College Football(NCAA)

[swanlinbar]

Rutgers routs Louisville, 63-14, to secure bowl bid
by Tom Luicci/The Star-Ledger
Thursday December 04, 2008, 10:59 PM

Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger
Mike Teel pitches the ball to Richard McCann in the second quarter.If style points mean anything, maybe Rutgers should be the party deciding which bowl game it wants -- not the other way around.

The Scarlet Knights didn't just secure the program's fourth straight bowl bid Thursday night. They put on an offensive show the likes of which has been 15 years in the making, one that should convince any selection committee that this isn't your typical 7-5 team.

Quarterback Mike Teel called the display "surreal at times."

Head coach Greg Schiano said it was the "best offensive performance by a team I've been the head coach of -- maybe ever that I've been a part of."

Don't ask where any of this was the first six games. Just enjoy the numbers that Rutgers' record-breaking 63-14 rout of Louisville, played before a crowd of 42,347 at Rutgers Stadium, produced.

The school-record seven touchdowns by Teel, a fifth-year senior, who also set a school mark with 447 passing yards. He finished 21-of-26.

A point total that was the program's highest ever in a Big East game and the most against any opponent since a 68-6 rout of Colgate in 1993.

The career-best 173 yards on four catches (two for touchdowns) by Tim Brown and the 61 yards on three catches that enabled junior wide receiver Kenny Britt to break the school's single-season receiving yardage mark he set a year ago.

It was 49-0 at halftime, and the only suspense then was which bowl Rutgers would be headed to.

The possibilities are down to four and they depend on how Ball State fares Friday night and how West Virginia and Pittsburgh do Saturday. The destination du jour seems to be the Dec. 26 Motor City Bowl in Detroit, where a 13-0 Ball State -- if it beats Buffalo Friday night -- would await. The Meineke Car Care Bowl, Papajohns.com Bowl and Sun Bowl are Rutgers' other possible postseason landing spots.

"It helps," defensive tackle Pete Tverdov said of the Knights' latest impressive victory. "It can't hurt to win like this on a big stage. I really don't know how it works, but I would think we're an attractive bowl team now."

That's hard to believe given the rocky start. By winning their sixth straight the Knights will become just the seventh team in major college history to open 1-5 and wind up in a bowl game.

"This was the team we thought would be here all along," Brown said.

Rutgers' 671 yards of offense (on 59 plays) were the most in Schiano's eight years as head coach. In the first half, the Knights scored 49 points on 25 plays and needed just 9:49 to do so.

"It was just one of those games where I saw things well, threw the ball well and the guys kept getting open," Teel said. "It seemed like every series they were open. We just kept scoring and scoring and scoring."

Teel left to a rousing ovation with 14:35 to play, where he was met by Schiano.

"Mike deserved this, for everything he has been through," said wide receiver Tiquan Underwood, who had two touchdown catches in his final home game.

Britt said he has never seen Teel play better.

"Once in practice I saw him like this. Our defense couldn't stop our offense," he said. "But to do that in a game? That's amazing. It's really amazing."

There wasn't much Rutgers did wrong on either side of the ball. Playing without leading rusher Kordell Young (head injury), the Knights saw redshirt freshman Jourdan Brooks step in by rushing for 124 yards on 11 carries -- highlighted by a 62-yard run in which he was finally dragged down by Travis Norton, who ripped out one of Brooks' dangling dreadlocks to make the tackle.

"It means a lot to go out like this for the seniors," Tverdov said. "I don't think I've even been in a game where we've been up 49-0 at halftime -- and I've been playing football since I was 7."

Teel said he hoped the statement Rutgers made over the second half of the season, punctuated by last night's performance, will be taken into account.

"This is a very good football team right now," he said.


See more in Breaking News
Tags: The Star-Ledger