Langan's career day leads Rutgers past Liberty 44-34

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- After what interim coach Nunzio Campanile referred to as another training camp these last four weeks while he installed a new offense following the ouster of coach Chris Ash, Rutgers' offense was finally clicking.

Rutgers quarterback Johnny Langan had a career day, completing 15 of 21 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns, and adding 21 rushes for 118 yards and a touchdown to lead Rutgers past Liberty 44-34 on Saturday.

"It is what I imagined -- I thought it would come a little quicker than that." Campanile said of his offense with a wry smile. "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. This is what I would envision us being, and hopefully it is something that we can build off."

Isaih Pacheco ran for 107 yards and a score for the Scarlet Knights (2-6). It was the fourth time in his career he topped 100 yards.

Langan had a 51-yard pitch-and-catch to Isaiah Washington for Washington's first career touchdown and Rutgers' first lead of the game at 28-21 with 12 minutes left in the third quarter. It was also Rutgers' first lead since they were leading Boston College 10-7 in an eventual 30-16 loss five games ago.

On the ensuing possession, a false start by right tackle Sam Isaacson on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line forced Liberty to kick the field goal to make it 28-24 with 6:53 left in the third quarter. However, with Rutgers' offense humming for the first time since the season-opening win against UMass, Liberty's defense was unable to make the stops needed.

"It's frustrating for sure," Liberty coach Hugh Freeze said. "You have to score in this kind of game, you don't have enough possessions to kick field goals. Still at that point it didn't feel like it was devastating. We were going to go for the fourth-and-goal inside the one but then we got the false start again. That really hadn't happened to us all year. That backed it up. The field goal at that point still kept it in touch. I don't like the result of not getting the touchdown, but it really came back to you kick it off to them and they control the line of scrimmage again. If we could have gotten a stop there somewhere and got the ball, we'd proven that we can move the ball, so that could have been different."

Pacheco had a 19-yard touchdown run to put Rutgers ahead 35-24 with 2:24 left in the third quarter. Rutgers' Lawrence Stevens forced Ceneca Espinoza Jr. to fumble on the ensuing kickoff and it was recovered by the Scarlet Knights' Aslan Pugh. Justin Davidovicz kicked a 27-yard field goal with 39 seconds left in the third quarter put Rutgers up 38-24.

Rutgers -- which had a 1-11 season in 2018 -- was picked as home underdogs to Liberty -- a team that is in its second year in the FBS. While the coaches were trying to block players from the outside noise, some things are unavoidable, even if you delete your Twitter and Instagram like Langan recently did.

"I saw that they were favored to win, which I thought was ridiculous," Langan said. "We just played our brand of football and we played it well and it's a great win."

The first punt of the game didn't come until there was 1:55 left in the first half after Rutgers made a defensive stop. The Scarlet Knights then punted in the waning moments of the half as the teams went into the locker room knotted at 21.

Frankie Hickson (eight rushes for 41 yards) capped a 10-play, 80-yard opening drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to give Liberty a 7-0 lead 11:43 into the game. Rutgers responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive to tie it at 7-all with 5:17 left in the first quarter on a Langan touchdown run.

Liberty (5-3) running back Joshua Mack, who finished with 109 yards on 11 carries, had an 18-yard touchdown run after running through a gaping hole in Rutgers' defense to give Liberty a 14-7 lead with 1:50 to go in the first quarter.

Rutgers answered with a 1-yard TD run by Pacheco to tie the game at 14 with 10:18 left in the first half.

Antonio Gandy-Golden -- who came into the game with the third-most receiving yards in the nation at 877 -- had a one-handed catch for a touchdown to put Liberty up 21-14 with 8:29 left in the first half.

Langan, a freshman, answered for Rutgers with his first career touchdown pass -- a 51-yarder to sophomore Eddie Lewis -- to tie the game at 21 with 3:16 left in the first half. It was also Lewis' first career TD catch.

The teams traded field goals late in the fourth quarter before Mack had his second touchdown run to complete the scoring on the day.

RUNNING QB

Langan had the first 100-yard rushing game for a Rutgers quarterback since Sam Mudie had 105 yards in 1961.

UP NEXT

Rutgers: At Illinois Saturday.

Liberty: At UMass Saturday.Rutgers quarterback Johnny Langan had a career day, completing 15 of 21 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns, and adding 21 rushes for 118 yards and a touchdown to lead Rutgers past Liberty 44-34 on Saturday.

Isaih Pacheco ran for 107 yards and a score for the Scarlet Knights (2-6). It was the fourth time in his career he topped 100 yards.

Langan had a 51-yard pitch-and-catch to Isaiah Washington for Washington's first career touchdown and Rutgers' first lead of the game at 28-21 with 12 minutes left in the third quarter. It was also Rutgers' first lead since they were leading Boston College 10-7 in an eventual 30-16 loss five games ago.

On the ensuing possession, a false start by right tackle Sam Isaacson on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line forced Liberty to kick the field goal to make it 28-24 with 6:53 left in the third quarter. However, with Rutgers' offense humming for the first time since the season-opening win against UMass, Liberty's defense was unable to make the stops needed.

Pacheco had a 19-yard touchdown run to put Rutgers ahead 35-24 with 2:24 left in the third quarter. Rutgers' Lawrence Stevens forced Ceneca Espinoza Jr. to fumble on the ensuing kickoff and it was recovered by the Scarlet Knights' Aslan Pugh. Justin Davidovicz kicked a 27-yard field goal with 39 seconds left in the third quarter put Rutgers up 38-24.

The first punt of the game didn't come until there was 1:55 left in the first half after Rutgers made a defensive stop. The Scarlet Knights then punted in the waning moments of the half as the teams went into the locker room knotted at 21.

Frankie Hickson (eight rushes for 41 yards) capped a 10-play, 80-yard opening drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to give Liberty a 7-0 lead 11:43 into the game. Rutgers responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive to tie it at 7-all with 5:17 left in the first quarter on a Langan touchdown run.

Liberty (5-3) running back Joshua Mack, who finished with 109 yards on 11 carries, had an 18-yard touchdown run after running through a gaping hole in Rutgers' defense to give Liberty a 14-7 lead with 1:50 to go in the first quarter.

Rutgers answered with a 1-yard TD run by Pacheco to tie the game at 14 with 10:18 left in the first half.

Antonio Gandy-Golden -- who came into the game with the third-most receiving yards in the nation at 877 -- had a one-handed catch for a touchdown to put Liberty up 21-14 with 8:29 left in the first half.

Langan, a freshman, answered for Rutgers with his first career touchdown pass -- a 51-yarder to sophomore Eddie Lewis -- to tie the game at 21 with 3:16 left in the first half. It was also Lewis' first career TD catch.

The teams traded field goals late in the fourth quarter before Mack had his second touchdown run to complete the scoring on the day.

UP NEXT

Rutgers: At Illinois

Liberty: At UMass