More photos » by Santiago Flores - AP

Charlie's 5 year internship run looks to be over (AP Photo/South Bend Tribune, Santiago Flores)

Browse more photos »

Things are getting ugly in South Bend. Real ugly. The South Bend Tribune's piece on Charlie Weis' tenure and imminent oust from the land of the golden dome is a good read, until the end when it becomes a great read.

6. Fasten your seat belts.

All you'll want for Christmas is to never hear the word “sources” again. And you'll want it as soon as the Black Friday Christmas shopping holiday.

The only lunacy from which you might be spared is that Notre Dame has now cleverly blocked the university plane (N42ND) from showing up on flightaware.com - a flight-tracking Web site.

If that doesn't say "FIRED", I don't know what does.  Charlie better get in shape fast, because he's being run out of town on November 29th.

More photos » by Mel Evans - AP

about 1 month ago: Rutgers wide receiver Mohamed Sanu (6) runs for a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game against South Florida, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, in Piscataway, N.J. Rutgers won 31-0. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Browse more photos »

Savage to Sanu.  Rutgers fans should get used to hearing this over the course of the next few years. The beat down of USF should be credited to two things: An utterly stifling defense (McCourty was a beast all night), and of course the dynamic duo of Savage and Sanu.  Honorable mention to "Lil' Jovi", of course!

While the offense is young, it has really shown some growth over the season.  Even though 24-0 (at the time) wasn't enough for Lil Jovi, I'm sure all of us could appreciate a beat down of a top 25 Big East "rival", one who we've now beat 4 times in a row.

What are your thoughts on the game?  How do you think Rutgers will finish the season?  Leave it in the comments.

More photos » by Mike Groll - AP

about 1 month ago: Rutgers quarterback Tom Savage (7) passes against Army in the third quarter of an NCAA college football game in West Point, N.Y., Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. Rutgers won 27-10. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Browse more photos »

25% off today only, get your Rutgers apparel from RUjerseys.com!  Details of the sale here.

The site now has black jersey tees, which are pretty sweet.  They've also got some other unique products that aren't found elsewhere, so check it out and get your gear!  Let's go... Rutgers!

This college football season started off on the wrong foot, with Oregon stud RB LeGarret Blount knocking out a Boise State player after their loss in the season opener.  To Oregon's (and head coach Chip Kelly's) credit, the Ducks suspended Blount for the remainder of the season after the vicious and uncalled for punch. Even though Blount may return to action this week, thus shortening his suspension into an 8 game suspension instead of 11 games, the Ducks undoubtedly did the right thing.  There's no place in college football for cheap shots and foul play.

This past weekend, however, something worse than Blounts sucker punch happened.  Against bitter rival Georgia, Linebacker Brandon Spikes of the Gators stuck his fingers through the face mask of Georgia RB Washaun Ealey, in a move that goes beyond the word classless.

Brandon Spikes Florida Gators eye gouge vs Georgia (via jmillerau)

So, what is head coach Urban Meyer's reaction? A swift and harsh HALF GAME SUSPENSION AGAINST VANDERBILT!  This is one of the most disgusting and appalling things I have ever seen in my years of watching sports, maybe even in my 27 years of being alive.  Intentionally trying to blind someone in a game is pure bush league, and not only should Spikes be out through the bowl season, he should be kept out until spring ball and only brought back to the team if he shows good behavior in everything that he does.  There is absolutely and positively no place in college athletics for this kind of behavior - except at Florida, apparently.

Shame on the SEC as well.  By agreeing to the half game suspension, you set a precedent that gauging someone's eyes out at the end of a play is OK and a half game "suspension" will do the trick.  Urban Meyer and the SEC should be ashamed of themselves.  If I was a Florida fan, I would be utterly disgusted.  College athletics should be about more than winning, more than keeping your best players out on the field no matter what they do.  You can still win with good morals and ethics.  Maybe Urban should talk to Joe Paterno about doing things the right way. He could learn a thing or two.

What are your thoughts on that matter?  Leave some comments and get the discussion going. I'd love to hear what you all think of this blasphemy.

