RU football keeps hot streak alive
BY DAN NEWMAN Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff Top: Rutgers running back Jourdan Brooks tries to break away from the grips of a pair of Louisville defenders during the fourth quarter of the Scarlet Knights' 63-14 win on Dec. 4. Below: Wide receivers Dennis Campbell (l) and Kenny Britt celebrate a touchdown scored by Campbell in the third quarter.

After starting the season with a string of losses, many of the Rutgers University football faithful may have jumped ship. And those who didn't made sure to let quarterback Mike Teel know, very vociferously, how they felt about his performance midway through the season during a win over the University of Connecticut with a chorus of boos when he was pulled for a few plays in favor of Dom Natale.

For those who did stick around for the end of the regular season, they were rewarded by watching Teel throw for 447 yards and seven touchdowns, both school records, as the Scarlet Knights defeated Louisville 63-14 for its sixth consecutive win.

Rutgers (7-5) asserted itself right from the start at Rutgers Stadium when on the opening possession Teel found fellow senior Tiquan Underwood in the end zone on the receiving end of a 12-yard pass to open the scoring just 1:51 into the game.

Louisville's best scoring opportunity came on the next possession, as it put together a 12- play drive, getting down to the Scarlet Knights' one-yard line on a pass from Hunter Cantwell to Josh Chichester. But Chichester fumbled the ball, with Rutgers taking over.

In all, the Knights scored on seven of its eight first-half possessions, six of which came through the air via Teel.

"Mike's been pretty sharp the last few games," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. "He was pretty darn impressive tonight."

Among the beneficiaries of Teel's big night was wide receiver Tim Brown, who had four catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns.

"This is just one game," Brown said. "We just need to keep working hard and make sure this team gets better each time out."

As for the man of the hour, he said he didn't really think too much about it being his last game at home, or all of the rough times he had in the beginning of the 2008 campaign.

"I was just very focused tonight," Teel explained. "We've played better each week. It was definitely bad early on this season, but we never wavered in our belief that we could turn things around. We never wavered once."

Staked to a 49-0 lead at the half, there wasn't much left to the contest, other than to see if Louisville could prevent a shutout from occurring. That question was answered early in the third quarter when the Cardinals started with excellent field position and on the ninth play of the drive, running back Bruce Bolen scored on a 1-yard run to make it a 49-7 game. Wide receiver Kenny Britt scored his second touchdown of the game, and running back Jourdan Brooks made it into the end zone to finish the scoring for the Scarlet Knights.

"I'm so glad that we stayed together and stayed on course," said Britt, who broke his own Rutgers single-season receiving yardage record from a year ago, finishing the season with 1,252 yards on 81 catches. "It was my last game with Mike Teel as the quarterback here at Rutgers, and my hat goes off to him.