As previously promised, here’s clips of Greg Schiano’s session today.

It was Greg Schiano’s first Monday press conference of the season and hopefully you tuned in to the live broadcast on SNY. For those of you who didn’t (we’re working on getting video of it up at some point), Schiano was as secretive as promised about the QB situation.  Initially.

He didn’t have an updated depth chart for us in the original game notes and he said once we got it, it would indeed feature that OR between all three quarterbacks: fifth-year seniors Dom Natale and Jabu Lovelace and true frosh Tom Savage.  He said he had not designated a starter, BUT he did admit, “I have a starter; I’m just not making it public yet.” Schiano went on and said, ”We know.  I think we have a pretty good idea of what the plan is going to be.  How it unfolds in the game is different.  I think some of that will be determined on how it goes.”

So obviously we tried to prod him a little further. I asked him about starting freshmen in general, that if two players are generally equal, would he prefer going with the older guy. He sort of said yes, but it wasn’t an unequivocal yes: ”Experience does count for something.  I don’t want to minimize that.  If he’s just a little bit better, you may still go with the more experienced guy, and then bring the other guy in behind him, if that makes sense.”

We kept trying, we couldn’t get Schiano to go any further and then the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch got on the phone and asked Schiano to just talk about the three QBs different talents. And Bill got the tea leaves out of the bottom of the cup.

“You start with Jabu Lovelace,” Schiano said. ” Jabu is a very athletic, very good with the ball in his hands, running the ball, has shown that over time.”

Then he moved to Savage and said, ” When you talk about Tom, Tom is young.  There’s no doubt.  I only wish we would have had him here for spring practice because you can see him coming right now.  He’s getting better every day.  But not sure that he’s got enough snaps under his belt to go against a team like Cincinnati.”

And then he finished with Natale, the player who’s taken the majority of first-team snaps since the spring: ”You look at Dom Natale, who is a seasoned guy, a 22‑year‑old guy, but has not played a lot of college football.  He’s been injured, has transferred.  But he definitely has the command of our offense.”

You tell me: do you really need a gypsy skirt and a set of tarot cards to translate that?

There was a day when Syracuse owned the northeast. Then Paul Pasqualoni was fired, Greg Robinson was hired and Greg Schiano’s dogged efforts took hold.

But now Doug Marrone’s in charge at Syracuse. The former Orange lineman and Bronx native made a splash at his first Big East Media Day, pledging to win the New York metro area back. Marrone’s boss, AD Daryl Gross, then got him three games at the new Meadowlands before even Rutgers booked one. And then this weekend, Syracuse announced all its games will be on air in the New York City market. AM 970 The Apple joins what’s an already extensive 25-station network, putting Syracuse games on radios all over New York and into Canada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New England.

Of course, the question is: will the Orange make anyone WANT to listen?

Up in Syracuse, Doug Marrone named a starting quarterback (Greg Paulus). Out in Louisville, Steve Kragthorpe named a starting quarterback (Justin Burke). Today we find out if Greg Schiano can bring himself to do the same.

The Rutgers coach is notoriously cagey about personnel things. And he’s borderline fanatical when he thinks keeping those personnel things secret might give Rutgers a competitive advantage. The good thing, though, is that he’s pretty good-natured about the quirk.

Asked Saturday when he’ll unveil his two-deep, Schiano pointed at Sports Information Director Jason Baum and said, “When he tells me to.” Asked if he’ll put a starting QB on that two-deep, he again pointed at Jason and said, “Whatever he tells me.” Asked if Baum said yes, would he then resort to his favorite OR, Schiano laughed and said, “I know, OR’s a cop-out. OR’s non-committal.”

Not that that means he won’t do it. And really, in all fairness, he might not yet know who his starter is. After all the joking Saturday, Schiano more somberly said, “I have to talk to Kirk,” referring to quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. “We’ll decide together, sometime around two in the morning on (gameday).”

Ultimately, it’s an interesting philosophical question. Fifth-year senior Dom Natale has consistently taken the majority of first-team snaps all through the spring and training camp. But he hasn’t done enough to officially slide true freshman Tom Savage out of the starting conversation. So my question is this: if most everything is close, do you go with the older, relatively more seasoned player – or the untested future?

Only one true freshman quarterback has ever led a Division I-A team to a national title, Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway in 1985. Out in LA, USC coach Pete Carroll’s decision last week to go with Matt Barkley and that untested future has set off shockwaves. Heck, Chris Dufresne thinks the two-time national title-winning coach is nuts.

