Potencial

As per my previous post, this is working under the 18 ships assumption.

QB: Tom Savage
RB: Desmond Scott
RB: Aaron Heyward
WR: Mark Harrison
WR: Josh Evans
TE: Paul Carrezola
OL: Jamal Wilson
OL: Mark Brazinski
OL: Isaac Holmes/Khalil Wilkes
DE: Bernardo Nunez
DE: Michael Larrow
DE: Andre Civil
DT: Jordan Hill
DT: Antwan Lowery/Mike Douglas
LB: Ryan Donohue
LB: Steve Beauharnais
LB: Glenn Carson/Gerald Hodges/Ka’lial Glaud
CB: Logan Ryan
CB: im Noel
S: Duron Harmon/Abdul Smith
S: Mohamed Sanu

First, the roster for this fall:

QB - 5 (counts Shimko, enrolled early)
RB - 6
WR - 6 (counts Stroud, enrolled early)
TE - 5 (Brock getting ship in fall, Minemyer doesn’t count, McGovern not a guarantee)
OL - 13 (counts Forst, Barbieri getting ship)
DL - 11 (not counting Francis)
LB - 9 (counting Laryea, not counting Dumont)
DB - 10 (not counting Anderson, counting Bing)
K/P - 2

= 67 + 17 = 84. Studivant leaving opened up a ship. While I don’t expect Francis to be back, one spare ship means that ship hasn’t entirely sailed.

Scholarship seniors leaving:

1. Brock (assumed on ship)
2. Gilmartin
3. Greene
4. Lee
5. Malast
6. McCourty
7. McGovern (might be able to apply for a sixth year, unknown if staff would let him)
8. Quaye
9. Teel
10. Tverdov
11. Underwood
12. Watts
13. Westerman

That leaves 14 ships. If Kenny Britt is as good as we think he is, that’s 15. Add in a couple more due to normal attrition (injuries, transfers, fifth-year seniors not being invited back, being too conservative with players like Laryea, and recruits possibly not qualifying.)

Intuitively, I’d say expect 18 recruits next year. I was somewhat upset that we brought in so many players late in last year’s class. However, it may prove to have been necessary. We won’t know until August. Next: an early class projection.

This ND scheduling story has been getting a lot of play during the past few days. Now we actually know how to get Chris Russo and the New York Times behind Rutgers. However:

1. Now I can’t visit any RU-related site that’s not being inundated with trolls.

2. Hardcore fans already knew the ND deal has been dead for quite some time.

3. Misrepresentation of what actually happened. ND didn’t make any unrealistic demands. Bob Mulcahy and Kevin White just could not come to an agreement. The deal was never formalized. It was an amicable parting, and unlike some teams (*cough*, BOSTON COLLEGE), Notre Dame very much remains a scheduling option in the future. I hate ND as much as anyone, but let’s at least tell the truth people.

4. It’s not like ND is the only school that’s tried to pull this. Straight from the AD’s mouth, practically every traditional power has refused to play one and ones with Rutgers. Penn State, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, USC, you name it. All of them want one-offs at their place, or 4 for 2s and similar bullshit. The ironic thing is to watch Penn State fans bash Notre Dame over this issue, when they’re guilty of far, far worse.

Ok, it’s fun to let off a little steam and bash Notre Dame every once in a while. After all, they do deserve it. Now it’s just getting annoying.

I didn’t even notice this at the time, but apparently Friday was the five-year anniversary of Miami and Virginia Tech announcing that they were leaving the Big East for the ACC. That’s a little strange, because during the Spring Game on Saturday, I was reflecting about how far RU has come. A few years ago, it was a big deal that they could finally comfortably beat Buffalo.

There was a lot of skepticism about the BE, and definitely some rough patches. The conference may have been fucked if WVU doesn’t convert that fourth down vs. Georgia. My main contention at the time was that teams don’t play in a vacuum. In the SEC or Big XII, it doesn’t matter how good Kentucky or Baylor play. They’ll never crack the glass ceiling. I assumed that Miami would dominate the ACC, but it consequently would push teams like NC State further down the totem pole. No one could have predicted the ACC’s struggles the past few years, and it would be foolish to expect them to be down forever, but to have Miami AND FSU struggle the past few years has made expansion work out worse than anyone could have expected. Accordingly, Big East teams would have to step up in fill the void in their conference.

As for the Big East, the current 8 team setup has to stick together for two more seasons according to NCAA rules. The conference is (unfortunately) run by a Providence alum that looks out for the Catholic basketball schools first, and he’ll definitely try to keep the 16 teams together for as long as possible. Barring Notre Dame deciding to join for football, or a team like Georgetown or Nova committing to I-A, it’s just completely unfeasible for the long-term. 16 teams is far too big for basketball, and the football teams badly want a ninth member for scheduling purposes.

Who will it be? It’s almost comical reading the columns in Greenville and Orlando papers, alternating between begging for membership and slamming the conference for not inviting them in the first place. Memphis has pretty much given up at this point. The reality though, is that unless BC or Penn State want to join for 2010, every conceivable metric points towards the ninth member being Temple rejoining the conference for all sports (they were a member for football only from 1991-2004). They’re arguably already stronger than Syracuse, and they’ll definitely be headed in the right direction as long as Al Golden is their coach. Navy is a non-starter for several reasons, and I kind of expect their program to decline again now that Paul Johnson has left.

Now that you have the back story, who has the rise of Rutgers really hurt? Read the rest of this entry »

What needs to be done, and what’s been going wrong…

 1. Replacing Jack Corcoran with Jean Beljour at FB. This was already done in the Cincy game.

2. Get Mason Robinson some touches at RB to give Rice a bit of a breather, and add a big play element to the offense.

3. Kevin Haslam at RG. I think the problem is mostly that him and Blaze at C are just inexperienced, so putting Anthony Davis in the starting lineup isn’t going to help a whole lot there. Haslam really does look like a future stud, but he’s more of a left tackle. Doesn’t seem to have the bulk for RG. Roughly, imagine D’Brickashaw Ferguson trying to pancake guys downfield. I guess Davis could help here, but I don’t really think him or Mazan in the starting lineup at C would help all that much.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been some confusion about it, so here’s my attempt to clarify the broadcast rights to I-A games:

ACC - ESPN/ABC/JP
Big East - ESPN/ABC
Big XII - ESPN/ABC/Fox Sports/Versus
Big Ten - ESPN/ABC/Big Ten Network
Pac 10 - ESPN/ABC/Fox Sports/Versus
SEC - ESPN/CBS/JP

CUSA - ESPN/CSTV
MAC - ESPN
MWC - CSTV/Versus/Fox Sports/The Mtn
Sun Belt - ESPN
WAC - ESPN
Notre Dame - NBC

Read the rest of this entry »

What can current dormats do to get out of the cellar? Read the rest of this entry »

Much has been made about the rise of some tiny little program in Piscataway N.J. that you may or may not have heard of. Now, we’re not all penciling in the Knights in the MNC game like RutgersAl and TSopranoRU do on Rivals.com. We do commonly believe something that outsiders tend to take issue with. Not only was the “Shea Error” of 1996-2000 a historical anomaly, but there’s a fair case to make that the perennial mediocrity from inventing football in 1869 to the early 90s can be mostly attributed to a bizarre series of soul-crushing accidents. Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting article published today: http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/inde…490.xml&coll=1

Quote:

Read the rest of this entry »