So the Rutgers football coach has turned down the Michigan job -- I'll take "Sentences I never thought I would have to write" for $200, Alex -- giving this strange episode a happy ending for New Jersey.

Give Greg Schiano credit. He had an opportunity to coach one of the finest college football programs in the country and said, "No thanks." From the beginning, he has talked about a long-term commitment to Rutgers and this state, and so far, he is a man of his word.

What about the State of Rutgers, Greg?

What about building a college football program that everyone in New Jersey can be proud of? What about that new house right near campus, the one built on state land as incentive to stay put? The young team with so much promise that was supposed to win national championships some day? The blue-chip recruiting classes? The stadium expansion?

What about the dream you've been selling the past seven years?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- So you're a Rutgers fan, and you're sick and tired of the lousy bowl system dropping your team into college football outposts such as the International Bowl.

Yeah, Glen Mason has heard that before.

He used to be the head coach at Minnesota. He took his team to seven bowls in 10 years. But the bowls were always the lower-tier games, and even though Minnesota had spent decades starving for any football success, he said, "People got spoiled really quickly."

It's good to know that in a sports world where nothing is guaranteed, where the Yankees can swear that A-Rod will never play for them again and then give him $300 million three weeks later, where coaches sign 10-year contracts and then rip them up the next season, that one thing is set in concrete:

The Big East bowl structure.

It certainly is good to know that even with all of Rutgers' struggles during this disappointing season, game-day coaching is not among the problems. How do we know this?

The head coach told us.

"Quite frankly, I've done a better job X and O coaching than I ever have," Greg Schiano said this week, just days after his team went to Connecticut and lost 38-19 to a team with, by any objective estimation, inferior talent. "I think our staff has. I don't think it's the X's and the O's."

To read Politi's column in today's paper addressing this issue, click here

In our 45 minute conversation on Thursday evening, William Dowling made a point I was hoping to refute in my column this morning, but I was playing phone tag with my evidence. Dowling said, in a very matter of fact tone, that no high school athlete who scored an 800 on his SAT could handle the workload at a school like Rutgers.

"Did he say that?" Ishmael Medley asked when I got him on the phone. Medley, a former fullback at Rutgers, scored a 780 the first time he took a standardized test and an 800 the second time. He is the poster boy for Dowling's attacks, one of the "functional illiterate(s) who couldn't read the side of a cereal box," as the professor so charmingly told The New York Times.

Mark my words: Norfolk State will CRUSH Rutgers

People, be very afraid. This could be an utter humiliation for Rutgers this weekend, on its own field, against a Division 1-AA opponent - a moment the fans may never forget. We are not kidding about this: Saturday is going to be an ugly day for the home team.

Forgive one more post on this topic, but I want to try a different approach on the fan behavior issue.

We gave our Rutgers writers six questions following the Scarlet Knights' win over Navy last night. Here's what they had to say about the game:

Ray Rice will overtake him in the record books tomorrow night, maybe even the first or second time he touches the ball against Navy, and Terrell Willis will watch from the sideline without a hint of jealousy.

No, the number never meant a thing to Willis, not when he set it a decade ago and not now that his playing days are over. But the former Rutgers star wishes he had something else that Rice has, something that goes beyond a career rushing total printed in the back of a team guide.

He wants the fond memories. He wants to look back at his career and remember a supportive head coach and a winning aura. But Willis, who became the most prolific running back in school history back when Rice was just a kid, has nothing but anger when he reflects on his career.

It's 4:32 p.m. I'm here. Len Robbins from the New York Post is here. Keith Sargeant from the Home News-Tribune is here. Ray Parillo from the Philadelphia Inquirer is here. The New York Times is here. Young Alex, the other beat writer (who apparently takes his job more seriously) is here. Aditi from the Bergen Record just called from the Turnpike to get a traffic report, and if she beats Luicci here, he will never hear the end of it. Maybe he's doing another radio gig or something. I just hope he wears pants.

Here are beat writers Tom Luicci's and Alex Delanian's predictions for Rutgers this season. Oh yeah, and columnist Steve Politi added his too. Tom and Alex both have the the Knights finishing 10-2. As for Politi, he has Rutgers landing at a 9-3 mark.

What do you think? Leave your comments.

Tom's Picks:
Rutgers 44, Buffalo 10 -- Drew Willy is a nice QB, but he's not Joe Willie. Heck, he isn't even Turner Gill.

Rutgers 34, Navy 14 -- Seerayrun for, oh, 200-yards plus against Mids' rebuilt defense.