BY MIKE McDONALD
Staff Writer

At the beginning of the season, there were two types of Rutgers fans - the doubters and the believers.

Now, five weeks into the season, the number of believers is growing with each passing victory.

Rutgers began this 5-0 season with a road win against the University of North Carolina by the score of 21-16. Still, many fans thought that the win did not prove much. Next, Rutgers defeated the University of Illinois at home by the score of 33-0. Still, most fans just thought that Rutgers beat up on a weak, inexperienced team that they should have dominated. At best, the fans were happy that Rutgers did not lose to a lesser opponent, as the team has done so many times in the past.

Then Rutgers, again at home, beat the University of Ohio by the final score of 24-7. Even with a perfect record, Rutgers fans knew the team still hadn't beaten a proven team. Then Rutgers played a subpar opponent at home, Howard University, and defeated them easily. The 56-7 shellacking was more of a discredit to Howard than a confidence booster for the Rutgers fans, coaching staff or players.

Even though the Rutgers University football team was 4-0 and ranked No. 23 nationally in the USA Today and the AP Top 25 polls for Week 5, many have felt that head coach Greg Schiano and his team did not play a strong opponent.

Friday, Rutgers put that argument to rest with a win over the University of Southern Florida by the score of 22-20.

But now with a win against a good team, the University of Southern Florida on the road, Rutgers is slowly getting those doubters to become believers. And why shouldn't they switch?

Schiano is obviously happy with where his team is at this stage in the season, but he feels there is still work to be done.

"I think we're playing as a team, we are not where we want to be yet," he said. "But we're constantly working, chopping away and getting better. We want to just enjoy the battle, play hard and have fun while we're out there, and winning will usually take care of itself. That is what good football teams are able to do."

Despite the 5-0 start, Schiano believes that his team needs a rest to regroup and finish the rest of the season.

"It's good to rest finally," the coach said. "It's been a long 10 weeks between training camp and the first five games. I'm going to use this time to regroup and evaluate those first five games as a whole. In three days, we'll address those areas we need to work on and start to prepare for the rest of our schedule, particularly Navy."

Rutgers gets that much-needed rest during this week's bye week. Then the team will face Navy on Oct. 14th at 1:30 p.m. After Navy, Rutgers begins its Big East schedule playing Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Louisville, Cincinnati, Syracuse and West Virginia over a six-week period.