FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Rutgers came into SEC country last night, and left with a huge statement win. The Scarlet Knights walked into Razorbacks Stadium with questions surrounding their offense and even bigger ones surrounding the beleaguered Big East, and strode out with a come-from-behind 35-26 victory.
Sophomore quarterback Gary Nova’s career night stunned the crowd of 72,543 into silence, the only sounds chants of “R-U! R-U!” from the Rutgers faithful that made the trip. But the Knights made plenty of noise themselves, moving to 4-0 for the third time since 1980 and stating their case loud and clear for their first top-25 ranking since November 2009.
“It’s a great win,’’ said Nova, who went 25-of-35 for 397 yards and five scores without an interception. “It feels really good. I wasn’t expecting that coming in, but that’s a quarterback’s dream, go back and forth like that. Those are the moments that you dream about in college football.’’
Nova, who has worked diligently to curb last year’s turnover woes, talked about one day being entrusted with an offense the way the Giants entrust Eli Manning. Last night — with quarterback Tyler Wilson (419 passing yards) and wide receiver Cobi Hamilton (SEC-record 303 receiving yards on 10 catches) picking apart Rutgers’ vaunted defense — Nova got his chance and made good.
“It’s probably the biggest win I’ve been a part of, because of what it looked like on the outside — SEC school, the Big East we don’t play no football up there, and all those things,’’ linebacker Khaseem Greene said. “I definitely think we gained some respect. … We’re going to just keep going and proving to the doubters that we’re a force to be reckoned with.’’
They look it under coach Kyle Flood, in his first year replacing Greg Schiano after his former boss left for an NFL job with the Buccaneers. Rutgers became the only BCS school to win three September road games, and earned this one against a Razorbacks (1-3) team whose losing record belied its loaded roster.
After Rutgers fell behind 10-0 in the first quarter, it stormed back on three unanswered Nova touchdown throws. They led 28-13 after a 2-yard play action touchdown to tight end Paul Carrezola.
Wilson — who was concussed in a Sept. 8 loss to Louisiana-Monroe and missed last week’s 52-0 loss to Alabama — rallied his team, tossing touchdowns of 10 and 80 yards to Hamilton, the second getting Arkansas within 28-26 with 8:19 to play.
But Greene broke up Wilson’s two-point attempt, and rather than play it safe Flood dialed up a deep ball. Wideout Mark Harrison beat cornerback Kaelon Kelleybrew for 60 yards to put it away.
“It’s a one-score game — you have to be aggressive,’’ Flood said. “You have to go out there and win the game. You can’t wait for the other team not to win it. So many big plays in the game on both sides, we’re fortunate to make a couple more.’’
Wide receiver Brandon Coleman had six catches for 89 yards and two touchdowns while Harrison had four catches for 89 yards and the clinching score.
“We’re just coming out trying to win the Big East,” Harrison said. “That’s our main goal, give us the best chance to win that national championship.’’