Rutgers coach Greg Schiano announced last week that the Scarlet Knights would be relying on the arm of freshman Gary Nova for Week 7’s game against Navy.
Turns out, that was the right call, as Rutgers defeated the Midshipmen (in a possible future Big East matchup?) 21-20. Nova was solid too, going 23-of-31 for 271 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns and interceptions. After the game, Schiano made it pretty official that Nova had separated himself from fellow quarterback Chas Dodd and would be the starting QB going forward.
“I thought Gary performed well,” Schiano said. “He made some mistakes that were costly but he also made some plays that were incredible. We gotta eliminate the mistakes and keep making those great plays. Again, we’ll evaluate but I would anticipate Gary would go again (at Louisville).”
Rutgers has been a very pleasant surprise through the first half of the season. After going 4-8 a year ago, RU is 5-1 overall and sits atop the Big East with a 2-o conference record. The Scarlet Knights even got a few votes in the latest USA Today poll, but have yet to crack the top 25.
