Rutgers offense finds life against Liberty
Rutgers found some offense on Saturday as it defeated Liberty, 44-34, at home at SHI Stadium in Piscataway.
The Scarlet Knights (2-6) tallied its most points and most yards (463) since putting up 48 points and 554 yards in the season opening against UMass.
After throwing for just one yard two weeks ago and 48 last week, quarterback Johnny Langan completed 15-of-21 passes for 192 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran hard 21 times for another 118 yards on the ground with a score. It was the first time a Rutgers signal caller ran for over 100 yards since Sam Mudie in 1961.
“That's the guy I know he is and he actually said to me Sunday, he came into my office, -- pretty animatedly -- and told me, ‘I apologize because I've been trying to make everybody happy rather than just be who I am’. And he went out today and cut it loose and played like the competitor that I know he is,” said Rutgers interim head coach Nunzio Campanile, who coached Langan at Bergen Catholic High School. “He's one of the toughest human beings I've ever met and he's one of the greatest competitors I've ever met. I've been saying this all along, you go out as a freshman and play against really good competition; if the game is going fast -- and today it slowed down for him a little bit and he played with confidence and he played like he was having fun. It was great to see him do that and I'm really happy for him and really proud of him.”
After the game, Langan talked about what it feels like to finally get back in the win column.
“It's a great feeling,” the redshirt freshman said. “Not many better feelings than winning football games. I'm pretty happy right now. We just really attacked this week on offense we had our best week of practice all year. So, you know, we just translated that on the field. I'm happy about it.”
Langan also discussed what the conversation he had with Campanile last weekend.
“The last few weeks, I just watched the film and I honestly didn't recognize myself and I just wanted to play my brand of football. I really attacked the week,” Langan said. “...I really just took control and made sure everybody's really working towards one goal, and that that just made me a better player, just being able to step up and really just bring a lot of energy to practice every week. We had our best week of practice. I wasn't thrown into an exactly easy situation. I know my worth and I just wanted to play my brand of football and keep getting better.”
On the day, the Scarlet Knights racked up 271 yards rushing, converted 12-of-17 third-down attempts, was 8-for-8 in the red zone, and compiled 40 minutes and 48 seconds of time of possession.
“The biggest thing to me about this game is our o-line played a tremendous game,” Langan said. “Can't give enough credit to those guys. They were the reason why we won football game.”
Running back Isaiah Pacheco ran 19 times for 107 yards and two touchdowns as well while Langan found receivers Bo Melton, Isaiah Washington (more on him soon), and Eddie Lewis five times, four times, and two times, respectively. Meton finished with 47 yards while Washington led the way with 89 yards including a 51-yard score, his first. Lewis also notched an 11-yard touchdown through the air from Langan.
Since Campanile took over four games ago, he’s installed his style of offense. There’s been some growing pains as he called it training camp all over again, but fans got a glimpse of what it’s supposed to look like against Liberty.
“I thought it would come a little quicker than that. In all honesty I think I learned pretty quickly there are some matchups and stuff that weren't exactly easy for us, and some of the stuff we dealt with the first week probably set us back a little. That is what I would envision us being, and hopefully it is something that we can build off,” Campanile said. “Obviously we're going back into league play. We're going to play some really good teams. Hopefully there's something there that we can build off. I was really proud of what the guys did in the third and fourth quarter against Minnesota there and hopefully there's something there where we can put maybe five quarters together. If we keep doing that, there will be a lot of growth.”
Next Saturday, Rutgers heads to Illinois to face the Illini for a 3:30 p.m. start.
“I think we're finally kicked clicking,” Langan said. “Just got to keep this momentum going and focus on beating Illinois.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.