PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Senior QB Mike Teel (Oakland, N.J.) became the school's all-time leading passer with his 359-yard performance against Army as the Rutgers football team (6-5) defeated the Black Knights (3-8) 30-3 on a cold, windy Saturday afternoon at Rutgers Stadium. With the win, the Scarlet Knights became bowl-eligible for the fourth consecutive season with their fifth straight victory.
Teel has 8,617 passing yards for his career. Junior WR Kenny Britt (Bayonne, N.J.) also set a career-high with 197 yards receiving in the contest against Army.
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| Mike Teel completed 23 of 33 passes and in the process set school marks for career passing yards (8,617) and total offense (8,405). (Tom Ciszek/NJSportsPhoto) |
The Scarlet Knights scored their first points of the game, ironically, on Army's opening possession as junior DB
Zaire Kitchen (Hightstown, N.J.) forced a fumble by Black Knights quarterback Chip Bowden. Sophomore DB
Joe Lefeged (Germantown, Md.) recovered the loose ball and took it 58 yards to the end zone to put Rutgers ahead 7-0 in the first two minutes of the game.
The forced fumble was Kitchen's third in the last four games, as each of the miscues resulted in an eventual touchdown for RU.
Rutgers increased its lead two possessions later with a 32-yard field goal by freshman K San San Te (Concord, N.C.) to make it 10-0 in the first quarter. Te missed his previous attempt of 40 yards as the steady 25 mph winds began to gust up to 37 miles per hour.
The Scarlet Knights used a six-play drive, marching 71 yards to find the end zone for a 17-0 lead. Britt rushed for 16 yards to start the drive and later caught a pair of passes as Teel connected with sophomore TE Shamar Graves (Woodbridge, N.J.) for a 26-yard TD reception. It was Graves' second touchdown in as many games.
Rutgers took a 23-0 advantage into the locker room at halftime after tacking on a pair of field goals by Te from 39 and 27 yards, respectively.
RU continued to find its scoring touch in the second half as the Scarlet Knights drove 82 yards on seven plays, capped by a 19-yard touchdown run by junior WR Tim Brown (Miami, Fla.). Teel completed four passes for 60 yards during the drive to lead Rutgers into the red zone before Brown made it 30-0 on the scoreboard with his first career rushing TD.
Army scored its first points of the game at the 2:56 mark in the third quarter as Matthew Campbell connected on a 24-yard field goal to make it 30-3. The Scarlet Knight defense held Army scoreless on its final three possessions of the game to seal the victory.
Rutgers will return to action on Thursday, Dec. 4, when it hosts Louisville at 7:30 p.m. in a nationally-televised broadcast on ESPN.
POSTGAME NOTES
Team Notes
With the victory, Rutgers improved to 6-5 overall and is bowl-eligible for the fourth-straight season. It also marked the squad's fifth-straight win this season.
Rutgers has won eight consecutive games vs. teams from the State of New York. The Scarlet Knights have outscored the Empire State opponents 268-62 over the eight-game winning streak.
Rutgers completed the month of November undefeated for the first time in the Greg Schiano era. The Scarlet Knights finished the month 3-0.
Junior DB Zaire Kitchen (Hightstown, N.J.) forced a fumble on Army's first procession. The fumble was recovered by SS Joe Lefeged (Germantown, Md.) and returned 58 yards for a touchdown. It was the fourth defensive or special teams touchdown scored by Rutgers against Army in the eight-year Greg Schiano era.
It was also Kitchen's third forced fumble this season and all three have produced touchdowns.
Rutgers tied a school record for fewest passing yards allowed by yielding just two yards passing vs. Army. The 1994 Rutgers team also held Army to two yards passing on Oct. 8, 1994.
Rutgers gained 162 yards on the ground in the victory over Army. During the contest, five different Scarlet Knights recorded a run of 15 yards or longer, including Kordell Young (West Deptford, N.J.), Jourdan Brooks (Germantown, Md.), Mason Robinson (Somerville, N.J.), Tim Brown (Miami, Fla.) and Kenny Britt (Bayonne, N.J.).
The 521 yards of total offense gained by the Scarlet Knights against Army was the eighth-best total offensive performance by a Rutgers team during the Greg Schiano era.
Player Notes
Senior QB Mike Teel (Oakland, N.J.) became Rutgers' all-time leader in passing yardage (8,617) and yards of total offense (8,405). He passed Ryan Hart (2002-05), who finished with 8,482 career passing yards and 8,149 yards of total offense.
Teel finished the game with 359 yards (two yards shy of his career-high) on 23-of-33 passing and a touchdown. The 359 yards passing were the eighth-best single-game total in school history.
Over his last four games, Teel has thrown for 1,290 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has averaged 322.5 passing yards per game over the four-game stretch.
The passing touchdown was the 50th of his career and 16th of the season for Teel, which tied him with Mike McMahon (1998), Bryan Fortay (1992) and Ralph Leek (1981) for seventh place on the Rutgers single-season passing touchdowns list. Teel is two shy of tying the school record for career touchdowns (52) held by Ryan Hart (2002-05).
With his 359 passing yards against Army, Teel tied Pittsburgh's Rod Rutherford (2000-03) and Boston College's Glenn Foley (1991-93) for the fourth most 300-yard passing games in BIG EAST history. He has eight 300-yard passing games for his career.
Teel passed Pittsburgh's Tyler Palko (2002-06) and Syracuse's Donovan McNabb (1995-98) and moved into third place on the BIG EAST career passing yardage list with 8,617 career passing yards.
With 23 completions, Teel passed Scott Erney (1986-89) for second place in school history for career completions with 618 and passed Ray Lucas (1995) and Scott Erney (1988) for fifth place in school history in single-season completions with 200.
