THE SLEEPING GIANT IS STARTING TO WAKE UP

First let me start off by saying that well before I attended Rutgers from 1994-1998 I was a Rutgers football fan. Since the early 1980's my parents starting taking me and my brother to Rutgers football games. Back before ESPN, fantasy football, players hiding Sharpie pens in their socks and Harry Carson invented the Gatorade dump we were cheering on our beloved Scarlet Knights. Not since the Frank Burns coaching era at Rutgers has there been this much excitement around the football program. However, ever since the Rutgers football team beat Louisville, every so called "expert" has been sounding off about everything from where Coach Schiano is going to go...to the SEC has better food than the Big East (I'll bet my life on the Fat Cat Especial beating out any other sandwhich in the US). So after having to listen to all of these "experts" all week I thought it might be best for me to answer some of their questions:

- What's a Rutgers?...Well Rutgers just happens to be the birthplace of college football. So well before the Florida Gators were deciding on using the Izod gator as their logo, Rutgers was playing in the first college football game against Princeton University.

- Schiano is going to to take over for Paterno if he doesn't leave for Miami...Back when Greg Schiano was thinking about taking the coaching job at Rutgers, Joe Paterno tried to get Schiano to stay away...not because he was offering friendly advice but because he knew that if Rutgers had a successful football program, then Penn State wouldn't be able to take New Jersey's top prospects. We'll after this year's success there will be a better chance of a Penn State football player actually having to study for an exam then landing a top New Jersey prospect.

- The SEC has historically been the best conference so it must be today...growing up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were arguably the worst football franchise in NFL history...that was until Tony Dungy took over and brought respectability to the organization. For kids growing up today they only know that the Buccaneers have won more Super Bowls then the 49ers or Cowboys in the last couple of years...the last I checked Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson were no longer player at Georgia and Auburn.

- Troy Smith deserves the Heisman...Now this is not meant to take anything away from Troy Smith but Ray Rice is running with teams stacking 32 men and an armored truck in the box against him. Even when Louisville tried to shut down Ray Rice he managed to dominate in the 4th quarter when the game counted most...He ended up running for over 120yds and 2 TDs, before we hand Smith the trophy let's see how he does against Michigan.

- Lee Corso thinks Rutgers and the Big East doesn't deserve a shot at the championship if they go undefeated...Lee Corso is so old that he should know better being that he played in the first college football game between Rutgers and Princeton.

Whether Rutgers is able to run the table or not, it's time for everyone to recognize that they are for real and that they're not a one year wonder. With the recruits they have already signed and all of the other future New Jersey high school recruits getting in line to TRY to get a scholarship, it looks like the sleeping giant has just started to wake up.

JT