Top 10 of the Last 10:One Night in Piscataway

Recap:
10.Redskins/Rams 2006
9.The 2005 Fiesta Bowl

November 6, 1869, a day where something special was born. It was on that day in New Brunswick, New Jersey that Rutgers College faced off against the College of New Jersey(Princeton). In a game played under rugby rules, Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4(which would be the equivalence to 36-24 under modern rules). The significance of the game? College Football was born.

Despite the loss, Princeton would never lose to Rutgers again until 1938. Losing, itself, would become a tradition at Rutgers. For the next 137 years, Rutgers would struggle to win a championship or any big games. However, some years Rutgers would surprise people by having winning teams. In 1961, under John Bateman, the Scarlet Knights would go 9-0, however University President, Mason Welch Gross would decline any invite to any bowl games(including the Rose Bowl).

Bateman would be successful as coach, finishing with a 73-51 record. In 1978, the Knights qualified for their first ever Bowl Game, a 34-18 loss in the Garden State Bowl. After that, Rutgers would fall straight down hill. In 1991, Rutgers would join the Big East. Despite being in a elite conference, the Knights would continue to struggle against over Big East powers:Miami, Syracuse, and West Virginia going 7-37 against all 3. In 1997, the team hit rock bottom with a 0-11 season.

In 2001, Rutgers fired coach Terry Shea, their 3rd coach in 17 seasons. Replacing Shea would be Greg Schiano, the former Bucknell linebacker. In his first season, Schiano led the Knights to a 2-9 record, worst than the previous year's 3-8. A low light for Schiano's first year would be an 80-3 loss to West Virginia.


Things would get worst the next year when the Knights finished 1-11, the worst in College Football. However, 2003 would be a lot better as the Knights went 5-7, falling short of a Bowl bid. It would be in 2005, the spark began. The Knights would go 7-5 and qualified for the Insight Bowl, falling short to Arizona State, again, 45-40. Going into the 2006 season, many predicted a sub-par season for the Scarlet Knights. However, what happened was something...different.

Rutgers kicked off the 2006 Season with a 21-16 victory over North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Then Scarlet Knights would continue running beating Illinois, Ohio, and Howard by a combined 116-14. In Week 5, the Knights struggled for the first time in 3 weeks as Rutgers jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but within minutes, South Florida would make it a 14-10 game. Rutgers rallied behind Jeremy Ito's 2 field goals and a Ray Rice touchdown to make it 22-14 with 7:02 remaining. However, it wasn't over as Matt Grothe would lead a 8 play, 66 yard drive to make it 22-20 with 15 seconds left.

However, Grothe's pass would fall incomplete on the 2-point conversion and Rutgers escaped Tampa with a 22-20 victory. The Knights would blow out Navy two weeks later and escaped Pitt and UCONN for the next two weeks, leading up to a November 9th showdown with Louisville. Now before we get to that game, let me tell you about the other half of the story, the Louisville Cardinals.

Louisville football began in 1912 and the team went 3-1. The early years for the Cardinals was a struggle as they had 5 straight seasons that featured an average of 2 wins including no team during World War I. In 1925, Louisville had its first unbeaten team at 8-0. However, they went downhill 3 years later finishing 1-7.

Louisville would continue struggle including 1 win in 3 seasons compared to 24 losses. In 1947, Louisville would smell success again going 7-0-1 but it was there last unbeaten season. In 1957, Louisville went 9-1 and earned a birth to their first bowl game, the Sun Bowl. It was at the Sun Bowl the Cards knocked off Drake 34-20. Things seemed to be getting brighter for the Cards.

Over the next 30 years, Louisville saw showers and rain along with sunny days they thought would never end. They would only make 2 Bowl appearences and hit rock bottom in 1975 with a 1-10 record. In the early 80's there was talk about the program dropping to I-AA or FCS status or dropping the program all together after a string of terrible seasons. In 1985, Louisville hired Howard Schnellenberger, the man who just 6 years earlier revived Miami from the grave and brought them a National Championship. In his first four seasons, the Cards went a combined 10-33 and fans were calling for his firing. However, in 1988, all talk was killed following an 8-3 season with hope and promise for next year.

However, 1989 finished with a dissapointing 6-5 record for the Cards. Little did fans know but 1990 would be there year. The season would start out badly with a 10-10 tie vs San Jose State but the Cards would blow out Murray State the next week, and upset Kansas and West Virginia at Morgantown. However, it was Southern Miss that would spoil any chance of going unbeaten as the Cards fell 25-13 in Hattiesburg. The rest of the way the Cards would never lose earning a bid to the 1991 Fiesta Bowl against Alabama. Despite Bama's 7-5 record many said that the Crimson Tide were favored due to their tradition. By the end of the day Louisville had knocked off the Tide 34-7 completing Schnellenberger's mission.

