Introducing The Rutger
One of our photographers, Patrick Barron, has been trying to make fetch happen in our Slack for a little while now, except in this case "fetch" is actually a useful way of measure how grisly a blowout is. (Also we've discovered that SBN's Jason Kirk had the same idea a couple weeks before Patrick, so he's now Rutger Leibnitz.)
I mentioned it in the game column but here's a more complete introduction to…
The Rutger
A rutger is when you have fewer yards in some aspect of the game than your opponent has points. For example, the 2018 Michigan-Michigan State game saw Michigan (21 points) hand MSU (15 rushing yards) a rushing rugter, at least by NCAA stats.
A Total Rutger, where you have fewer yards than the opposition has points, is a rare event. Total rutger events in the past decade of college football, with FBS matchups bolded:
Season | Week | Offense | Defense | Def Pts | Off yds | Rutger |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | 4 | Florida Int | Louisville | 72 | 27 | 2.67 |
2017 | 8 | Kansas | TCU | 43 | 21 | 2.05 |
2016 | 6 | Rutgers | Michigan | 78 | 39 | 2.00 |
2012 | 2 | Savannah State | Florida St | 55 | 28 | 1.96 |
2008 | 14 | Mississippi St | Mississippi | 45 | 24 | 1.88 |
2015 | 20 | N Illinois | Boise St | 55 | 33 | 1.67 |
2014 | 2 | South Carolina State | Clemson | 73 | 44 | 1.66 |
2017 | 1 | Charleston Southern | Mississippi St | 49 | 33 | 1.48 |
2016 | 2 | Savannah State | Southern Miss | 56 | 41 | 1.37 |
2009 | 4 | UTEP | Texas | 64 | 53 | 1.21 |
2014 | 1 | Delaware | Pittsburgh | 62 | 57 | 1.09 |
2014 | 13 | Savannah State | BYU | 64 | 63 | 1.02 |
Michigan-Rutgers 2016, TCU-Kansas 2017, and Louisville-FIU 2013 were all Double Total Rutger events, which sit in a subclass of the rutger: the Rutgers. Nobody has achieved the Triple Rutger in recent CFB history.
Congratulations to Mississippi State, which is the only team to both rutger and be rutger'd, and the only team to get rutger'd in a rivalry game. FCS-level Savannah State is the most generous rutger provider in all the land.
Rushing rutgers, aided by NCAA sack accounting, are stunningly common: about 600 rushing rutgers over the past decade. There have been approximately 200 passing rutgers. With about 8000 games in the data set, any particular game has about a 10% chance to be a single-phase rutger.
[After THE JUMP: beyoooond the ruuuuuutger]
Beyond The Rutger
The Hoke. There is a level of statistical ineptitude even beyond The Rutger wherein you have more negative yards than the opponent has points, a special accomplishment indeed since the bar keeps getting raised the worse you are. This is only realistically possible in a single-phase rutger, and even then it's only because the NCAA counts sack yardage as rushing yardage. This is nonsense, of course, but that does not stop people from referencing historically grisly box scores that sport this nonsense. This is right and just and emphatically happened to Brady Hoke against Michigan State:
It is thus dubbed The Hoke. Hoke has the second-worst hoke of the last decade and is the only coach to manage it twice in a single season. The only other coach to show up twice is Mike Leach, who is doing it on purpose.
Season | Offense | Defense | Def Pts | Off Rush Yards | Hoke Level |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | Washington St | Arizona St | 27 | -45 | 1.67 |
2013 | Michigan | Michigan St | 29 | -48 | 1.66 |
2016 | Washington St | Arizona St | 32 | -52 | 1.63 |
2014 | Southern Miss | Louisiana Tech | 31 | -45 | 1.45 |
2013 | Michigan | Nebraska | 17 | -21 | 1.24 |
2014 | Louisiana Mon | Louisiana Laf | 34 | -40 | 1.18 |
2014 | Wake Forest | Louisville | 20 | -22 | 1.10 |
2017 | Cal | Washington | 38 | -40 | 1.05 |
2011 | Tennessee | Georgia | 20 | -21 | 1.05 |
2010 | Rutgers | Army | 20 | -20 | 1.00 |
2009 | Oklahoma | Texas | 16 | -16 | 1.00 |
The bolded games are, incredibly, wins for the team that suffered a hoke.
