In 2009, Dom Natale started our home opener.
It wasn't pretty.
The rest of that year was Tom Savage's coming out party.
Going into camp, I suspect the staff already knew Tom was the "better" QB, but Schiano decided to start Dom anyway.
If Tom was indeed vastly superior to Dom (which he was), then that's precedence to believe that 1.) it's the coach's job protect his QBs, 2.) that doesn't necessarily mean the best QB always plays, contrary to coach-speak, 3.) fans aren't always misguided in their belief that the better QB is on the bench, and 4.) the Rutgers coaching staff didn't always get it wrong in handling the QB situation, even if immediate results weren't positive.