Three years later Schnellenberger left the team finishing with a record of 54-56-2 but it was the start of something big. In 1996, Louisville joined the Conference USA starting off by beating state rival, Kentucky 38-14 in Lexington. However, Louisville had sunk again finishing 1-10 in 1997 with the sole win against a winless Illinois team. The following year, however, they bounced back finishing 7-5 but losing to 12-win Marshall 48-29 in the Motor City Bowl. Louisville would continue to flounder around as a mid-major waiting for the game that puts them on the map. That chance would come on September 26, 2002.

It was that day Louisville faced off against the No.4 team in the country, Florida State. The Noles had been a dominant force in the ACC throughout the 90's but was coming off its first ever season in the ACC where they didn't win the conference title. In an epic battle the Cards upset the Noles 26-20 but would not have the same success afterward. In 2004, it was announced that Louisville would join the Big East and before they could, they wanted to make a huge splash by beating Miami, the team that dominated the conference for the longest time but was leaving for the ACC. At the Orange Bowl, Louisville jumped out to a 31-14 lead at halftime and seemed poised to pull off the upset. However, they struggled in the 2nd half losing 41-38.

The rest of the year Louisville would not lose and they finished their tenure in the Conference USA beating unbeaten Boise State 44-40 in the Liberty Bowl. In 2005, Louisville began their tenure in the Big East knocking off Kentucky 31-24. However, in Week 3, the 9 Cardinals would fall to former C-USA rival South Florida losing 45-14 in Raymond James Stadium. The next two weeks, Louisville would knock off Florida Atlantic and North Carolina by a combined 130-24 and finished the season 9-3. Despite losing the Gator Bowl, hopes were high and many believed that the Cards would win the National Championship in 2006.

The Cards got off to a good(and bad start) beating Kentucky 59-28 but losing runningback Michael Bush to a broken leg. The Cards wouldn't lose the first two months and entered a November 2nd showdown with West Virginia(who was also unbeaten) at Papa John's Stadium. In a battle between two bitter conference rivals, Louisville knocked off the Mountaineers 44-34 leading to the following Thursday's game against Rutgers.

The game was covered by ESPN and to show how big it was for the New York/New Jersey area, the Empire State Building was colored red for the night in honor of the Scarlet Knights. Immediately, Louisville struck and they took a 7-0 lead. However, it wouldn't last as the Knights would tie it at 7. Immediately following that, Jajuan Spillman returned the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. To make matters worse, Rutgers blocked the kick but Louisville got two anyways to make it 15-7. With 6:34 left in the 2nd, it was 25-7 Louisville.

Rutgers would score before halftime to make it 25-14 going into the break. With 10:13 to go in the 4th Quarter, Rutgers tied it at 25. At 5:03 in the 4th, Rutgers got the ball back and would set up a memorable drive. Within 3 minutes, Rutgers drove from their own 9 to the Louisville 39. From there they would continue pounding the ball in with Brian Leonard and Ray Rice. On 3rd and 4, Ray Rice was sacked and Rutgers would call timeout with 21 ticks remaining. On 4th and 7, Jeremy Ito's 33 yard field goal went wide left and it appeared as if overtime was on the horizon.

However, Louisville was called for off sides and Ito would nail on a 26 yarder to make it 28-25 with 13 seconds left. However, due to the NCAA's stupid clock rules in 2006(I apologize for the pointless short rant), it wouldn't be until there was 1 second left that Louisville had a chance to get the ball back. At his 41, Louisville QB Brian Brohm dropped back, looked down field...and got sacked. It was just like that Rutgers had defeated Louisville for its biggest win of all time and was poised for a National Championship as close to 50,000 people stormed the field within what seemed like 3 seconds.

Ito got redemption

And 50,000 ran onto the field in what seemed like 5 seconds.

The celebration would be short lived for the Scarlet Knights as they would lose 30-11 to Cincinnati and lose to West Virginia in another classic a month later. However, Louisville would not lose the rest of the way and knocked off Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. What makes this No.8 for me? Well I've always been a fan of non-traditional teams and I'm a supporter of the Big East despite being a Maryland fan. Rutgers and Louisville like most of the Big East have never been seen as a great team despite their recent records. This season these two teams will meet again November 29th in Louisville and if it's like last year you're guaranteed for another classic.