Rutgers Scarlet Knights football

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team represents Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) play. Since the 1991 season, Rutgers has competed within the Big East Conference, having finally abandoned the status of an Independent team.

The Rutgers football program is one of the most historic in the nation. In 1869, the original Rutgers football team defeated Princeton University in the first intercollegiate game ever played. Rutgers won the game by a score of 6 to 4.

Today, Rutgers is coached by Greg Schiano who has overseen a revival of the program. Schiano's teams struggled for the first four years of his tenure, until 2005, when Rutgers achieved its first winning record in more than a decade. Since 2001, the Scarlet Knights have compiled a 59–56 record.

History
Throughout its history, Rutgers has been known for putting dominating football teams on the field. It has fielded 52 ranked teams throughout its school history. In 1869, when Rutgers and Princeton met for the inaugural intercollegiate football game, they were the only two teams playing. Rutgers won the first game with a score of six "runs" to Princeton's four, on November 6, 1869. However, Princeton was victorious in the next game, played the following week, with a score of eight to zero. A planned third game, scheduled November 29, 1869, did not occur as the faculties of both schools presumably thought that the game would interfere with the studies of the respective school's student bodies. Other sources claim that it may have been cancelled due to disagreement over what set of rules to play under. In spite of the fact that there were only two teams playing "football" at the time, both showing 1–1 records, Princeton and Rutgers have been regarded as having shared the 1869 national championship.

From 1929 to 1975, Rutgers was a member of the Middle Three Conference, which consisted of a round-robin against Lafayette College and Lehigh University. Starting in 1940, the 'conference champion' received the Little Brass Cannon. Following Lehigh's capture of the Little Brass Cannon in 1951, Rutgers became an independent team in 1952, though it still played Lafayette and continued the Middle Three round-robin in 1953. Although Rutgers continued to be a part of the Middle Three until 1975, the Scarlet Knights became a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference from 1958 to 1961. The college won the conference championship in three of those four years (1958, 1960, and 1961) and was awarded the Wilmington Touchdown Club Trophy. The 1961 season was particularly remarkable as it was the Scarlet Knights' first undefeated season (9–0)&mdash;with Alabama, one of only two undefeated teams in the nation&mdash;and the team was captained by future college football hall-of-famer Alex Kroll. In 1961, Rutgers was considered a contender for the Rose Bowl, but was not selected because university president Mason Welch Gross did not express interest with the Rose Bowl's organizers. The following year, Rutgers once again went independent, and remained so until it joined the Big East Conference in 1991. In 1976, Rutgers declined an invitation to play an unranked McNeese State University at the Independence Bowl, feeling snubbed by more prestigious bowls despite its undefeated 11–0 season.

Greg Schiano took over as head coach for the 2001 season. His first four years resulted in losing seasons, however, in 2005, the team achieved its first winning season since 1992. In 2006, the Scarlet Knights achieved a record of 11–2, including a first-ever postseason victory. In the following year, Rutgers received its first ever preseason rank. Since that break-out year in 2005, Rutgers under Schiano achieved a winning season in five consecutive years. The streak ended in 2010, a year marred by a spinal cord injury suffered by defensive lineman Eric LeGrand in the sixth game of the season. Rutgers lost its final six games to finish with a record of 4-8.

The Scarlet Knights have had three players drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft. In 2010, Anthony Davis was chosen No. 11 overall by the San Francisco 49ers, and Devin McCourty was chosen No. 27 overall by the New England Patriots. In 2009, Kenny Britt was chosen No. 30 overall by the Tennessee Titans. Britt, an Associated Press All-America selection, is the first player in Rutgers history to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. Ten Scarlet Knights have been drafted in the last three years. 2010 also marked the fourth consecutive year that a Scarlet Knight has been taken on the draft’s first day after Brian Leonard (2007) and Ray Rice (2008) were both second round draft selections.

Logos and uniforms
Black jerseys and pants were worn only in the 2007 season, and have not been a part of the team's uniform combinations since. Although black pants were worn on a couple of occasions with white jerseys on the road, the black jerseys (with black pants) were worn one time in 2007. They were worn on October 27, 2007 at Rutgers Stadium versus West Virginia in a torrential rain storm during a 31-3 loss.

Bowl game results
Rutgers has gone to six bowl games in its 140-year history in college football of which it has won four. This includes consecutive bowls for the last five years, and consecutive wins for the last four.

Head coaches
Twenty-five men have served as head coach of the Rutgers football team since 1891, when the first coach was hired. From 1869 to 1890, and 1892 to 1894, there was no coach.

Local media coverage
Rutgers has a contract with SportsNet New York to air various football-related programming during the season. This includes games broadcast by the Big East Network, which formerly aired over local television.

Football games air on the Rutgers Football Radio Network, which consists of three stations. The flagship is WOR in New York, a 50,000 watt clear channel station that is also the flagship for the university's men's basketball team. The other two stations in the network are WCTC, a low-power AM station that also carries Rutgers sports, and WPEN-FM, a Philadelphia area sports talk station. These games are produced by Nelligan Sports Marketing, a firm that finances college sports broadcasts throughout the nation.

Chris Carlin is the voice of Rutgers football, with Ray Lucas serving as his color analyst. Bruce Beck subs for Lucas when he isn't available. MSG Network reporter Anthony Fucilli works as the sideline reporter while WFAN radio host Marc Malusis is the studio host.