I am from New Jersey, where nobody cares about Rutgers nor follows its football program. But we all know, from Thomas Edison to Bon Jovi, the Scarlet Knights are the best losers of all time.

No program in history has found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as frequently.

How can the Garden State produce so many great college players and keep none of them at home?

How can they appear every year to be ready to take the next step out of the shadows and into mediocrity?

But the bottom line is, even when up by 20, nobody from home thought Rutgers would pull out the win against Illinois. While Illinois is a broken down Chevy from what it was four years ago, they were going against Rutgers.

I was cheap and expected free tickets to fall into my lap. Instead I ended up having to enjoy the ESPN telecast of the game. Football-wise, it was interesting to watch the Zook revamped offense, defense and special teams; while at the same time it was scary to watch Rutgers pull out to an early lead.

Somewhere around that time my good friend Brian Dillon sent me a text message that said, “You guys look poor, but watch Rutgers screw up.”

B-Nice is not a soothsayer but instead realized what we all with previous Rutgers experience knew, the game was not over. I texted him back, “Illinois could find its rhythm, Rutgers will blow it.”

Whether Illinois won the game or Rutgers lost it, is up for debate, but I have been thinking about another side of the game. Are Illinois fans as fickle as they appeared while filing out of the stadium when its team fell down early? Or have they just not had success in Memorial Stadium in so long, that I can’t blame them?

During the comeback, the shots of the crowd evidenced the giant holes in the landscape, looking as if the stands were hit by meteors. The people that I have spoken to admitted to leaving the game because of one of two excuses.

They saw the same old thrashing coming again and didn’t want to stay to watch, or they wanted to get back to their tailgates and commence drinking/grilling activities.

The undergraduate seniors here have seen Illinois drop home games for three years, it’s hard to imagine them successful. In this case, the presumed pessimism seems natural. But these were the same people putting Zook on the pedestal as Illinois’ savior. Wouldn’t they want to see how his team responded? The Turner teams of the past seemed to roll over and stick their heads in the sand. Those fans that left didn’t get to see the difference.

The most memorable college basketball game of last year was undoubtably Illinois’ comeback against Arizona. Nobody left that game early, and Illinois fed off the crowd and played its way into the Final Four. Down 15, the Orange-clad faithful stayed in their seats and cheered, but at the water cooler some were already jumping ship saying that Weber can’t recruit and the glory days are behind us.

So what have I come to believe after entering a hyperbolic chamber of athletic ponder? I’ll give you my thesis.

People become fans to live vicariously through their favorite team. Being fickle and second guessing is not just the nature of an Illinois fan, but of the common fan nation-wide. There are Illini fans that can name the setter on the volleyball team and know that a girl named Stephanie had a bright basketball future in high school until a knee injury. But that same fan needs to be given that happy feeling from its favorite team, or they will bury their heads in the sand only to emerge with their face painted during a Big Ten Championship run.

The final text message of the day from Brian ended in an AIM style “LOL,” and we both were. Him at Rutgers, me at everyone who walked through the turnstiles looking for a sign of life and left before they could detect it.