All that for the Texas Bowl

The state of New Jersey (and of course NYC) will forever remember the night Rutgers shocked Louisville. Unfortunately, they’ll also remember the failures that followed.

A devastating triple overtime loss last night in West Virginia means the Scarlet Knights will not be headed to Miami for the Orange Bowl. Instead, while U of L helps the Big East win its second straight BCS game, the Knights are off to Houston to play a bottom tier Big 12 team still to be determined.

Considering how far the Knights have come, it’s hard to label them as choke artists. But the shoe might fit. As it turned out, last night should have meant nothing. If they didn’t lose to Cincinnati, Rutgers would have punched its ticket last weekend following the Mountaineers loss to South Florida. But they did. So then they found themselves in position to win in Morgantown, up three with under four minutes to play. But they didn’t.

Now they have only themselves to blame for everything that follows.

It’s very possible that falling short of the BCS will lead to Greg Schiano taking the job at Miami. That school had a down year. Rutgers had a dream season. But it’s hard to tell the difference between the two when you look at their respective bowl games.

Say they lose in the Texas Bowl. How much different will this season be than last? You can’t keep stealing recruits from the top schools when you’re losing pre-New Year’s day post season games.

Rutgers can take solace in one thing. At least Florida won. Had the Gators lost, all the teams that needed to lose for an unbeaten Scarlet Knights team to even have a chance at playing Ohio State would have.

So hey, it could have been much worse.

On the Banks – My Two Cents (Paying homage to Rutgers season.)