Phil Murphy is a sports fan, so it was no real surprise that he used his pandemic briefing today to salute the Rutgers football team and its returning coach, Greg Schiano, for beating Michigan State last Saturday in the delayed opening game of the Big Ten season.

Judging from its history, any Big Ten win is a big win for Rutgers, but more than that, the governor was a key supporter of giving Schiano an eight-year, $32 million contract to return to Rutgers this year. Murphy said he watched “:every second” of the game.

But then something happened that he didn’t like.

Murphy said he was sent a photo of a “Rutgers watch party” that featured people jammed together without wearing masks.

This type of thing is becoming a real problem and it has state officials frustrated.

“Everywhere you look, it is screaming out that this is surging,” Murphy said of COVID-19.

He announced 1,223 new cases today. That was far below the 1,900-plus cases reported Saturday, but even if you consider that an outlier, the recent news has not been good.

The state’s positivity rate is above 4 percent and daily reported deaths are nudging into double-digits. This is far better than what we saw in the spring, but the trends are still going in the wrong direction.

Officials say the culprit is not schools or restaurants, but private, indoor gatherings – like football watch parties.

As the governor noted, such gatherings “are beyond our ability to effectively regulate.”

So, as Murphy explained today, his only recourse is “to plead” with people to follow the rules in regard to mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing. And as he has stressed more than once, this is not a normal year and it is foolish to treat it as such.

If there is any “good” news here, it is that despite the surge, there are no plans to re-impose lockdowns. As Murphy said, the problem seems to be in the home, not the restaurant or health club.

Judy Persichilli, the health commissioner, spoke of “pandemic fatigue.”

One thing that can combat fatigue – and the virus itself – is a vaccine, which the governor talked about today at length.

He said a vaccine must be trusted by the public and be accessible to all.

This brought up another concern. Suppose people don’t want to take a vaccine?

Murphy zeroed in on the problem, saying, “There’s too much anti-vaccine noise out there to begin with.”

He said skepticism “can prove to be as deadly as the virus itself,” but acknowledged the state would have to couple any vaccine with a plan to combat misinformation.

All of this is nice, but it gives way to a sober reality.

“We don’t have a vaccine today,” Murphy said.