Junior WR Kenny Britt (Bayonne, N.J.) caught 10 passes for a career-high 197 yards. Britt, the all-time receiving yardage leader in school history, has 2,863 yards for his career. He is currently third in BIG EAST history in career receiving yards, passing Pittsburgh's Antonio Bryant (1999-2001) and Larry Fitzgerald (2002-03).
Britt's 197 yards receiving were the fourth-highest single-game total in school history.
His 10 receptions also moved him into ninth place on the BIG EAST career receptions list with 169. In addition, Britt extended his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 29-straight, tying him with Syracuse's Johnnie Morant (2000-03) for the eighth-longest streak in BIG EAST history.
Britt also gained his fifth-straight 100-yard receiving game, giving him the Rutgers all-time record as he surpassed teammate Tiquan Underwood who shared the previous record of four. His 13 career 100-yard receiving games ties Pittsburgh's Antonio Bryant (1999-2001) for second-most in BIG EAST history and is one shy of the conference record.
Senior WR Tiquan Underwood (Lawrenceville, N.J.) caught a pair of passes for 26 yards against Army and with the two receptions; he tied Reggie Funderburk (1993-97) for ninth place on the Rutgers career receptions list with 123.
Sophomore SS Joe Lefeged (Germantown, Md.) recovered his first career fumble and returned it 58 yards for his first career touchdown less than two minutes into the contest. Lefeged ended the day with two fumble recoveries.
Junior SS Zaire Kitchen (Hightstown, N.J.) forced his third fumble of the season and third in the last four games. In Kitchen's last four contests, he has three forced fumbles and a blocked field goal.
Senior DT Pete Tverdov (Union, N.J.) posted one tackle-for-loss in the game, extending his streak to 13-straight contests with a TFL, dating back to last season.
Junior WR Tim Brown (Miami, Fla.) registered his first career rushing touchdown on a 19-yard end around play in the third quarter.
Sophomore WR Julian Hayes (Malverne, N.Y.) posted his first career reception in the third quarter.
Sophomore DT Alex Silvestro (Gibbstown, N.J.) set a career-high with eight tackles vs. the Black Knights.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Greg Schiano
What it means to be bowl eligible:
"We're certainly not old hat at this stuff. So I am not going to sit here and say it is not important. It is. But that's not how we got this thing turned around, we got it turned around by just worrying about the one week we can focus on. We can enjoy tonight but tomorrow it's on to a new one game season."
With a 1-5 start, where there lessons they had to learn in order to be as good as they are now:
"I wish I could say no, but that's the way it played out. It is my job to make sure that they have these lessons to learn. I am proud of these kids because they learned some important lessons about sticking together and playing."
On Teel's record-setting performance:
"Mike's an individual version of what we have been able to do as a team. He was certainly under fire, everybody calling for his replacement. I am sure it's not easy for anybody especially when it's your home state and your family has to go through it and you have to go through it but I am really proud of the way he stuck to it. Again it is the preparation that these guys take, certainly game day is what's evaluated and what is seen nationally, but the preparation is Sunday through Friday. I am proud of the way that these guys prepared because they work awfully hard."
On Kenny Britt:
"He's playing pretty tough. He is a special football player. I think he and mike have something going, they kind of have a feel for each other. He is stacking up big days which is pretty impressive."
On Zaire Kitchen:
"Zaire is such a mature guy and such a hardworking guy. Just my experience in coaching, those guys seem to end up in the right place to make those kinds of plays. This is his third force fumble this season, he just seems to be the guy that is an explosive player physically and really make plays."
On the first scoring play:
"Sometimes you worry, because you get an easy score or a quick score and you didn't do anything. The ball popped on the ground, you scooped it up and you ran it in, but if you're not careful and your team is not prepared the right way and in the right mental state you let your guard down."
STUDENT-ATHLETES QUOTES
Mike Teel, 5th Sr. QB, #14
"It always feels good to get a win. While we executed on many plays today, we also know we left a lot out on the field, and felt we could have done so much better. On the three drives we had field goals; we were also disappointed we didn't get touchdowns. There were plays we should have made; this team felt we could have scored 7 instead of 3 points on those drives."
"We will enjoy our win today, but then will get ready for Louisville. They are our next matchup in our one game season, and that's who we will focus on. As for becoming bowl eligible, that is great, but we are not thinking about that right now. Our focus will be on our next game on December 4th."
"Getting the all-time passing yardage mark in our school's history is nice, but I was just thinking about the game at hand today. Football is a team sport, and we all feed off of each other's success. I couldn't have done anything without the support of my teammates."
Kenny Britt, Jr. WR, # 88
"Getting above the .500 mark is a good feeling for us, especially after our tough start this season. But none of us quit this season. We stuck together as a family and supported each other throughout."
"I couldn't be happier for Mike Teel. With him becoming the all-time passing leader at Rutgers, plus the fact he's worked so hard this year, makes all of us very proud of him. I know that we all feed off each other, and when one of us does well, others perform better. From offseason workouts, to practice, to playing in the actual game, we work extremely hard in practice. Even during the offseason, we would always work on the little things,
Zaire Kitchen, Jr. SS #29
"Our defense had a particular strategy to defend Army's running game, as they are always solid in that aspect of the game. When I forced the fumble, at first I didn't realize the ball came loose. But then all of a sudden I saw a bunch of red jerseys swarm all over the ball."
"Our defense has really come together this year. We approach the season one game at a time, and this defensive unit has improved week-to-week."
Joe Lefeged, So. SS #26
"The fumble recovery was pretty exciting. Our defense really played the ball well and closed in fast. When I picked up the ball, I just sprinted and hoped we could get a score for our team. Our defense takes pride in winning the turnover battle, and helping our offense when the opportunities arise."
