SB Nation - Morgan Carter

News and links roundup for 9/27

On the Banks — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:00:57 -0000

Joe Paterno is still bitter over getting rejected from the Big East decades ago, but that won't stop him from once again stumping for Rutgers as an Eastern travel partner. Bonus weird story: what if the Big East and C-USA teamed up in 1990?
Seth Davis had an excellent rebuttal of Taylor Branch's article in The Atlantic on college sports. As I've argued in the past, athletic departments lose money. Branch's piece had excellent research, but his central thesis was awful. The only problem with Davis's article is that he is incorrect in stating that most football programs lose money. Davis gets so much right in that piece, and yet somehow conflates football programs with entire athletic departments, even with a mountain of NCAA research to the contrary.
Hoops Weiss makes a good case for adding Temple to the Big East. If the league has any chance of surviving, it has to split immediately. Temple, UCF, and Houston would then make good additions for a ten team all-sports conference.
Wait, Al Golden gave his practice schedule to Rutgers?
As of last week, Big East football was looking good by popular statistical metrics. This one should be updated in a few days. Sagarin loved Ohio, so Saturday's win got RU into the top 50 there.
Tim Brown is back with Winnipeg of the CFL. That's good to see after his injury scares in the spring.

NFL updates from the past month: the Dolphins signed Nate Jones. The Broncos cut Brandon Bing. The Jaguars cut Tiquan Underwood. The Patriots cut Alex Silvestro. The Vikings cut Ryan D'Imperio and the Bucs cut George Johnson, but re-signed both to their practice squads.

Ryan Hart lost his suit against EA Sports for using his likeness in a video game without permission.

After leaving Rutgers for Georgia Tech, Morgan Carter interned with the Supreme Court.

Jordan Hill had an odd exchange with Greg Schiano upon decommitting several years back.

It's hard to feel sorry for Mike Adams not getting a scholarship from Rutgers when he joined the Eagles' bandwagon in college. Can't do that when you're from Paterson, it's just wrong. It's kinda weird to think that RU passed on two Paterson players in the NFL now in Adams and Victor Cruz.

The new Livingston Dining Hall is garnering rave reviews. That's mind-blowing for alumni who remember intentionally avoiding the Livingston campus as much as possible.

Rutgers wants people to know about its outreach efforts with New Jersey businesses. That might raise a few eyebrows, but likely will have strong support as well.

News and links roundup for 8/20

On the Banks — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:15:13 -0000

Note: hopefully the positional previews will continue here soon. They're on the backburner at the moment because of time constraints.

Morgan Carter describes his transfer from Rutgers as amicable, with his desired major available at Georgia Tech.
Transfer receivers Eddie Poole and Pat Brown followed assistant Brian Jenkins to Bethune Cookman.
Scarlet Nation has a nice little scholarship depth chart up that's worth bookmarking. FWIW, my ship count from a few weeks back was 81 too, although it's hard to know for sure with some of the walk-ons. This year's team is young young young.
Greg Schiano was on Miami radio (scroll down) on Wednesday morning. Football Scoop has a partial transcript.
Here's Dave Wannstedt on his defensive personnel.
"Every one of our defensive ends at Miami and Dallas, they were all guys that were converted linebackers. Our defensive tackles were converted defensive ends. Our outside linebackers were strong safeties. There is a science to this madness."
Sound familiar? That's exactly what Schiano does, in fact our coach probably is far more gung-ho in his emphasis on speed.
UConn coach Randy Edsall isn't spilling any details regarding the announced suspensions of QB Cody Endres and guard Erik Kuraczea. Michigan's secondary is so battered right now that embattled starter Zach Frazer could probably win on the road in Ann Arbor, but not having Endres is going to a giant obstacle otherwise. Is it too much to read into this suspension why Edsall favors the obviously-inferior Frazer beyond a general inclination towards experienced veterans?

Rutgers soccer kicks off the season Saturday with their first scrimmage.

On the heels of a breakthrough season, Rutgers wrestling coach Scott Goodale thinks the sport could actually generate revenue.

Hey, want to know a bunch of esoteric technical details about the new scoreboard at Rutgers Stadium?

Penn State is never going to schedule Pitt in football, ever, thank you very much.

With Walter Seward having passed on nearly two years ago, does anyone know if that makes Harold Bergman the oldest living Rutgers alumnus at 107 years young?

