In A Pretty Predictable Fashion, Penn State Kicked The Shit Out Of Rutgers

There is a difference between being an optimistic fan and being a delusional idiot that is a glutton for punishment. That's why when I traveled the entire length of the country to attend a game in the middle of fucking nowhere Pennsyltucky I did so knowing that result would likely not end up being in my, and more importantly Rutgers, favor. I was fully aware that the 28-3 domination which I was "fortunate" enough to witness live was fairly likely even before kickoff. I'm not saying that made it suck less, but in actuality, it kind of did a little bit.

Hey, you can't lose you entire secondary, your best player, and your head coach all within three weeks and compete with traditional powers in the Big Ten. It doesn't matter if the program is having a down year or not. They are still highly recruited kids playing against an inexperienced defense, an offense that doesn't have it's best weapon, and a coach that found out he was the coach three days prior. Those aren't excuses, they are facts, and they are facts that are going to make the rest of the Rutgers football season extremely hard to watch. 

This is especially true if they continue to trot out a starting quarterback that may have the mental capacity to play quarterback at the Division 1 level, but certainly doesn't have the physical ability. You think I want to hate on a kid that can't even drink legally? You think I want to root for him to suffer a minor injury? I don't. I really, really don't. So how about we just call a spade a spade and give Hayden Rettig a shot. I'm not saying he's Joe Montana. Shit, I'm not even saying he's Gary Nova. However, he is a kid that battled tooth and nail all through camp and finished in a dead heat to be the starting quarterback. He may falter just as much as Chris Laviano, but he won't falter because he can't throw the ball far enough or hard enough. 

There have been people clamoring that Laviano looked decent against Penn State. They'll throw out completion percentages and the fact that the offensive line failed to adequately block for him. That may be true, but I'll tell you this. A player that has been directly responsible for 4 turnovers (and it should probably be 6 if opposing secondaries spent 5 more minutes on the jugs machine) and one touchdown over two games is not playing decent. A quarterback that puts up 3 points against  mediocre Penn State team is not playing decent. It's pretty easy to maintain a high completion percentage when 95% of your throws are no more than 10 yard downfield. Chris Laviano threw with such a low velocity that there are times when I thought I could have made a break on the ball from the 20th row of the stadium. That's not necessarily his fault, but it's an extremely noticeable downside. I respect Laviano for giving it his all, but at this point, it's doing the rest of the Rutgers team and fan base a disservice to not at least see what you have sitting on the bench. Obviously, the most popular player on a struggling team is always the backup quarterback. However, in a season surrounded with sooo much negativity, the sole glimmer of hope is a player that has proven he is just as deserving of an opportunity as the player that is currently pissing his opportunity down his leg. As Rutgers fans we have not had much, if anything, to celebrate over the course of the last month. At least give us a chance to see one of our non-incarcerated players perform, especially since the player in front of him has not done so to this point.

This kid may not have 'it', but just by looking at this picture I can say that if he doesn't then no one on this roster does...