Why Can't Rutgers Ever Win?

Dowling is not antiathletic. (He ran marathons until a few years ago.) He says he simply wants "to make sure people care more about a kid who is brilliant at Greek or philosophy or physics than which moron is hired for the football team." He always roots for the football team to lose by lopsided margins. "That way," he says, "the honor and reputation of the school are saved."

Dowling might not get his wish every week this fall. The Scarlet Knights have some intriguing freshmen. Tennessee and Notre Dame are off the schedule, replaced by Navy and Connecticut. Mulcahy has set modest goals: beating Buffalo and UConn, and winning two Big East games, one at home and one on the road. "The rest takes care of itself," he says. "We're going to get it done."

Schiano versus Dowling is an intriguing but hardly fair fight for Rutgers's soul, not with the lure of BCS millions, the big-time designs of McCormick and the conviction of Mulcahy. After two decades of losing, the university's commitment to football is stronger than ever, although Milton—the poet, not the economist—could tell you that 2003 will again be no Garden of Eden for the team from the Garden State. The English professor would have it no other way.