College football in New Jersey? Since when?

New Jersey is not the most beloved state in the Union. At the same time it is both adored and reviled for its beaches, boardwalks and casinos; its chemical plants and 10-lane turnpikes; its typical suburban neighborhoods. The Garden State — as it's officially known — is often called "the garbage state" by outsiders, who are usually bleachy-haired Californians or slow-talking southerners.

I'll admit, Jersey is not the most aesthetically arresting state, and I wouldn't go so far as to say that it has a certain charm to it, but it is good for some things: population density, corn, tomatoes, proximity to New York and Philadelphia, meadowlands, Revolutionary War battlefields, raw sewage.

Moreover, the state is either the birthplace or final resting place of no small number of very important people: Sinatra, Springsteen, Whitney Houston, John Popper and Blues Traveler (from Princeton High), Jimmy Hoffa, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Danny DeVito, Susan Sarandon, the Jersey Devil and many more.

Sports are big in Jersey too. Caught between two major markets, there are plenty of teams to root for: the Giants or the Eagles; the Mets, Yankees or Phillies; the Devils, Rangers or Flyers.

All these places and people and teams are part and parcel to the New Jersey experience, and have been for a while. But over the last couple of days, whether because of the alignment of the planets, as a result of good coaching or simply because it was about time, college football has risen to the same level as all the other things for which New Jersey is renowned.

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, beat the Louisville Cardinals, then ranked No. 3 in the nation, in dramatic fashion Thursday. This past Saturday, our football team went to Yale and lunched on the Bulldogs. There are many similarities between the two games: Both were comebacks of 14 or more points, both of the winning teams played perfect defense in the second halves of their games and in both cases, the fans of the winning team — both those native to New Jersey and those who have found a new home here, at least for a little while — charged the field at the final whistle.

This last point is instructive in an attempt to learn about the ascendance of college football in New Jersey:

The fact that Rutgers sold out its stadium and its fans were on the field before the final whistle is a sign that something new is happening in Piscataway. The Scarlet Knights have been basement dwellers in the Big East Conference since its inception, despite the wealth of high school talent available up and down the state.

Greg Schiano, the Rutgers coach and a New Jersey native, has built the program into a powerhouse, with a defense that is one of the best in the country. Only one tough game stands between the team and an undefeated season: away at West Virginia, a game Rutgers should win. Even if they do, they will still be shut out of the National Championship, but there's always next year.

Princeton students charging the field in the opposing team's stadium is also a sign of something new in college football.

I was at our game against Yale and the charging of the field caught me off guard. It was simply an action I had not considered. Charging the field is an instinctive act, and one that is usually the province of students from Ohio, Louisiana and Texas, of students who grew up rooting for their school's football team. Where the big teams play — in Columbus, Baton Rouge and Austin — the field is guarded by police and opposing fans are quarantined in a small corner of the stadium.

If the visiting team is an underdog and wins, its fans usually do not get on the field in large numbers for a variety of reasons: they are stuck in a corner and simply cannot physically escape it, the police stop many of them or they stop themselves for fear of a counter-charge by the rest of the fans in the stadium who are drunk, hate their guts and aren't in a good mood.

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So chalk it up to our college football innocence that we Princetonians charged the field at the Yale Bowl. For we too are innocent, just like Rutgers fans, to all this excitement over college football.

It was about time to lose our innocence.

College football, after all, is a New Jersey tradition: the first college football game ever played took place in this state, and those who sat in the stands on Nov. 6, 1869 were privileged to witness Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4. Here's hoping the near future produces many more New Jersey college football moments worth remembering for 137 years.