What if Chris Partridge ended up at Rutgers

Asking the question "what if" is always a dangerous?

What if the Colts took Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning?

What if the Blazers took Jordan over Bowie?

Over the last 18 months or so the one question that has been bothering me is: What if Rutgers had hired Paramus Catholic head coach Chris Partridge?

In January 2015, Kyle Flood had talked about offering Partridge a job on the Banks. As time went by something happen, we might never know, but the offer was withdrawn. Was it a troubled past or some type of ethics issues. The decision helped set off a chain of events that will forever changed the future of the program.

Flood lost his job and one of the best classes in the history of the state headed to different locations. Partridge ended up taking a position at Michigan and bringing most of the state's top players including Rashan Gary with him.

Would the likes of Jordan Fuller, Gary, and Ron Johnson spur offers from Ohio State and Michigan to stay in state and play for Flood and Partridge on the Banks. If that happened would Flood still be here roaming the sidelines with Partridge as his DC.

If this happened then Schiano would not be at Ohio State and we would never know what the Ash Era is. I'm not saying I'm against the Ash Era but sometimes its good to look at what might have happened.

One too many openings

So now Minnesota, Illinois and Maryland are open with the possibility that Purdue could be open also.

Seeing that could this be enough for Flood to stay on another year since the candidate pool is not that deep. It's just a thought. We are all going to be drawing from the same candidate pool. 

Not saying he should be released it was just a thought.

Professional Tailgating: Wait this is not the WWE

Instead of spending the night at home, the crew headed out to watch Rutgers wrestle defending national champs Penn State. For a WWE fan it was interesting to see a college wrestling match. 

More than 6,000 people attended the match the largest in the history of the program. 

A cool giveaway for kids. Califlower ears for all. 

Professional Tailgating: We're here

So Rutgers played their first Big Ten game last night and rest of the conference was treated to Classic Gary Nova. Here are some of the sights from Rutgers first conference game. 

A pregame Fat Blunt Sandwhich from the Rutgers Grease Trucks 

Rutgers fans are not a fan of James Franklin's economic policies. 

Big Ten Network was their to witness Gary Nova being Gary Nova 

A packed house 

Professions Tailgating: A taste before the main course

So Rutgers beat Howard today in a sloppy game but now we can focus on what we all want to focus on that school from Pennsylvania. Here are some sights from today's game. 

Today's game shirt 

20 minutes before the game 

During the game, not a bad crowd. 

Professional Tailgating: Rutgers 2014 Football Season

Its uncharted water for the Rutgers Football program as they head to the Big 10 this season. While some think that they will not win games, I can see them going .500 and making a bowl game.

Here are my predictions:

• At Washington State: Rutgers 21, WSU 17
• Howard: Rutgers 35, Howard 10
• Penn State: Rutgers 21, PSU 28
• At Navy: Rutgers 24, Navy 20
• Tulane: Rutgers 28, Tulane 17
• Michigan: Rutgers 17, Michigan 35
• at Ohio State: Rutgers 10, Ohio State 45
• at Nebraska: Rutgers 17, Nebraska 35
• Wisconsin: Rutgers 17, Wisconsin 35
• Indiana: Rutgers 35, Indiana 28
• at Michigan State: Rutgers 10, Michigan State 35
• at Maryland: Rutgers 21, Maryland 20

Record 6-6 and a berth in the a bowl game. Now that would be the perfect start the season.

Not the greatest couple of days for RU

A season ticket hike and three of your top recruits de-committing, it has not been the best couple of days for the Scarlet Knights Nation. It all started on Sunday when four star wide reciever Adonis Jennings decided to decommit, then on Monday it was a triple shot of bad new, first a season ticket increase for fans and then a pair of four star recruits decided to take a walk in Kiy Hester (pictured above) and Lamont Simmons.

I can deal with the season ticket increase, better product is coming in the form of a better schedule.

As for the recruits, its very simple until the NCAA has an early signing period this is going to happen. While Simmons is the one that is  the least surprising, the other two are more concerning. 

Hester has been a leader in trying to get more kids to commit to Rutgers. While Jennings has been one of the longer committed kids in the class. Part of me wonders if these two want to just take visits and will get back in the boat heading the Big Ten. Neither of the two have said they have crossed Rutgers off their list, so there is hope 

Two years ago Kyle Flood was able to hold together a class when Greg Schiano bolted for the Bucs. Let's hope that Flood can do that with this class, if not questions are going to abound. 

I have my doubts

For the last eight years, I have been a season ticket holder at Rutgers. Yesterday I left Rutgers Stadium with questions about the future of this program following their disaster loss to Houston on Homecoming weekend. 

The biggest question I have and the hardest to answer is very simple: Is Kyle Flood the man to lead to this program into the Big Ten? 

When Flood replaced Greg Schiano two seasons ago, I thought that it was the right move. By appointing Flood, Rutgers was able to hold together the programs first ever top 25 recruiting. Fast forward two years and I wonder if he is the right man. 

Moving from the American Athletic Conference/Big East to the Big Ten is like going straight from Pre-School to Law School. It's the big time, with big time programs and big ego coaches. The later is my biggest concern with Flood. Flood is one of the nicest people in college football and former players have told me as much, but you know what they say about nice guys they tend to finish last. 

Does Flood have what it takes to be the future of this program. We might never know until its too late. 

Rutgers could care less about the American Athletic Conference

Lets just say Rutgers wants nothing to do with the American Athletic Conference. Its not like they have a relationship with it. Rutgers just wants to see the league, made up like Conference USA, in its rear view mirror as quick as possible. 

Next year the Rutgers Nation will embark into its journey into the Big Ten and that is not lost on anyone . All the fan base talks about is next year and the future games against big time opponents like Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State. 

