What is next for Rutgers?

Any Rutgers fan will tell you that Thursday night was tough. At the half I texted my wife and said "half way there'', little did I know that the second half would be full of heart break. Sure walking out of Rutgers Stadium was incredibly difficult on Thursday night and it took a couple of days to get over. Rather than rant about how terrible Gary Nova is or how limited the offensive plan was or how the defense was not good, I decided to take a couple a days and think about what happened and where they go from here.

First of all, Rutgers fans, like myself, have to realize what our pedigree is. Just a decade ago Rutgers went 1-11 and 0-7 in the Big East. During that season, the Scarlet Knights lost their opener to Villanova. If you would have told fans that a decade a later they would be dissappointed by sharing the Big East title, they would think that you had been on drugs. People have to understand that this program has little pedigree, and that it has has been developed since 2005, when they went 7-5. Let's face it we are not Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Michigan, or even Georgia. We're Mississippi State, a nice program that in the right year can win a conference title but traditionally will go 7-5 and go to a mid-tier bowl.

People are going to scream about Nova, I thought he was good on Thursday night. Sure the last pass is something that will be talked about for years to come, but who knows who fault that was. Next year, Nova should have the best offense he has ever had. Two good running backs, a good group of receivers and solid offensive line.

Let's look at it like this, the Knights are heading into the best bowl game in the history of the program. They have a share of their first conference title.

The future looks bright and I mean that. On Thursday night, 44 recruits made their officials visit and most of them had Rutgers near the top of their list and that is the very important. The next couple of classes will know the Rutgers program as a winning program and have no idea how bad things where.

While it hurts, all Rutgers fans should know the best (and the Big Ten) is yet to come.