Rutgers football seniors near new degree of success
by Tom Luicci/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday November 25, 2008, 9:02 PM
Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
Defensive tackle Pete Tverdov and fellow Rutgers seniors are close to going bowling an astounding four years in a row.Pete Tverdov isn't ready to discuss the significance of it yet. Not with a game to play against Louisville a week from Thursday-- one Rutgers needs to win to secure a fourth straight bowl appearance.
But if it does happen, the Scarlet Knights defensive tackle knows he and his fellow seniors will be able to make a claim no other class in school history has been able to:
Four years, four bowls.
"That would be a special thing," said Tverdov. "It just shows how much the program has grown from the time Coach (Greg) Schiano first got here to now. Again, it all sounds great, but I really don't want to fill my head or have anyone else's head filled with bowls and this and that. I don't want to look ahead because Louisville is a good football team. I just want to worry about them."
But here's the reality: Rutgers (6-5) had been to just one bowl game in the program's lengthy history before the current group of seniors -- eight fifth-year guys, seven four-year players whose eligibility is exhausted this season -- arrived on campus.
One.
"This came from believing in what Coach Schiano said when he recruited us," said quarterback Mike Teel, a fifth-year senior. "This class (of seniors) will probably be the last class where the coaches here went into families' homes and recruited people by saying, 'This is what we can be if you come here and you believe in our vision.' The guys they're going after now have seen that. They have proof there's a reason to believe that what Coach says is going to happen.
"We were kind of going on blind faith when he said that to us. It shows you how much we believed in what he was telling us."
Wide receiver Tiquan Underwood, who will play his final home game against the Cardinals, said the culture of the program has changed as well. Rutgers' trip to the Insight Bowl in 2005, Underwood's freshman season, was the school's first in 27 years.
"I don't want to sound cocky with what I'm about to say," Underwood said, "but we come into seasons expecting to go to bowl games now."
The Insight was followed by the Texas Bowl in 2006, then the International Bowl last year. If Rutgers beats Louisville and things play out as expected in the Big East, the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 27 would be the school's next bowl destination.
Four years, four bowls.
"Anyone who looks at Rutgers now knows it is headed in the right direction," said Tverdov.
Teel is actually one of just eight players on the roster who have been at Rutgers throughout their careers and remember what it was like not to go to a bowl game. He was a true freshman in 2004, a year he took as a redshirt.
Rutgers finished 5-7 that year.
"You look back at Brian Leonard and that class really got us over the hump, getting us to that first bowl game (in 2005) and then another one after that," Teel said. "Now we're the first class to hopefully do this (go to four straight bowls). It would definitely be special and it would really mean something to all of us if it were to happen."
Underwood said it would be a fitting legacy for the seniors.
"It has been a sight to see, to be part of this, the way the program has grown," he said. "Coach is building a great thing here that is going to last for a long time."
Notes: Asked if he had addressed the bowl issue and the distractions with his players yet, Schiano said he had not. "They know that there's a lot of stuff out there," he said. "I may. Maybe I should. Our mind-set is so different thinking about that, it didn't really come to my mind. I'm sure outside of here they're getting it, so I'll probably talk to them about it."...
Rutgers will practice Wednesday before getting Thursday and Friday off. Every player on the team has a home to go to for Thanksgiving, Schiano said, with many of the out-of-state players forced to stay around because of the short time off.
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