Rutgers University won the first-ever football game, 6-4 over Princeton in 1869.
It's been tough sledding ever since.
In recent years, the Scarlet Knights had become one of college football's biggest laughingstocks. They lost 25 consecutive Big East conference games from 1999-2003 and had played in just one career bowl game before this season.
When former Miami assistant coach Greg Schiano was hired to turn the program around, he knew the tremendous task at hand. But now here sits Rutgers, with a 7-4 record and an Insight bowl destination on Dec. 27.
"When I came to Rutgers five years ago, I don't know if we were the worst program in the country, but we were close," Schiano said. "The hardest thing had very little to do with football - it was about changing the culture. Losing was accepted. No one likes to lose, but it didn't hurt enough when it happened. It was a really long and tough process because there were no fast fixes."
But Schiano continued to plug away, recruiting players that were going to do things "the right way" and has turned a once struggling program into an up-and-comer.
The last time the Scarlet Knights played in a bowl - the Garden State Bowl against ASU in 1978 - no players on the current team were even born. To say this is a long time coming is an understatement.
"As I met with the seniors, they told me that everybody on campus was talking about getting their Christmas money and coming out to Arizona for the game," Schiano said.
The Scarlet Knights will draw the task of trying to keep up with the Sun Devils' high-octane offense, something Schiano admitted was going to be tough. But Rutgers has some potency of its own, with talented freshman Ray Rice in the backfield and a pair of quarterbacks to choose from.
Senior Ryan Hart became the school's all-time leader in passing yardage earlier this year, but actually had the starting job wrestled from him by redshirt freshman Mike Teel.
Teel was injured a game and a half into his new role, and Schiano feels now like he has two quarterbacks he can go with.
Schiano said he will do his best to prepare his team for the major exposure of a nationally televised bowl, but realizes no one on this team has been closing to experiencing anything like it.
"Until you go through it yourself, I don't know if you can truly fathom what's going to happen," Schiano said. "This is all new for our kids."
Reach the reporter at kyle.odegard@asu.edu.
