SNY.tv: Online Home of All Things Sports

"For a period of four weeks, it was a nine out of 10, 10 out of 10," Teel said at Big East media day on Tuesday. "That's the way it goes. It's football, it's a physical game. You're going to get beat up. You're going to get hurt. There's a difference between being injured and being hurt. If you're injured you can't play, if you're hurt you play through the pain and do what you have to do."

Teel, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior from Oakland, N.J., initially injured his thumb when he banged it on another player's helmet last Sept. 15 against Norfolk State. By the fifth game of the year, it had progressed into a hairline fracture, a severe jam and a sprained tendon.

"He's a tough kid," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. "I feel bad, I'd talk to him [at] 10:30, 11 o'clock on a Saturday night after a game and his hand was throbbing. I would stay in contact with him and his dad and I look at these guys like my own kids. I keep trying to say if it were my son, what would I do? And the answer was if he wanted to do it, I'd let him to do it."

Despite the injury, Teel threw a school-record 20 touchdowns and had 3,147 passing yards -- the second-best single-season mark in school history -- while leading the Scarlet Knights to their second straight bowl victory. He had six games with at least 300 passing yards and now stands within range of several all-time Rutgers passing records.

Schiano said the biggest obstacle for his quarterback last season was his inability to practice because of the injury. In any given week, Teel couldn't work against the opponent's defense and coverage schemes.

"When you're in the grind of the season and you need time off, you don't get it," Teel said. "For me, it taught me a lot about how to be mentally tough, how not to go to practice all week and then go out and play in the game. To learn to take mental reps, to watch extra film, to prepare yourself as if you were practicing."

Entering his final year at the state university, Teel pronounced his thumb "completely healed" as Rutgers prepares for its season opener on Sept. 1 against Fresno State on ESPN.

"I feel healthy," he said. "Does that mean I'm going to have a better year? I hope so, but you've got to out and play. My job is to win football games."

With star running back Ray Rice gone to the NFL and the tailback position up for grabs -- Schiano said Kordell Young, Jourdan Brooks, Mason Robinson and Joe Martinek would battle it out for the top spot -- the offense could rely even more on Teel.

Rutgers also returns two 1,000-yard receivers in Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt.

"We enjoy being a balanced offense," Schiano said. "We want to throw it when we want to, not when we have to. With Mike's experience there are some things we can do and will do that you wouldn't dare try to do with a rookie quarterback. Does that add up to more throws? I'm not sure it adds up to more throws; it may just add up to some more freedom to get us in and out of things."

A former star at national power Don Bosco Prep, Teel would seem to be not only the perfect quarterback for Schiano's system, but also the ideal spokesman for his message as well.

When Teel speaks, it sometimes sounds like he's excerpting parts of Schiano's message about turning Rutgers into a program that competes year in and year out for Big East and national championships. Yet Teel is genuine in his comments, not simply repeating the party line.

"Coach Schiano was down at Miami when they were winning national championships year after year and there were All-Americans all over the place, and he knows what it takes to be at that level," Teel said. "Eventually, our goal is to be where he was when he was at Miami."

Teel and Schiano both grew up in the Garden State, and Teel has seen the state university transformed from a joke to a legitimate outfit on Schiano's watch. When he visits elementary schools, he sees young kids all over the state wearing Rutgers T-shirts and football jerseys.

"The whole culture of the state has changed, from the university to the people within the state," Teel said. "It's an event to go to a Rutgers football game on a Saturday now, and it's something where the top level high school kids, who in the past would go to Notre Dame, to USC, to Texas, to Michigan, want to stay home and go to Rutgers. I'm not saying that you're going to get every one of those top-level kids, but there's a culture at Rutgers now where it's a cool place to go. It's not, 'You're going to Rutgers? Why would you do that?' It's, 'You're going to Rutgers? Good luck.'"

"We can only control Rutgers," Schiano said. "We've got to try to be the best we can be. One of these days our best will be the best. And who knows? Maybe it will be this year."

Extra points: Rutgers will play at least twice on SNY -- the exclusive television home of Rutgers football -- Sept. 27 vs. Morgan State at 3:30 p.m. and Oct. 4 at West Virginia as part of the Big East Game of the Week television package. Kickoff is 12 noon in Morgantown. Rutgers opens the season with two consecutive games on ESPN -- Sept. 1 vs. Fresno State (4 p.m.) and Sept. 11 vs. North Carolina (7:30 p.m). ... Schiano said he didn't have strong feelings one way or the other about being picked fourth by the Big East coaches in the eight-team Big East, behind West Virginia, South Florida and Pittsburgh. "I think all that stuff's great to stir up fan support and speculation," he said. "The reality is you've got to go out and play, and I'm excited about starting training camp." ... The coach reiterated that Young, Robinson, Brooks and Martinek would all compete for the starting tailback spot in the post-Ray Rice Era. "If somebody takes it and kind of leaps out in front, then they'll get the lion's share. If not, then we'll spread it around." Schiano emphasized that Young was an especially "flexible" player who could do a variety of things. "You can motion him out and he does things in the passing game. I'm looking forward to him. You never know when you're coming off a knee injury, but he's a special guy."