The Autorutger. Occurs when you have fewer yards than you have points and will never ever happen. The closest approach to a total autorutger was Missouri's 42-13 win over Florida in 2014. Mizzou gained just 119 yards and achieved a remarkable 0.35 autorutger. The next closest autorutger also involves Florida, but this time they're on the good end after a 44-11 win over South Carolina in 2012 in which they gained just 183 yards. Will Muschamp, man.
Individual phase autorutgers are common enough that they don't warrant too much attention, but the Div By Zero Autorutger is a special case. This occurs when a team has zero passing yards and still wins. It's a list populated by the usual suspects and Louisiana Lafayette, somehow.
Season | Offense | Defense | Def Pts | Off Pts | Off Pass Yards |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Louisiana Laf | Louisiana Mon | 3 | 30 | 0 |
2017 | Army | FCS | 6 | 64 | 0 |
2017 | Navy | Virginia | 7 | 49 | 0 |
2018 | Army | Miami (OH) | 30 | 31 | 0 |
2017 | Navy | SMU | 40 | 43 | 0 |
2011 | Navy | SMU | 17 | 24 | 0 |
2017 | Army | E Michigan | 27 | 28 | 0 |
2012 | Air Force | Hawaii | 7 | 21 | 0 |
2013 | Georgia Southern | Florida | 20 | 26 | 0 |
2017 | Army | Air Force | 0 | 21 | 0 |
2009 | Navy | Wake Forest | 10 | 13 | 0 |
This concludes your introduction to the rutger.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
If Savannah State were a FBS team, the Rutger might need a new name.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
It should be the Savannah State. Rutgers has not been “Rutgered” anymore than anyone else.
October 25th, 2018 at 3:12 PM ^
Savannah State is a team that has a fraction of the resources of a FBS team, let alone a P5 team. They show up regularly to get slaughtered because their school needs money and they're a guaranteed bodybag.
Rutgers is a team which should theoretically be competitive, as a P5 school in a fertile recruiting ground in the highest-paying conference in the land. They deserve the shame of the Rutger label far more than a FCS sacrificial lamb does.
October 25th, 2018 at 3:17 PM ^
The Rutger is named after Rutger because Rutger is in the B1G. Somehow. In no way should a B1G team get Rutger'd. Not even Rutger.
So, in conclusion - Fuck Rutger and Fuck Delaney for bring Rutger into the B1G.
October 25th, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
i still say that rutgers as a big ten team is some sort of weird-ass mass hallucination.
October 25th, 2018 at 6:41 PM ^
It's just like that movie 'Shazaam' starring Sinbad.
Get the hell out of my brain, Rutgers! You aren't real!
October 25th, 2018 at 6:36 PM ^
Not so fast my friend. I think we need to give Rutgers a chance to play the 2018 Don Brown defense. And in fact, the 2018 Scarlet Knights' season concludes with Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State. And then, an autopsy inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:45 PM ^
I feel bad for Rutgers but wonder how Hoke managed to lose to them
October 25th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
They were a marginal bowl team in 2014, and Michigan that year... wasn't. 2014 was the end of the run started by Greg Schiano; they'd had one good year under Schiano (11-2 in 2006) and a bunch of years where they won enough to get into a bowl game but struggled against any team with a pulse.
Schiano's successor Kyle Flood got himself fired in 2015 and Rutgers hit rock bottom in 2016 under Chris Ash. I'm not sure how much of that is Ash's fault, but I'm also not sure he can get them out.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
Chris Ash still having a job is a Rutger in-and-of-itself.
I mean I get it, you're Rutgers but like....HOW?
October 25th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
They actually took a real step forward last year, and you can't blame 2016 on him with the way Flood destroyed the program.
The humiliating reversion this season, though, is tough to overlook. They might give Ash another year, but it looks like it's over.
