With one swing of his leg, pandemonium began in Piscataway. Jeremy Ito's field goal against then No. 3 Louisville signified the end of losing expectations at Rutgers.
But when the senior arrived at Rutgers, it wasn't always that way.
"Yeah, I mean going from 4-7 to turning around and going to a bowl game, that's probably surpassed everything I expected," Ito said.
Ito is one of 13 seniors on the Rutgers football team that will be honored in Saturday's Senior Day festivities when the team faces off against Pittsburgh at home.
But Ito is unique. The place kicker owns nearly every school record he can and has recently begun breaking conference records. Against Army, Ito became the all-time conference-scoring leader among kickers.
"We've been blessed," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. "We've had a kicker for four years that [has been excellent]. Nobody's 100 percent, but he's pretty darn good. He's done an excellent job."
Ito has set the school's all-time scoring record, as well as the conference's record for field goals made.
Ito will likely go down in the collective memory of Scarlet Knights fans as being the man who put Rutgers up by three points with 13 seconds left to go against Louisville.
"I don't think there's ever been any feeling like that," Ito said. "I don't know how many people were out [on the field], but it seemed like the whole thing was covered. It was a Thursday night game, and they were the No. 3 team [in the country]. It was pretty special that night."
Ito is among the only remaining class - except for the redshirt juniors - that remember the Knights' last losing season. In 2003, the Knights finished the season 4-7.
Ito had come on to the team just one season after a 5-7 record. This was at a time that Rutgers was still historically a losing team, but he says that didn't dissuade his choice.
"I came on my visit, and I liked everything about it," Ito said. "I liked coach, the players that were here and the players that I met were all good guys. I think that's one thing coach has done is that he's not just recruited good football players, but good people. That was the biggest thing."
He obviously doesn't regret his decision, as he has helped the team grow from a losing program to one that has expectations of reaching bowl games.
But, more importantly for Ito, it helped him not as a football player, but as a person.
"I grew up," Ito said. "I came here, and I was 18. Now I'm 21, almost 22. I grew up. I figured out my life, here at Rutgers."
The Loma Linda, Calif. native spent a lot of time away from home too and will thus remember Rutgers not just for football.
"I spend all day with these guys almost everyday of the week," Ito said. "You come close with everyone. I met a lot of people who, hopefully, I can keep in contact with and have friendships with for the rest of my life."
But Ito won't reminisce too much, because he knows that he still has at least two games ahead of him. He isn't making Saturday's match against Pitt to be any different just because it is Senior Day.
"[I'm going to] just treat it like any other game," Ito said. "I don't want to put too much emphasis on this being the last one. I'm just going to go out there and play my best."
