TAMPA, Fla. -- Is a .500 team worthy of the Top 25? Rutgers sure is playing like one of the best college football teams in the country right now.
Winners of four straight after a 1-5 start, the Scarlet Knights cruised past South Florida, 49-16, on Saturday on the strength of Mike Teel's 292 passing performance, Joe Martinek's two touchdowns and six turnovers caused by the defense.
Martinek, the former All Daily Record Football Player of the Year out of Hopatcong, was the feature back for the Scarlet Knights for the first time this season. The redshirt freshman had 21 carries for 98 yards along with two scores on the day for an average of 4.7 yards per carry. Martinek has three touchdowns in the last two games and an average of 7.3 yards per carry on the season, despite being used sparingly in the Scarlet Knights' crowded backfield.
The win before 47,216 at Raymond James Stadium marked the largest margin of victory for Rutgers in a road Big East game, and it was the Scarlet Knights' first conference road triumph in November since 1995.
Most importantly, the victory puts the Scarlet Knights in the driver's seat for their fourth consecutive bowl berth after most figured their postseason hopes were dead in mid-October.
"There's always opportunity but the bottom line is if we don't continue doing what we need to do, the opportunity's out the window," said Teel, who fired three touchdowns and scored another in engineering the offense to 421 total yards. "The biggest thing is we've continued to play these one-game seasons, and it's working for us. We just need to continue to do that."
Rutgers plays its final two games at home, starting this Saturday with a meeting against 3-7 Army. A win will make the Scarlet Knights bowl-eligible, but it's widely believed that they'll also need to beat Louisville to close out the season to receive a bowl bid.
That's because the Big East will likely have more bowl-eligible teams than available postseason destinations. Anything but a 7-5 record likely won't cut it, but Rutgers will be favored in its final two games to finish just that.
Just don't tell any of this to Rutgers coach Greg Schiano or his team.
"I think it's obvious," Schiano said, when asked what a fourth straight bowl would mean for his team. "But that's not what we're going to focus on until it is that time, if we're fortunate to get there. Right now it's about winning a big game here at South Florida, and starting the Army season tomorrow."
So what's the difference for a Rutgers team that was winless after three games and 1-5 midway through the regular season?
Start with an offense that scored 117 points through its first seven games and 138 the last three. Inside of that resurrected attack credit Teel for morphing from a quarterback who came close to being benched to one who's thrown 12 touchdowns and for 931 yards the past three weeks.
Certainly Teel couldn't do it without plenty of help, and to that end the fact that Kenny Britt is playing like the All-America receiver he's billed as doesn't hurt, either.
On Saturday, the 6-4 junior hauled in eight passes for 173 yards, including a 93-yard, fourth-quarter score that marked the second-longest play from scrimmage in school-history. Rutgers' newly-minted, all-time leading receiver now has 984 yards for the season and 2,666 for his career.
"This is the team the last four games," Britt said, "I knew we'd be in the beginning of the season."
It's certainly the defense Schiano figured he'd possess, the one that pressures the quarterback and forces turnovers with reckless abandon.
The Scarlet Knights sacked Matt Grothe four times, and pressured South Florida's quarterback countless other times. As a result, they forced Grothe into three interceptions, one of which was returned 30 yards for a score by Jason McCourty, and caused three fumbles.
"It's just preparation," said McCourty, who grabbed two interceptions and a fumble.
"I think in those beginning games we kind of thought it was just going to happen for us. And we didn't do the necessary things to get ready for those games. I think losing those games kind of opened our eyes up and we knew needed to put some more preparation into it if we wanted to win."
As for Schiano's take on how his team has reached the .500 mark after a 1-5 start, Rutgers' coach said, "I think its growing up."
"We're learning how to do this thing better, to prepare better, both mentally and emotionally," Schiano offered. "And then, I think, we lost some really good players, and it took us a little while to get back to speed.
"Now hopefully we'll keep this thing moving forward."