October 25th, 2018 at 3:47 PM ^
If they fire Chris Ash, Rutger should hire Hoke. I wonder if that would cause the universe to shift from expansion to contraction?
October 26th, 2018 at 3:30 AM ^
If Rutger hires Hoke this would cause a singularity event that compresses football statistics to a point of infinite points allowed while fielding almost no players during punting situations.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^
I believe this may help - the New Jersey media were equally puzzled that (a) Chris still had a job and (b) recently got an extension until some digging around found a very important clause in his contract.
And there is an accompanying question - why hasn't Rutgers bailed out from the Big Ten.
October 25th, 2018 at 3:21 PM ^
I wonder the same thing for Hugh Jackson.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:26 PM ^
Rutger even had a rushing rutger against howard in 2006 and again against norfolk st in 2007. i stopped looking after those two
October 25th, 2018 at 2:24 PM ^
That may be the only time I was too disgusted with our performance to care that we got screwed by the refs.
Darboh's catch was good for a first down on the last drive that would have set up a much easier game winning field goal but the ref decided to call it out of bounds. Unfortunately, it doesn't take away the fact that Rutgers QB had about 9,000 yards yards passing in the first half alone. It was about the most pitiful 26-24 game you'll ever see.
October 26th, 2018 at 12:31 AM ^
I remember that play. It may have been the most grotesque "process of the catch" BS ruling I've ever seen. I think Brady rightfully challenged the play and lost.
Not sure Weil's kick wouldn't have been blocked from closer any way. That '14 team was destined to lose. We have JH today thanks to disasters like this one.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:26 PM ^
Shame on us for ever being in this position, but UM was the victim of an unconscionably bad spot that killed our final drive in Rutgers territory. Rationally or not, I still to this day believe we win that game, if we pick up that first down.
Unfortunately, the offending referee was only beginning his life's work of screwing us over...
October 25th, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
I am grateful for all the losses and refs screwing us over in 2014, because it led to Harbaugh. I'm glad there was no season salvaging/career saving win that season.
October 26th, 2018 at 12:34 AM ^
I think an even bigger play was when we had Gary Nova (not to be confused with 1984 Dan Marino) somehow avoid a sack with seconds left in the 2nd Q and hit a killer TD pass, when the sack would have ended the half.
For those who have Sirius XM and even listen, even briefly, to Rutgers games, Gary Nova is usually around and making some comments in the booth. Our "ability" to let him throw for 400 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs gave him lifetime employment
October 25th, 2018 at 7:40 PM ^
I traveled there to watch that loss.... : (
October 26th, 2018 at 12:35 AM ^
I can't think of a lower moment in UM history. Even the lousy moments in the Richrod years, like the Toledo loss, somehow pale in comparison to that debacle in night TV. Seeing the fans rush the field. UGH!!!!!
October 26th, 2018 at 12:11 AM ^
But? You mean "and". :)
October 26th, 2018 at 7:01 AM ^
Among other things we had an all-conference CB and zone coverage expert in Blake Countess.
Hoke & Friends made him play press man under the tutelage of a linebackers coach.
Countess was terrible. So was Dymonte Thomas. Gary Nova threw for a mile and a half.
Michigan lost the game.
Countess and Thomas are now in the NFL.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:45 PM ^
My 11 year old son has, for the last 3 years, referred to Rutgers as "The Rutgers". Despite my repeated attempts to correct him, he still calls them "The Rutgers". Turns out he's been right this whole time.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^
I have a 7 year old who does the same thing. He just asked me when we are playing The Rutgers. Sounds like a bad kids TV show.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
"The Rutgers" sounds like an affliction that people would suffer before it could be named by modern medicine - like "the shakes". Maybe it can be cleared up with penicillin?
October 25th, 2018 at 6:49 PM ^
"The Rutgers" is a venereal disease you get from having sex with recombinant DNA toys made by a weird little guy suffering from Methuselah Syndrome.