While the fan base is talking about it, the school is selling it. On Saturday, while I was walking around the one of the stadium shops I was able to purchase a Rutgers Football hat complete with Big Ten logo on the side of it. Yes It has a the Big Ten logo on the side. 

There is nothing like selling a future league, while you are in still in a league. By doing this Rutgers has show that this year and the American Atheltic Conference means nothing. 

The good and bad of the NY Times

While the New York Times hit a home fun with its college football preview stories today, it was not with its issues. The historic paper messed up photos with Heisman Trophy candidates Yeldon, Miller and Boyd. But it did hit a home run with its preview of South Carolina star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and its story about ESPN controlling scheduling. 

The Bad: Messing up photos with Yeldon, Miller, and Boyd

The Good: Awesome graphic 

Is it fair?

For the last couple of days I have been thinking about the punishment that was handed out to Penn State. On one hand something had to be done to punish the school for their role in the cover up of the child sex abuse incidents at the school. On the other how can you punish kids that had nothing to do with the situation.
I'm all for fining the school like they did but hitting the current players with a four year bowl ban is something that is hard to stomach. So players that where kids when this happened no have to pay for the sins of the past. That Is the one thing that bothers me and always will about this situation.

Same type of Culture LFC & PSU

During the last couple of months, the culture at Penn State has been questioned. The Penn State culture is very simple. They are a tight knit community where everyone is from there and outsiders are usually not brought in. In that culture things are kept quite and they try not to let it out. For years, incidents at Penn State where handled in house and anyone who suggested they were handling things wrong were shunned.

Across the pond, there is a similar culture at Liverpool Football Club and that showed this weekend when manager Kenny Dalgish stood up for Luis Suarez not shaking Patrice Evra's hand before the United Liverpool game. During the course of the last two months, Suarez and Dalgish have been fighting with everyone over racism claims against Suarez.

Liverpool is a lot like Penn State, people in the club believe they know what is right for everything and how dare you question them. I'm not comparing the Suarez racism mess to the PSU Jerry Sandusky sex abuse allegations, but rather how they handled things. Anything that happens involving Liverpool is always someone else's fault, they also think that they can handle everything their way and sometimes it blows up in their face, like their handling of the situation this weekend.

Lets hope the Suarez situations makes Liverpool Football Club look in the mirror and re-examine the culture of the club and what they stand for.

This Map Explains Everything

This map breaks down all that is good with America.

High School Football All Star Game Recap

The high school football All-Star season has ended. Over the course of the last two weeks, the OTWT Scouting Department has been watching the three majors national games that where played and making a list. Here are some of the players that we where impressed with during the games.


Semper Fidelis Bowl:

• DJ Foster, RB/DB, Arizona: He is a lock down corner who is very comfortable playing against the other team's fastest receiver, and he's very confident with a smooth backpedal and he can turn and run with the best of them. One of the nation's premier cover corners, he also showed great hands, burst, and displayed outstanding moves in the open field at WR.
• Jayodon Mickens, DB/RB, California: One of the more explosive ball players in Los Angeles. He shows the speed, quickness, hands and burst needed to become an impact WR at the next level.

Under Armour All American Game 

• Chad Kelly, QB, Buffalo (pictured above): The nephew of former Bills great Jim Kelly is headed to Clemson. In the skills challenge Kelly arm strong was really shown, he can make any throw out there. Will be a perfect fit in Chad Morris's Clemson offense. 
• Ifenndi Odenigbo, DE, Ohio: The one that got away, instead of picking Ohio State, Odenigbo will be headed to Northwestern. I can not remember the last time the Wildcats had an athlete like this on defense.

US Army All American Game 

• Cyler Miles, QB, Colorado (pictured right):  Miles is a dual-threat quarterback, but he uses his feet more as a weapon than a priority. He has a strong arm and can make all of the throws. Miles, who is heading to Washington next, will be the perfect replacement for Kevin Price in a couple of years. Miles will probably red shirt next years, which will help his development in the future
• TJ Yeldon:, RB, Alabama:Yeldon is an instinctive runner with excellent speed and acceleration. He has a great initial burst, which allows him to hit small windows and attack the defense. His balance and vision allow him to set up tacklers and break tackles. During the game the 'Bama recruit showed his athletic ability hurdling defenders not once but twice. For a larger back he is incredible athletic.

Sometimes getting a 5-star is not all its cracked up to be

In college football, getting 5-star recruits is the name of the game but sometimes it does not work out. Rivals.com took a look at the five years of 5-stars and the results are a mixed bag, for every superstar there is a bust. 

We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party

As a big tailgater, ESPN College Gameday breaks it down and does a great job.

College Basketball: The Cover Story

The college basketball season is here and here are the Sporting News covers for their college basketball preview issues.

ESPN is the true puppet master

With all of the talk of conference realignment going on right now, Poynter takes a looks at ESPN's roll in the whole situation. A very well done story. This comment by LSU Chancellor Michael Martin sums it up the whole situation best: "I think we could end up with two enormous conferences, one called ESPN and the one called Fox." So I guess ESPN is the true puppet master in conference realignment.

This has to be a first

So yesterday while watching the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers game, I thought to myself wow I think that I just saw history.

During the game, Panthers' QB Cam Newton was picked off by Packers' DB Charles Woodson twice and after thinking about it for a while, I thought it may have been historical. Since Woodson was the only Heisman Trophy winner to play defense and Cam Newton won the Heisman last year, was this the first time that a Heisman Trophy winner was picked off by another? I have to think it was and if it was I don't think enough has been made of it.  

No One is in Charge

New York Times College Sports Reporter Pete Thamel gets to the heart of the ongoing conference reshuffling. It's basically football run Anarchy.