Rutgers is renovating the River Dorms to some extent. Didn't see anything in there about adding air conditioning to Campbell or Frelinghuysen, not that it's on for more than two weeks in any semester in the other dorms.

The NJSIAA playoff ticket debate continues.

NCAA '11 rosters are out, and they are terrible

On the Banks — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:51 -0000

Thanks to PeteyKirch for the tip.

EA Sports has released its NCAA '11 rosters via the Team Builder website. Anyone who wishes to see the rosters will have to register (free), create a team, then load in the Rutgers roster preset in order to see the ratings. Below is an analysis of EA's ratings. This is an extremely nerdy discussion topic that'll probably bore most of you to death, but what else is there to talk about at the moment?

Update: UniWatch points out this uniform screengrab, which is rather odd.

Update2: EA Sports has taken down the link. Fortunately, the player ratings are still preserved below.

Update3: Back up again.

Quarterback:

Tom Savage - 88

Steve Shimko - 71

Chas Dodd - 59

Analysis: Harsh, but fair on the backup ratings.

Halfback:

Joe Martinek -85

Kordell Young - 80

De'Antwan Williams - 80

Aaron Hayward - 67

Tyrone Putman - 66

Analysis: Mostly ok up top, although Hayward is a receiver and that has been clear for some time.

Fullback:

Robert Joseph - 69

Casey Turner - 65

Analysis: EA doesn't seem to be aware that Edmund Laryea is the starting FB. Turner is going to play RB.

Wide Receiver:

Mohamed Sanu - 93

Mark Harrison - 87

Julian Hayes - 82

Keith Stroud - 80

Tim Wright - 78

Mason Robinson - 76

Brandon Coleman - 75

J.T. Tartacoff - 67

Analysis: Understandable how they wouldn't take into account Stroud and Pratt breaking out during the spring, these have likely been set for months. I LOVE Mark Harrison's potential, but he's far too high, as is Hayes. Sanu has decent throwing power/accuracy at 75 each, but they should honestly be higher considering his skill as a passer.

Tight End:

D.C. Jefferson - 81

Paul Carrezola - 76

Malcolm Bush - 68

Analysis: Jefferson still has throwing skills. No major complaints, beyond my general frustration with EA correctly representing redshirt years.

Left Tackle:

Richard Muldrow - 78

Devon Watkis - 76

Jamal Wilson - 66

Left Guard:

Art Forst - 80

Howard Barbieri - 74

Frank Quartucci - 63

Center:

Matt Hardison - 78

Nick Libonati - 66

Right Guard:

Caleb Ruch - 84

Des Wynn - 77

Antwan Lowery - 75

Right Tackle:

Des Stapleton - 80

Chris Fonti - 65

Analysis: It's hard to project rosters going into spring practice, but projecting Muldrow as the #1 LT when he never showed an indication of even cracking the two-deep at RT is the epitome of laziness/poor research.

Left End:

Jonathan Freeny - 83

Sorie Bayoh - 74

Mike Larrow - 70

Right End:

Alex Silvestro - 86

Justin Francis - 78

Evan Lampert - 63

Analysis: EA generally tends to muck up the underclassmen here, but I'm peeved to not see Civil.

Defensive Tackle:

Scott Vallone - 77

Eric LeGrand - 76

Isaac Holmes - 65

Ken Kirksey - 64.

Analysis: And hereeee's where it all goes to hell. Vallone and LeGrand are a terrific pairing and far underrated. Senior starter Charlie Noonan is mysteriously absent in an inexcusable omission

Strongside Linebacker:

Manny Abreu - 83

Al-Ghaffar Lane - 73

Ka'Lial Glaud - 69

Marcus Thompson (?) - 49

Middle Linebacker:

Jim Dumont - 78

Marvin Booker - 69

??? - 55

Weakside Linebacker:

Antonio Lowery - 79

Steve Beauharnais - 67

Morgan Carter - 62

Analysis: The freshman SLB could be Thompson, although it's not entirely clear. The complete mystery is the sophomore MLB listed at 5'10, 225 lbs. Seriously, who is that? Everyone else seems reasonably on the mark. Beauharnais's rating here is a giant snub, and Lowery was underrated too.

Cornerback:

David Rowe - 82

Brandon Bing - 80

Logan Ryan - 79

Darrell Givens - 77

Rashad Knight - 67

Tejay Johnson - 66

Analysis: Probably should have included Brandon Jones.

Free Safety:

Pat Kivlehan - 79

Abdul Smith - 75

Lorenzo Waters - 60