(Apologies for the formatting error earlier. Can’t explain that one.) 

The Sopranos may be over, but New Jersey continues to give WVU more than Redman blaring from the dorms at Boreman, lines at the tanning beds and shortages of Jagermeister (I kid because I care!). Brendan Prunty from the Newark Star-Ledger reached out this week to exchange Q&As for Saturday’s game. Check out the NS-L’s very good Rutgers blog as well as the West Virginia side to the story. (Holy crap, we need to change that picture. The scar on my chin is the size of Lizemore!)

Brendan’s interesting take on Mike Teel and a pretty fair and honest review of the future of Greg Schiano and the Rutgers program follows the jump.

So we’ve seen a quarterback smack a receiver and two starters suspended for a game. Are there things going on that perhaps contribute to this 1-3 start? 

Surprisingly, no. It seems that both were isolated incidents that just happened to occur in the same one-week span. For as big of a blow as it was to not have WR Kenny Britt or LT Anthony Davis — the two most talented and NFL-ready players on the offense — their absence was barely noticed. Rutgers caught a huge break that whatever they did to merit a one-game suspension didn’t happen this week. In my opinion, Mike Teel taking a swing at a teammate in the waning moments of a brutal loss was the most disconcerting. To have your QB have a moment of total meltdown like that is not good. That’s your team leader right there getting rattled coming off the field by a defensive back who doesn’t play a whole heck of a lot. You just can’t have a moment like that if you’re trying to make a jump to the next level. Furthermore, I think it sent the wrong message that Teel wasn’t suspended in some fashion and the other two were. But they won last week and in sports, that cures all. 

Greg Schiano’s been mentioned as a possibility at Penn State and there was that weird story about the escape clause in the contract and the stadium renovations. Just how uncertain are things there and is there an effect? 

I don’t think it’s affecting Greg at all. Like most football coaches, he’s excellent at shielding himself and his team from outside distractions. Personally, I think the group most worried about all of those things is the fan base. After years of being the doormat of college football, they’ve finally found “their guy” that will take them to the Promised Land and they don’t want anything to jeopardize him staying. Look at what’s happened the last two off-seasons: He was a finalist for the Miami job (much more high-profile than RU) and the Michigan job (one of the top-three high-profile jobs in the sport). He turned down both. The fans here are concerned that if this program doesn’t start to make an up tick toward the BCS, that he won’t turn down a big-name program a third time. 

Rutgers: Fun while it lasted or the beginning of something big? 

A little bit of both, I think. The last three seasons have been the result of Schiano finally getting the talent he needed to compete — plus, getting lucky on guys like Ray Rice and Brian Leonard. Those guys helped put this program on the map. But what we’re seeing now is that transition team. What do I mean? Well, there are a bunch of good players, but if they were coming out of high school now, they likely wouldn’t be on Schiano’s radar. But in the last two years, we’ve seen a big jump in the type of talent that he is brining in here. Guys like Anthony Davis and freshman QB D.C. Jefferson were nationally ranked players coming out of high school. Those are the types of players that you have to get to move up to a BCS-contending team. The one problem is that most are freshmen or redshirted last season, so they haven’t seen a lot of playing time. This could be a very, very good team in two or three years. 

Mike Teel’s been up and down. Why the ups and why the downs? 

I think everyone is finally realizing that Mike Teel — while a great kid — is just an average college quarterback. He doesn’t have the strongest arm, he can’t move well out of the pocket and he makes too many poor decisions. Teams now are realizing that he isn’t a playmaker, so they’re challenging him to pass the ball in situations where he’s not comfortable — hence, why he has so many interceptions this year. However, in his defense, he hasn’t gotten great protection from the line (they lost three starters from last year) and until recently, didn’t have the run game to keep opponents honest. Plus, his “1,000-yard receivers” (that’s a trademarked term around here) haven’t helped by dropping balls (Tiquan Underwood) or not playing (Kenny Britt). 

Is the trouble with and at WVU a problem? 

That’s tough to say. Like I said before, I think Greg does a great job getting his team to focus on the game and blocking everything out. But that being said, I think someone in the backs of their minds, they know all about not winning ever (EVER!) in Morgantown and Rutgers not having beating West Virginia since 1994. They’ve heard about the games like 80-7 in 2001, but none of these players were here for that. What they do remember — and I think it still smarts more than they’d like to admit — is the 2006 triple-overtime loss. That cost this team a BCS bowl birth. Since that game, this team is 10-8. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.