So in a year that Rutgers could have the best offensive line of Greg Schiano’s tenure, and the best defense too, is starting a true freshman in a season-opener against defending Big East champ Cincinnati a little too risky?

Game week’s finally here. And the Big East Sports Blog will be too.  We may not be quite as in game-shape as the teams are, but we’ll get there. Enjoy the morning reading… 

Cincinnati has 10 new starters on defense and a new QB. And Brian Kelly thinks his defending Big East champs will be even tougher than they were a year ago. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

UConn has better facilities than Ohio. UConn also has a two-deep. Desmond Conner likes its speed. (Hartford Courant)

Two freshmen DEs could be game-changers for UConn. (Connecticut Post)

“What pressure?” Louisville’s Steve Kragthorpe asks.  That’s the attitude that has the 11-13 coach’s players talking bowls. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

The hype’s long gone; Dorin Dickerson is ready to finally justify it. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Pitt QB Bill Stull is facing the same school he took his first-ever snaps against, his hometown Youngstown State. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Starting fifth-year Dom Natale might be smarter. Then again, maybe starting true freshman Tom Savage is. A breakdown of Rutgers’ QB choices. (Star-Ledger)

Audio of an interview with the Big East’s head of officials, Terry McAulay. (The Home News)

Thank goodness Rutgers has at least Shamar Graves at TE. (Trentonian)

Jim Leavitt’s chomping at the bit to get going. Matt Grothe might have to rein that going in. (Tampa Tribune)

Someone in Syracuse thinks Arthur Jones has a better smile than Julia Roberts. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Three guys on ESPN’s College Gameday picked Rutgers to win the league. This guy thinks people are way under-estimating West Virginia. (Times West-Virginian)

Rutgers didn’t have an open practice Thursday, but there was plenty of other news around the league to fill your morning.

Bill Koch tells us about Cincinnati’s camp site, the only one in the league off-campus.

UConn DE Lindsey Witten is already the little brother of an NFL player, but Neil Ostrout gets coach Randy Edsall to say he just might be comparing himself to Michael Strahan.

Like Rutgers, UConn’s started its in-season maneuverings. Which means no open practice and Desmond Conner breaking down the opening UConn-Ohio match-up .

Louisville’s offensive line lost some of its profile; C.L. Brown says it might not have lost any of its punch.

Meanwhile, on the court - not that I think this will lift any of the attention off Rick Pitino – former UofL forward Luke Whitehead was arrested on drug charges.

Paul Zeise says Pitt has some serious depth on defense and, in a mailbag, he opines on the defensive backs specifically.

Kevin Gorman, meanwhile, is worried about Pitt’s punt return team. Who can forget DB Aaron Berry’s fumble against Rutgers?

A day after news broke that Jim Leavitt put his own South Florida Bulls at no. 18 in the coaches poll, columnist Martin Fennelly says this new plan to keep coaches ballots secret is silly. He’s got an interesting tidbit, btw, on how Leavitt’s ballot came out.

Dave Rahme gives us a neat feature on safety Mike Holmes.

Dave Hickman writes that West Virginia’s preseason camp is officially over.

Bob Hertzel talks to West Virginia center Joey Madsen. You might want to turn the sound down on that ad on the right.

The season really is finally here.
Inside Rutgers Football with Greg Schiano makes its debut Friday night at 7 p.m. right here on SNY. Bruce Beck returns as host, you can bank on at least one player feature and in case you’re at dinner, SNY wil re-air the show at 12:30 a.m.

“First and foremost, there is the advantage of familiarity that Valentine has with the organization and the Wilpons have with him. He is a great baseball mind who would serve the organization well, and if the Mets brought him in to be the team’s Mike Scioscia… he’d be a great fit. He and Minaya know each other well, and the hiring of Valentine would allow the Mets to keep Minaya as the GM while assigning the true power to somebody else, because Valentine and Minaya would work well together. Valentine will be available this fall.”

I don’t usually throw that term out too liberally, but I thought Josh Thole was a kid that looks like he loves to compete, loves to scrap, loves to grind out at bats, loves to engage in strategic conversation as far as the pitcher and batter are concerned, and I was really, really impressed by the job our player development people have done with Josh Thole.

So, I look forward to watching him play…  I will get him in there, Josh Thole will get an opportunity to play.