PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- The cars were backed up for half an hour on River Road for the start of what was supposed to be an exciting new season of Rutgers football.

Red-clad fans, old and young, a record 53,737 of them, made their way to sold-out Rutgers Stadium — the one with the $102 million renovation — for the season opener against Cincinnati. College kids with red- and white-painted faces filled up the new student section under the gigantic state-of-the-art scoreboard, hoping to be seen on ESPN.

The ticket was so hot that a scalper even asked passers-by if they had extras for sale, something that would have been unheard of just a few years ago in these parts.

Read the full column here.

And here’s Aditi’s story on the play of quarterbacks Dom Natale and Tom Savage. Is a QB controversy brewing in Piscataway?

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