November 9, 2006: Rutgers Football Grows Up

November 9, 2006, 20 years ago: The football team at Rutgers University has what is -- after 1869, anyway -- its signature moment.

Under head coach Greg Schiano, and his aggressive recruiting of New Jersey, New York State, Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, and even Florida, where he'd been an assistant at the University of Miami, collectively calling all of those places "The State of Rutgers," the Scarlet Knights were having their best season since 1976, when they went undefeated against a considerably lesser schedule.

They began the season by beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 21-16. They hosted Illinois at Rutgers Stadium -- the 41,500-seat horseshoe in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey has since been expanded into a 52,454-seat bowl -- and won, 33-0. They hosted Ohio University (not Ohio State), and won, 24-7.

That got them into the Top 25, with a ranking of Number 23. Their next game wasn't going to help them: It was a home game against Howard University, a historically black FCS school, and RU won, 56-7. The next game should have helped them: It was away to South Florida in Tampa, and they won, 22-20. Still, they dropped to Number 24.

After a week off, they went to Annapolis, Maryland, and beat Navy, 34-0. Now, they had risen to Number 19. They played away to the University of Pittsburgh. They never beat Pitt away. This time, they did, 20-10. They rose to Number 16. They hosted Connecticut, and won, 24-13.

Now, the Scarlet Knights were 8-0 -- but still so little respected that they were only ranked Number 15 in the country. On a Thursday night, November 9, they would have a nationally-telecast (ESPN) prime-time game against Number 3 Louisville. The winner of this game would have the inside track to winning the Big East Conference.

A crowd of 44,111 fans crammed into the Piscataway horseshoe. (It's now a 52,000-seat bowl.) At that point, only 7 times had a Rutgers "home game" had more fans, all of them at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands: Against Florida in 1986; and against Penn State in 1977, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992 and 1995. (The October 3, 1992 game against Penn State remains a record crowd for a Rutgers home game: 72,203. Rutgers lost, 38-24.)

Louisville scored first. At the end of the 1st quarter, Rutgers scored a touchdown to tie it, but Louisville returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. And they scored a 2-point conversion. It was Cardinals 15, Scarlet Knights 7.

In the 2nd quarter, Louisville added a touchdown and a field goal, to make it 25-7. But Ray Rice, later to be a figure of terrible controversy, scored a touchdown to make it 25-14 at the half. He scored another touchdown in the 3rd quarter, to get RU within 25-20. But placekicker Jeremy Ito missed the extra point.

With 10:13 left in regulation, Ito kicked a 46-yard field goal, to tie the game at 25. RU's defense held until the final minute. Quarterback Mike Teel drove them down the field, and with 13 seconds to go, Ito attempted a 28-yard field goal. It was perfect. Rutgers led 28-25.

Fans stormed the field. And, as a Rutgers fan for nearly 30 years at that point, used to seeing them blowing it, I was worried that they wouldn't be able to clear the field, thus rendering the field unplayable, and forfeiting the game. But they did clear the field, and Louisville were unable to do anything on their last 2 plays.

Rutgers had beaten the Number 3 team in the country, and the entire country -- or, at least, all of that part of the country that cared about college football -- saw it. The Scarlet Knights had grown up. It was a truly magical moment for the country's 1st college football program.

Just 9 days later, they blew it. Now ranked Number 7, they went to Cincinnati, and lost to the University of Cincinnati, 30-11. They came home and beat Syracuse on Thanksgiving Saturday, 38-7. But the following week, they went to Morgantown and lost to West Virginia, 41-39 in overtime. Despite having been beaten by Rutgers, Louisville won the Big East Championship anyway.

Rutgers closed its season in Houston, beating Kansas State in the Texas Bowl, 37-10. They finished at 11-2, ranked Number 12 in the country.

Teel was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2009, and was on the roster for that entire season, but never entered a regular-season game, and was released. In the 2010 preseason, he was signed and released, first by the New England Patriots, then by the Chicago Bears. He has since gone into coaching.

Ito was signed and released by the New Orleans Saints in 2008. In 2009, he played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League, and was released.