Penicillin is no help.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^
My 9 year old son has done the same since Michigan started playing The Rutgers regularly. Now, when The Rutgers score comes on the TV, he will laugh at the other team if they allowed The Rutgers to score a touchdown, often followed by "[team X] must be really terrible this year. The Rutgers are the worst." And I can't really disagree with him.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:22 PM ^
It's A Rutger until they win back the "The"...
October 25th, 2018 at 5:37 PM ^
As in "The Pits"?
October 25th, 2018 at 6:38 PM ^
Rutgers is THE university of New Jersey.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
Something doesn't seem right in the Michigan - Michigan State box score. Unless we are in some odd dimension where math works differently than I think it does, isn't 20 + 0 + -46 = -26?
October 25th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
I agree. Something is weird about that boxscore. It's repeated both on ESPN and sports reference, though.
EDIT: I think I've found it:
Michigan 1st & 10 at the MSU 49, 9:15 of the second quarter: TEAM rush for -20 yards. Per ESPN's game report here.
FURTHER EDIT: full procrastination mode at the moment, just looked at the UFR, it was a snap over Gardner's head.
BTW Michigan had Taylor Lewan, Graham Glasgow, and Michael Schofield on that offensive line, all of whom currently play in the NFL (Lewan is one of the best linemen in the League right now) with a not-terrible outside lineup of Gallon and also-in-the-NFL Devin Funchess. And the very talented Devin Gardner. And our offense was bad. Boy was Hoke/Borgess/Funk a bad group of coaches.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^
Nice investigative reporting!
October 26th, 2018 at 12:38 AM ^
And the WR coach who let himself be dressed down at a HS conference by Dicktonio. Should have punched him.
Other than Greg, not a single coach is at a respectable P5 school these days
October 26th, 2018 at 5:29 AM ^
That's incredible incompetence.
October 25th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^
There are 2 missing carries. They list us as having 29 rush attempts, but it only adds up to 27. Gardner had 18 rushes. Toussaint had 8. Morris had 1. I cannot find the other 2 carries which apparently lost 22 yards.
MSU's rushing numbers do not add up either. They list 39 total rushes but the listed rushes only adds up to 36. The 3 missing carries lower their total of 150 to 142.
EDIT: So there are team rushes? They should list that separately in the stat box.
October 25th, 2018 at 11:36 PM ^
I was going to say the same thing.
Also, the number of carries don't add up: 8+1+18 = 29 ???
I may have run out of fingers and toes to count on, but I still get 27 (had to use the dog's digits too, so I may be wrong)
EDIT: Same as above.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:47 PM ^
We had a passing rutger going vs Wisconsin until that last garbage time drive. Drat!
October 25th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
Ah! It's Improvement week!
October 25th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
Really feel you guys missed the boat on one thing. Let me officially request that instead of the confusing and generic 'offense' and 'defense' designations, the naming convention for the two teams should be rutgerer and rutgeree.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:55 PM ^
great idea! How about “the rutger scale” as a name instead?
October 25th, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^
Can't argue with a logarithmic scale that shows just how shaky a team can get.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
A fun statistical anomaly would be if a team suffers a single phase Rutger but still wins. I bet it happens to the service academies all the time.
October 25th, 2018 at 6:12 PM ^
Probably not all that uncommon given there were multiple teams that won despite "hoke-ing." In fact, 2018 NW-MSU fits the bill. MSU (19 points) losing despite NW's rushing rutger (8 yards). For this reason, I nominate your statistical anomaly be christened the "spart." Used in a sentence: "NW's rushing rutger is pretty embarassing, but not nearly so much as Sparty's spart."
October 26th, 2018 at 7:56 AM ^
Winning while having a passing rutger is not uncommon for the triple option teams. GaTech just did it to VaTech. In fact, GaTech didn't have a single passing yard in the game.
October 25th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
We discussed the basketball Rutger, where you scored the winning points in the first half. However I can only find one instance of this happening. It was of course Rutgers versus Purdue a few years back
October 25th, 2018 at 2:08 PM ^
I'm assuming this only counts P5 vs. P5 games? Because last year we put 51 on Alabama A&M in the first half of a 97-47 win.
Comments