Looking back at the month of October, there has been numerous instances where I yelled "WTF" at the TV screen during a game, even if the call was blatantly obvious and against my team (a la the Angels 2nd base pick off attempt that worked but wasn't called).  I'm also a Big Ten fan and have dealt with awful officiating (and no owning up to bad calls) for years.  But yesterday, I saw something that boggled my mind.  The Indiana Hoosiers traveled to Iowa to take on the undefeated and #4 ranked Hawkeyes, and some of the calls in that game were blown so badly you'd think you were watching a Jenna Jamison flick.

More specifically, there were 2 blown calls against Indiana that were truly awful. Both went for touchdowns, and both, in the end, were ruled incomplete (whether they were called TD's on the field or not).  Like a lot of times in the month of October, I yelled WTF at the TV. I mean, how can the zebras blow such obvious calls?!  But then it hit me. The refs, the Big Ten, the powers that be, all want Iowa to win.  Why?  Well the answer is simple. Two BCS teams equals more moolah and more exposure for the league.  So what if it'd be better for the league to only send one team to the BCS and have the better teams play weaker competition, thus improving the horrendous reputation of the Big Ten.  So what about the integrity of the game.

Couple that with the just released "expert polls" that have a 2 loss USC team at 12th.  Let's digest this for a second.  USC just lost 47-20, lost to a pretty bad Washington team, and they're #$^$%^ TWELFTH?? College football has all of my love for the actual game, however the mechanics of determining who the best team is, the ludicrous B(C)S that we, the paying fans, have to put up with and the tyranny of the sport is flustering and confusing. 

I wish someone would reign supreme, set up a 4 or 8 team playoff (keeping in tact the importance of the regular season but still determining a true national champion, AND keeping the bowl system around).  But no, we've University presidents and league boards voting again and again in favor of money instead of what's best for the game.  It's appalling and I pray that Utah gets their way and busts up the B(C)S so that, within the next 10 years, we've got a real system in place and don't need to have referees being horribly biased, so that we don't need to see undefeated teams get shut out of a chance to play for the national title, and so that college football is righted.  Here's to hoping for the impossible.

Although this news is a week old, this blog is less than a week old so I wanted to comment on it...

A member of the Board of Trustees at Florida State publicly stated last week that he wants FSU Head Ball Coach Bobby Bowden to step down at seasons end. Not such a great PR move by the FSU BOT.  Even though this is college football, it's still a business, and publicly stating that your legendary head coach should step down at the end of the year because you're frustrated of mediocre football isn't a good front office move in any way, shape or form. 

While it's apparent to all that Bobby wants to regain the all time victories lead from JoePa, the reality of the situation is that Penn State is a stable, winning program right now, and Florida State is a declining mess.  Every year that Bowden stays, the program seems to get worse.  Being a Penn State alum and a student during the worst 5 year stretch in Penn State history (I stayed an extra year - don't hate!), I can tell you first hand that seeing your legendary coach take so much criticism is tough, and I, for one, want Bobby to be able to leave on his own terms much the way JoePa is doing right now.

To me, the biggest difference isn't necessarily losing football games, but more so the way Florida State is losing.  They're getting humiliated!  When Penn State was losing from '00-'04, they often found themselves 1 score away from tying or winning the game.  They were close and JoePa knew it, and in 2005 he made everyone believe that they were, in fact, close to winning a lot of games during a 4-7 campaign in 2004.

Florida State, and Bowden, aren't close to winning a lot of games.  In fact, they're losing to ACC also-rans, Big East upstarts, SEC rivals, and very nearly FBS schools.  That's what's causing such angst from the FSU faithful, including the BOT, especially when the Seminoles were so used to being a college football powerhouse for 14+ seasons in a row.

The right solution?  Let Bowden have the next season and a half to rectify the situation and put head coach in waiting (who came up with that idiotic idea?) Jimbo Fisher in a position to take over a solid, rebuilding Florida State squad with some potential to be a player in the ACC in 2011 and beyond.  Bowden may lose the wins war with Paterno (at this point, it seems almost like a foregone conclusion with the way the programs are going), but he can still do right by the program he helped build, and the school he loves so much.  He deserves that much at least daggumit!

This is TSU – not TCU, so don’t worry Rutgers fans, this game should be a nice, easy win on what should be a wonderful Homecoming weekend. We should view this game as a way to get an easy win as well as creating momentum and improving on all facets of our team, with Pittsburgh looming ahead.   We got off to a slow start and were sloppy against Maryland, lets try to improve on these mistakes, create some identify and show that we’re a team to be reckoned within the Big East. Cincinnati has proved that they are the class of the league, but Rutgers has a very good shot of claiming that #2 spot – WVU and Pittsburgh are certainly winnable games.

