PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers was unable to capitalize on first half opportunities in a 24-7 season opening loss to No. 25 Fresno State Monday at Rutgers Stadium. Following a scoreless first half, the Bulldogs came to life after intermission, scoring on all four trips inside the red zone to send RU�s 11th-straight capacity crowd home disappointed.

�Obviously it was a very disappointing game,� said Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano. �We did not play as we are capable of playing, and as a coach that starts with me. It�s my job to get everyone ready.�


Kenny Britt hauls in a first quarter Mike Teel pass. (Jim O'Connor/NJ Sport Pics)
Rutgers employed a balanced offensive attack, passing 39 times while rushing on 34 occasions en route to 369 total yards. Senior signal caller Mike Teel (Oakland, N.J.)completed 20 of 39 passes for 263 yards to lead the aerial attack. Teel completed six passes to both Kenny Britt (Bayonne, N.J.) and Tiquan Underwood (Lawrenceville, N.J.), who finished with 89 and 73 yards receiving, respectively. Junior Kordell Young (West Deptford, N.J)paced the ground game, rushing for a career-high 94 yards on 26 carries.
�I thought we did some good things, but we couldn�t get into a good flow,� said Schiano. �It just didn�t seem to flow freely. I think the team, collectively, needs to take over games. We have some great players, but I didn�t think we played well enough as a team.�


Fresno State broke the tie on its first possession of the second half. After driving 57 yards on nine plays, redshirt freshman Kevin Goessling split the uprights from 31 yards to provide the visitors a 3-0 edge.

The Bulldogs wasted little time extending their lead on their next possession, courtesy of a successful play action pass. On a first and 10 from its 19-yard line, quarterback Tom Brandstater faked a hand-off before finding a streaking Ajirotutu down the right sideline for a 77-yard connection. Matthews scampered in for a four-yard touchdown on the next play to enable a 10-0 Bulldog advantage with 6:59 showing on the third quarter clock.

Rutgers registered its points via an inspired, nine play, 81-yard drive that culminated in a one-yard run by Young. The score reduced the deficit to 10-7 with 11:20 remaining in regulation. The Scarlet Knights appeared to have entered the end zone two plays prior, but an official review placed the ball just outside the threshold. The drive, which featured Teel passes of 25, 24 and 14 yards, began on the heels of what appeared to be an 82-yard punt return for a touchdown by Dennis Campbell (Plantation, Fla.). The return was nullified, however, by a block-in-the-back infraction.

The visitors travelled 77 yards in nine plays. Matthews carried-in from one yard to post a 17-7 score with 6:46 remaining. The effort would replay itself three and a half minutes later, with Matthews entering the end zone once again to generate the 24-7 final.

Defensively, several players had solid games for RU, including senior linebacker Kevin Malast (Manchester, N.J)and senior defensive tackle Pete Tverdov (Union, N.J). Malast had a game-high nine tackles and a quarterback hurry. Tverdov notched seven stops, including two TFLs and one sack, while contributing a pass break-up and a QBH.

The Scarlet Knights return to the gridiron to host ACC-member North Carolina in a 7:30 p.m. kick-off on Thursday, September 11.

POSTGAME NOTES

Team Notes

Today's game marked the first meeting on the gridiron between Rutgers and Fresno State.

Today's attendance of 42,508 marks the 11th consecutive sellout at Rutgers Stadium.

The last time Rutgers and its opponent played to a scoreless first half was Oct. 22, 1994 at Boston College. That game ended in a 7-7 tie.

Rutgers shutout its opponent in the first half for the first time since Sept. 15, 2007, when it blanked Norfolk State in Piscataway en route to a 59-0 victory.

Today's game marked the first time Rutgers was held scoreless in a first half since Oct. 12, 2002 against West Virginia at home.

Player Notes

Redshirt freshman Kordell Young rushed for a career-high 94 yards on a career-high 26 carries. His previous career-high yardage total was 39 yards at West Virginia on Dec. 2, 2006 and his previous career-high carry total was eight against Illinois on Sept. 9, 2006.

Young also scored his first touchdown since Oct. 14, 2006 against Navy. He now has four career rushing touchdowns.

Today's game marked the first career start for redshirt sophomore RB Kordell Young, redshirt freshman RG Caleb Ruch and redshirt freshman LB Manny Abreu. Redshirt freshman PK San San Te made his first career appearance on the game's opening kickoff and also recorded his first career field goal attempt in the first quarter. Redshirt freshman P Teddy Dellaganna made his first career appearance in the first half as well.�

Several others players also made first career appearances. True freshman DB David Rowe entered during the first quarter. Redshirt freshman Joe Martinek made his first career appearance in the third quarter, hauling in a pass. Redshirt freshman Wayne Thomas saw his first career action on Rutgers' first field goal attempt in the first quarter and true freshman Patrick Kivlehan made his first career appearance on Fresno State's first punt of the game.

With his first reception of the season, junior WR Kenny Britt recorded 41 yards, moving into eighth place on the career receiving yards list with 1,713 yards. Britt finished with six receptions for 89 yards to give him 1,761 career yards.

Senior FS Courtney Greene finished the game with eight tackles, becoming the eighth Rutgers player in school history to top the 300-tackle mark for his career. He now has 307 tackles in his 39-game career.�

Junior LB Ryan D'Imperio finished with a career-high eight tackles. His previous high was three against West Virginia on Oct. 27, 2007.

