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But don't expect them to get all teary-eyed about it.

"No, we have one job and that's to play football," Teel, the fifth-year senior from Oakland, N.J., said Monday after practice.

"You think about it a little bit, but the biggest thing is this is a one-game season for us and that's what's been working for Rutgers and for us this year," added fifth-year senior defensive end Jamaal Westerman. "So we're really trying to focus on this as one individual game and not really think past it or what came before it."

Rutgers (6-5, 4-2 Big East) is riding a five-game winning streak entering Thursday night's nationally televised tilt with Louisville (7:30, ESPN). A victory would insure the Scarlet Knights their fourth straight postseason appearance.

Rutgers could be headed to either the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., or the PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala.

If Rutgers wins, Notre Dame would also miss out on the Big East's runner-up spot in the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

Louisville (5-6, 1-5) comes into Piscataway riding a four-game losing streak and needing a victory to become bowl eligible.

"If you look past Louisville, they will beat you," Westerman said. "They will come in here and they will beat you."

The last time these teams tangled on a Thursday night, Rutgers emerged with a dramatic 28-25 victory over the then-No. 3 Cardinals in 2006 on ESPN. It was a victory that helped catapult the Scarlet Knights to an 11-2 campaign. Louisville won last year's game at home, 41-38.

This year's matchup will come on Senior Night at Rutgers, when each senior will be introduced before the game and trot out to midfield to shake head coach Greg Schiano's hand.

"Sometimes I've seen guys get too emotional about their final game, and then the only emotion that they'll have the rest of their life is regret because they didn't play well in their final game," Schiano said Monday in his weekly press conference on SNY. "I'm going to encourage the guys to keep it to the game at hand."

"I don't want anyone to live with regret because they were too emotional about it and it made the game go haywire."

Still, you have to figure the butterflies will be churning. Not only is this the last game for the seniors at Rutgers Stadium, but it has heavy bowl implications as well.

That might not have seemed possible when the Knights started off the season losing five of their first six games.

But they have turned it around in a big way.

Over the last four weeks, only two quarterbacks in the country -- Graham Harrell of Texas Tech and Case Keenum of Houston -- have thrown for more yards than Teel.

"I guess it's good company," Teel said. "It would be nice if it had gone on throughout the whole year. We've been playing good football. For the most part, we've been smart with the ball. You're going to have an interception here or there...but we've throwing the ball well, we've been catching the ball and we've been protecting it."

Westerman said there was no single turning point in Rutgers' season.

"We just rededicated our preparation, watched more film and just prepared better each week and things just started clicking for us," he said.

Now the Knights need things to click one last time at home without the emotions of the moment clouding their minds.

Said senior linebacker Kevin Malast: "It's really just another game. I'll have the rest of my life to reflect on my career here at Rutgers."