These are dark times for those who care about the football program at Rutgers University which seems to reach “rock bottom” on an almost weekly basis.

In all honesty I am not one of them as I have never felt any allegiance to our state university but I would also tell you that Rutgers doing well would be good for New Jersey pride.  For family reasons I’ve been a Penn State fan for as long as I could remember and that was magnified during the eight years my son and daughter spent in Happy Valley.

However I know there are many of you: passionate alumni, students, fans and supporters who care very much about the Scarlet Knights and inside you are suffering while your football team continues to lose and lower the bar on expectations.

When Rutgers hired then Ohio State assistant Chris Ash in December of 2015 to be their head coach he was upfront in saying it would take time to build the program but it seems for many their patience is running out.

Rutgers went 2-10 in his first season and improved to 4-8 last year.  This season began with many believing six wins and a bowl game invitation was realistic and an easy win over Texas State in the opener only added to that.

However the last three weeks might have been the worst in decades for RU.  Losing 52-3 at Ohio State was somewhat expected but falling 55-14 at Kansas was downright embarrassing considering the Jayhawks had generally been regarded as the worst Power Five conference team in the country.

Returning home last Saturday the Scarlet Knights lost to Buffalo 42-13 and most of those who bothered showing up were long gone before it ended, heck,  by halftime.

Rutgers is now 1-3 and a 17 ½ point underdog to Indiana Saturday at HighPoint.com Stadium (that’s their home field) and still has games left against teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State.  Right now even a 3-win season seems overly optimistic and some believe they could go winless the rest of the way.

How bad has it gotten?  We have trouble giving away tickets even with a parking pass.  There is a reason to go this Saturday if you can drink beer in the morning.

The RU Brewfest runs from 9:30-11:30 before the noon kickoff.  I wonder if many will just pay to go to that and then go home.

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