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No college program will have more players in Super Bowl LI than Rutgers

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

Bill Belichick loves his Rutgers players.

The New England Patriots coach made that clear last week after three different former Knights had interceptions in the AFC Divisional Round against the Houston Texans. It’s partially because of those Knights that the Patriots will be playing in Super Bowl LI.

Belichick’s Rutgers love meant that the Knights will have more players than any program — even Alabama — in the country in Super Bowl LI:

Crazy, right?

Four of those Rutgers players (Jonathan Freeman, Duron Harmon, Devin McCourty and Logan Ryan) will play for the Patriots and wide receiver Mohammed Sanu will be the Knights’ representative on the Falcons.

Rutgers and Purdue are actually the only two B1G programs guaranteed to have a player win Super Bowl LI. And Rutgers actually has more than twice as many players as any B1G team.

But to be fair, none of Rutgers’ Super Bowl representatives played in the B1G. In fact, all five were recruited by former Knights coach Greg Schiano. Perhaps that’s why three of them are defensive backs.

Still, B1G association aside, that’s quite the stat for a program that’s been down in the dumps the last two seasons. With National Signing Day right around the corner, Rutgers will push that stat as much as possible to build its future.

Who knows? Maybe a couple of future Belichick guys will join the Knights next week.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.