COACH SCHIANO POSTGAME QUOTES

Opening statement:

�Obviously it was a very disappointing game. We did not play as we are capable of playing today, and as a coach that starts with me. It�s my job to get everyone ready.�


On the Rutgers defense towards the end of the game:

�I don�t think the defense was tired, I just think they gave up some big plays. The defense is in great shape. At no point did I think they were gassed. They played a great game, but they gave up those three big plays. We have a stat that we keep, if we hold opponents to fewer than three plays of over 20 yards, we are very hard to beat. Today, we gave up more than three plays of 20 or more yards.�


On RU�s offense:

�The words I would use are out of sync. I thought we did some good things, but we couldn�t get into a good flow. It just didn�t seem to flow freely. I think the team, collectively, needs to take over games. We have some great players, but I didn�t think we played well enough as a team.�


On the decision to go for the touchdown on fourth and goal in the first quarter:

�We had a two-play plan, we had decided that we were going for the touchdown. We just didn�t make it. It had nothing to do with San San Te, we just felt like it was something we could do. We tried to take advantage and we didn�t get it done. We just didn�t do it the way we are capable of doing it. I called it a mistake [to ESPN at halftime] because it didn�t work. We will be all right. We�ll get it fixed.�


On kicker San San Te:

�San San did not do very well today, but I�ve seen him do well, and I know he�ll be fine.�


On running back Kordell Young:

�I thought Kordell ran extremely hard. I thought there were times when we messed up on the front line a bit and he had to dodge people in the backfield, which is hard to do. But I thought he played tough.�


On why the defense gave up big plays:

�We�ve done it very well, with these same guys. We just didn�t execute today. We had a bad day. We didn�t coach very well today. We didn�t do any of the things we needed to do to in the game.�


On the offense not getting on track:

�We never really got a flow going. Some games that happens and you�re able to fight through it. I thought we were fighting through it when we went down 10-0 and we battled back to 10-7. Things were looking good, and then the third and long in the third quarter turned the game for us.�


On coaches and players not being in sync:

�The one thing that I think is special about this program, with players and coaches, is that we are in this together. There is no �them-us� kind of thinking. If I screw up, I will tell them that I screwed up. If they screw up, I will tell them they screwed up. I won�t tell other people, that�s between us. I�m not concerned with this. We didn�t execute but we�ll get back on the field and work to get better. We had a lot of breakdowns which is a shame because we had a lot of good effort. Breakdowns are what cost you games. We did not get it done today, but we�ll work and get it better.�


On changing up the pace of RU�s offense through the course of the game:

�We jumped into the no-huddle attack in the second quarter, and had some success. Then we jumped into it again in the third quarter, but just the way the game was going we had to go back to the huddle. Then after we went down two scores, we needed to go to a hurry-up, no-huddle offense. So we did try to change it up a few times.�


On Rutgers� special teams:

�Special teams was hot and cold tonight. I haven�t seen a bad snap back in a long time, so we�ll have to take a look at it. There are things that need to be straightened out, and we�ll do that.�


Rutgers� offense had chances to score:

�We let a lot of opportunities slip through our fingers today. I�ve been on teams and coached teams that let that many opportunities slip through their fingers, and it�s tough to overcome. Because the other team is thinking �I just took their best punches and it�s still 0-0.� But I really believe that this football team will come and keep throwing it. I don�t think they will be fazed by today�s game. We had breakdowns today, so we need to eliminate the breakdowns and continue to work hard.�


On learning a tough lesson:

�It�s a shame that we had to learn a lesson the hard way. I�ve been here at the podium many times saying how thankful I was that we learned a lesson by winning ugly. I wish I could have said that today, but we didn�t, we lost ugly. But we�ll be back. We have nine days and 23 hours to get ready for North Carolina, and this football team will be back.�

RU PLAYER QUOTES

MIKE TEEL, QB, 5th-SR. #14
�Today was a very disappointing and frustrating day for all of us. We just couldn�t establish a rhythm with the running or the passing game. There were times we could move the ball down the field, but then had trouble executing.�

�Some things worked for us today, but we could never truly capitalize. It was hard to not take advantage of the scoring opportunities we had in the first half. We gave it our best shot, but the missed chances we had really hurt us in the end.�

TIQUAN UNDERWOOD, WR, SR. #7
�Unfortunately we didn�t play well as a whole. As a collective group, we made mistakes and just didn�t make the plays when we needed to. I know we felt ready to play. We prepared and felt great about going into today�s game. As you can imagine, it�s very frustrating for all of us when many things didn�t go our way.�

�All you can do is learn from a game like today, and correct the mistakes for our next game against North Carolina. We�ll go back to the drawing board and prepare. We have to come out and execute because you only have 12 games, and we need to take advantage of each and every game.�

JAMAAL WESTERMAN, DE, 5th-SR. #90
�We had mental lapses today which hurt us. We all felt good, but it came down to us just not making the big plays. Our team didn�t perform to our capabilities, and that�s frustrating because we know we�re better than that.�

�Now we need to go to work, so we�re ready for North Carolina. We need to execute in our next game and make the most of the opportunities that present themselves to us.