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Rutgers' Teel throws for 7 TDs
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Mike Teel threw for 447 yards and matched a Big East record with seven touchdown passes, and Rutgers dismantled Louisville 63-14 on Thursday night for the Scarlet Knights' sixth straight win.
Tim Brown and Tiquan Underwood each caught a pair of touchdown passes and the Scarlet Knights (7-5, 5-2) set a school-record for points in a Big East game, rolling up 671 yards of total offense and sending lowly Louisville (5-7, 1-6) to its worst finish since 1997.
One of seven fifth-year seniors who helped resurrect a once-downtrodden program, Teel capped an up-and-down season with a flourish. He threw touchdown passes to five different receivers, shattered the school record for yards passing and left to a standing ovation early in the fourth quarter.
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Rutgers will become just the seventh team in NCAA history to start 1-5 and reach a bowl game. A good bet is the Papajohns.com Bowl, but the Meineke Bowl, International Bowl and Motor City Bowl are also in the mix.
Then again, after this performance, maybe they ought to let the Scarlet Knights represent the Big East in the BCS. They're easily the conference's hottest team.
Teel has thrown for 1,737 yards and 20 touchdowns in his last five games.
, helping the Scarlet Knights average more than 46 points per game over that stretch. The defense hasn't been bad, either: It hasn't allowed a first-half touchdown the past two games.
Hunter Cantwell threw for 270 yards and a touchdown in his final game for Louisville, which will be staying home during bowl season for the second straight year.
Pressure is certain to mount on embattled coach Steve Kragthorpe, too.
Louisville is just 11-13 in two years under Kragthorpe, who replaced highly successful coach Bobby Petrino and is under a five-year contract that pays him $1.1 million annually. Kragthorpe is close to athletic director Tom Jurich, but fans won't tolerate finishing in the cellar of a conference that the Cardinals just a few years ago dominated.
Especially when they get embarrassed on national television.
Teel began the monsoon of offense with a 13-yard scoring strike to Underwood less than 2 minutes in, and a few minutes later Britt took an end-around 33 yards to cap a 98-yard drive.
Teel added a 74-yard strike to Brown early in the second quarter, and moments later broke Ryan Hart's school record for career touchdown passes with his 53rd, a nine-yard toss to tight end Shamar Graves that made it 28-0 with 7:24 left in the half.
Three more touchdown passes followed in quick succession -- a 26-yard strike to Underwood, a 37-yard pass to Brown and a 23-yard pass to Campbell with 18 seconds left before halftime, giving Rutgers a 49-0 lead at the break.
It was the third-most points scored by a team in a half in Big East history.
©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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