Introduction
During the course of the 2005 college football season, GRA will follow the fortunes of two New Jersey institutions -- Monmouth University (West Long Branch) and Rutgers University (New Brunswick).
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Monmouth and Rutgers both improved to 2 and 1 on Saturday, 9/17; both teams had open dates last week.
Rutgers
On Saturday night of 9/17, Rutgers won its second game in a row, with an extraordinarily unimpressive 17-3 victory over an absolutely dreadful University of Buffalo team, at Buffalo.
In its two contests prior to playing Rutgers -- against Connecticut and Syracuse, also Big East teams -- Buffalo had been outscored 69-0.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, now in his fifth season, has an abundance of very talented players on this year's team. Thus, the Scarlet Knights' inability to play consistently good football remains a question of whether or not Shiano and his assistants can coach as well as they have been able to recruit. Of course, the inability to produce good results with good players will surely hurt the recruiting process. There are clear signs this phenomenon already is in progress.
In a home contest tonight, Rutgers will open its Big East season with an 8:00 PM (ET) kickoff against the University of Pittsburgh. The game also is the Big East opener for the Pitt Panthers, who enter the contest with a 1-3 record. Pittsburgh brought a top 15 preseason ranking into its 2005 campaign, thus making the season to date a disappointment for Panther fans.
Tonight's game will be televised nationally on ESPN2. Rutgers opened this season with a nationally televised game on 9/3. In that contest, the Scarlet Knights squandered a 20-point lead against the University of Illinois, ultimately losing the game by a 33-30 score in overtime.
Monmouth
On Saturday 9/17, in a home contest, Monmouth moved to a record of 2 and 1 on the season with an exciting 16-15 victory over a very good California University of Pennsylvania team. CUP entered the contest at 2-0, ranked 25th in the nation among NCAA Division II schools. The Vulcans had outscored their first two opponents of the season by a 130-18 margin. (After its loss to Monmouth, CUP returned to the win column, with a 43-7 walloping of Clarion University on 9/24.)
In Monmouth's victory over CUP, Hawk senior wide receiver and NFL prospect, Miles Austin, had another banner day. He hauled in eight passes for 140 yards, the 10th time in his collegiate career he had 100 yards or more in receptions.
Tomorrow, Monmouth opens its Northeast Conference schedule on the road, with a 1:00 PM (ET) kickoff against Stony Brook University. It is also the first league game for the SB Seawolves.
Monmouth will be out to avenge last years embarrassing 27-0 home loss to Stony Brook. It was the only blemish on the Hawk's 10-1 2004 record.
Stony Brook enters tomorrow's game with a 1-2 record. After a 21-18 opening-day victory against Bucknell, the Seawolves have dropped consecutive contests to Hofstra and Georgetown. In those two games, SB managed to put only 10 points on the scoreboard.
Tomorrow's Monmouth-Stony Brook game will be broadcast via the Internet on WMCX-FM.
The respective Monmouth/Rutgers 2005 schedules/results:
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Monmouth W - L Rutgers W - L
(Hawks) Score (Scarlet Knights) Score
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09/03 Lehigh L 26- 54 Illinois L#30- 33
09/10 La Salle W 65- 27 VILLANOVA W 38- 6
09/17 CALIF. (PA) W 16- 15 Buffalo W 17- 3
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107- 96 85- 42
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09/24 Open Open
09/30F --- PITTSBURGH*
10/01 Stony Brook* ---
10/08 Sacred Heart* WEST VIRGINIA*
10/15 WAGNER* Syracuse*
10/22 ROBERT MORRIS* Connecticut*
10/29 Central Conn.* NAVY
11/05 St. Francis* SOUTH FLORIDA*
11/11F --- Louisville*
11/12 ALBANY* ---
11/19 --- Open
11/26 --- CINCINNATI*
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Home games in caps. *Conference game. #Overtime.
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