptacle at the top of the student section to play along with the whole jersey shore rationale.
There is absolutely nothing sadder than thinking putting a jacuzzi in a student section will draw students to come watch football games. The last time I saw a jacuzzi near a football field was behind the north end zone at Marion Mayhem football games in the mid-2000s.
The rationale for doing something so blatantly preposterous must have been that installing a jacuzzi would fill all the other 52,454 empty seats in High Point Solutions Stadiums.
Well, it didn't. Attendance was 46,903 for the game. But congrats to Rutgers for probably having more people inside the jacuzzi than in the stands by the end of the night.
Greetings from the hot tubs at the Rutgers game: pic.twitter.com/Bk91slvGrm
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) September 1, 2017
2. Rutgers hates Grease Trucks and Tradition
If you've never seen the Man v. Food episode where host Adam Richman stops at Rutgers, he stops at this food truck known as "RU Hungry?" and attempts to eat five "fat sandwiches" in 45 minutes. While Richman didn't accomplish the challenge, it brought cool light to a staple of the Rutgers campus.
That is, until Rutgers decided to not renew their lease for their food truck for the year. Citing that the food truck did not meet length regulations, although it had been fine in previous years, the university forced the food truck to leave campus for the 2017 spring, summer and fall seasons.
Here's what owner Ayman Elngaggar had to say about the ordeal to The Daily Targum in late January 2017:
“I felt very bad to lose the trailer but I couldn’t do any better, I tried the best I can, I almost begged them but they don’t want it,” Elnaggar said. “Please come to the store, support the store so we keep the tradition alive. We make the best food, we do the best we can … with your support, we’ll stay. If you don’t support us, we’ll vanish.”
So much for supporting local business, Rutgers. Luckily, all indications point to RU Hungry? still being a vitalized, successful food joint.
For as greasy and as gut-wrenching as P.J.'s is on campus, it's a campus staple as well. I'll write a "10 Reasons to Hate Ohio State" article in the future if the university's land development pillage ever takes away the mecca on Frambes and High.
1. RIP James Gandolfini
Finally, shout it for the people in the back — what does a man have to do to get a statue on the Rutgers campus? Hate Rutgers because they haven't rolled out the works in memory of their most famous alumni.
Just take a look at this golden commercial James Gandolfini did with then-Rutgers coach and now Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano back in the day. Gandolfini was all for Rutgers.
Other than being inducted into their hall of distinguished alumni in 2004 and honored at a board of governors meeting shortly after his death, Rutgers has done nothing posthumously to tell the rest of the world that James Gandolfini attended their school.
I mean bless Tony Soprano's heart. Gone way too very soon. I would give up a non-vital organ to see him scream bloody murder at "Rutgas" while double-fisting a glass of vino and gabagool after they get absolutely bagged by the Buckeyes Saturday night.
Rutgers, get real guys. Give this man a statue. Name a dorm after him. Do something. You're on the level of "Pussy" right now and he turned his back on Tony and became an informant. You're missing out on honoring the legacy of someone truly special. He's the capo and you're treating him like he's Uncle Junior.