Will Tommy Savage suit up for the Knights on homecoming?

The main question of the week – is Tom Savage going to play??  From what I’ve heard, Tom is practicing and doing well and will be playing on Saturday.  This is great news, we need Savage to get game experience and show improvement week by week and TSU is the perfect opponent for a true Freshman quarterback.  I would play him at least the first half and if we have a large lead, take him out and put in Natale and any other quarterbacks if we want.  This is essentially a bye week, so we need to make sure we play the young guys, get them experience as well keeping our starters fresh and ready to roll against Pitt and Army.  Other injury of note is George Johnson – his ankle is feeling better and will be playing on Saturday as well.  Lets hope we don’t need him for more than a quarter and he can rest it up.  On a different note, change of pace running back Mason Robinson is doing well after his season ending back surgery, lets hope he has a nice recovery and gets ready for next year.

Quick hits on Texas Southern – TSU has struggled this year big time.  They are 1-3 which includes a 58-0 loss against Louisiana – Monroe – this isn’t the LSU Tigers by the way. At the same time, we can’t take them for granted and need to iron so many little things on our team with the tougher schedule about to start.  TSU does have some talent as they try to attract division 1 players that transfer and want playing time.  Keep an eye out for some unknown potential.
All in all, lets hope for the best case scenario – a sunny Homecoming Saturday filled with a nice tailgate and a 45-7 win against Texas Southern.  We see some improvement from Savage and the receivers and gain some momentum and confidence to play against Pitt.  Also, would be nice to get some of the young guys some playing time as we need to continue building depth.  One thing to watch is to see if any true Freshman are playing – or any redshirts that get burned - too late for that in my opinion. 

Interesting tidbit – former NY Giants Michael Strahan is a TSU alum!

Stay tuned next week for more analysis of Rutgers football!

A Friday links round up to wet your appetite before this college football weekend.  What a great game last night for Miami, looks like they'll be a competitor in the Big East ACC this year.

• NJ.com previews the Florida International game
• NJ.com also has a nice take on the tiny but effective #2, WR Timmy Brown
• Bleed Scarlet has his own links round up, in paragraph form.
• ESPN.com blogger Brian Bennett thinks the Knights will prevail over their de-facto step brother, FIU, by 14.
• Scouting Rutgers vs FIU, from Scarlet Scuttlebutt
• RUjerseys.com has a 7FOR7 deal going on this weekend

One thing is highly apparent going into this game.  Rutgers needs to play solid football against a not so middling opponent.  This is a team they should beat.  Savage needs to manage the game and not turn the ball over.  The defense needs to play like they are supposed to: poised, together, attack oriented.  FIU's coach, Mario Cristobal, is a Rutgers decibel, meaning he knows how Rutgers works and how to beat them.  This is a pivotal, pivotal game for Rutgers.  A loss here would send the season into oblivion.  It should not and will not happen.  Wins in the next 2 weeks will propel this team to a 1-3 loss season and a possible BCS birth.  I still believe, even after the Cincinnatti loss, the Rutgers can and will come back and make this season a statement season for the program.

Go Knights, Beat FIU!

More photos » by Rich Schultz - AP

3 months ago: Rutgers quarterback Tom Savage calls signals against Howard during the second quarter of their NCAA college football game at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, N.J., Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

Browse more photos »

The future is now! Tommy Savage put up some numbers against an inferior squad, all you can ask for from a freshman QB.  The competition will ramp up a little bit this week with FIU coming to town, but it will be a good test and if RU is up to the challenge, they should come away with a solid victory.

Here's your Monday links recaps:

• Team gets 2 days off.  Much needed due to the intensity of playing 2 games in a row without a normal break.
• Official game recap from ScarletKnights.com
• Bleed Scarlet takes a look at what we've learned
• ESPN.com blogger Brian Bennett still needs to see a bit more from Rutgers as they come in at #6 in his weekly power rankings.
• Scarlet Scuttlebutt likes the moxie of Tom Savage
• #7 jersey tees now available from RUjerseys.com. Get em while you can and support the savior!

We'll have some recaps of the win vs. Howard later this week, along with an FIU preview.  Stay tuned!