• Greg Schiano will appear on NBC's Mike'd Up tomorrow night at 11:30PM. He'll sit down with Bruce Beck, who'll be filling in for Mike Francesca. One has to wonder if Schiano would still be scheduled to do the show if Francesca, a perennial Rutgers hater, was going to be around tomorrow.
• Former Rutgers quarterback and fan favorite Ray Lucas returns to the radio this fall. He replaces Tim Pernetti (who is also becoming a fan favorite) as the colorman and will work alongside Chris Carlin. Last year, Lucas worked as a studio analyst for SNY.
• The Big East did not land any teams in the Preseason USATody/Coaches Poll, although five teams received votes. The winner of the Cincinnati-Rutgers game is poised to crack the Top 25, if not the Top 20, as it is one of the most competitive games of the weekend.
• Tom Savage is learning about New Jersey traffic patterns as well as the Rutgers playbook. His bid to supplant Dom Natale as the starting QB begins when camp opens this Tuesday.

For all intents and purposes, the highly controversial seven year football series between UConn and Notre Dame is dead. The deal, which did not provide any home games for the Huskies, has been rendered irrelevant with the signing of home and home deals with Michigan and Tenessee. The Big East's resurgence in recent years has been bolstered by the fact that the tradtional "Blue Blood Programs" are now willing to play in Big East stadiums. In addition to the UConn series' listed above, Rutgers has also inked deals with UCLA, Miami and Penn State. Sorry Charlie. Your program has lost its clout. The Scarlet Knights turned down a similar deal with the Irish in the Spring of 2008.

And the State of Rutgers continues to expand as Chas Dodd (QB) of Byrnes High School (Duncan, SC) adds his pledge to the Rutgers Recruiting Class of 2010. The 6'1" gun-slinger from one of the top HS programs in the country confirmed his commitment on Monday according to Keith Sargent of the Courier News. As a second team All-State selection this past season, Dodd passed for nearly 2,400 yards and 18 touchdowns in a spread offense scheme that passed nearly 70% of the time during the season. Both Dodd and Marcus Lattimore the # 1 ranked RB in the nation for the Class of 2010 according to scout.com made an unofficial visit to the Banks this past weekend.