PISCATAWAY, N.J. (November 26, 2010) – Rutgers true freshman RB Jordan Thomas (Endicott, N.Y.) rushed for a career-high 120 yards on 16 carries but it was not enough as Louisville defeated the host Scarlet Knights 40-13 on Senior Day at Rutgers Stadium.
Thomas became the fourth Scarlet Knight this season to total 100 yards on the ground, joining Jeremy Deering (Tampa, Fla.), Mohamed Sanu (South Brunswick, N.J.) and Joe Martinek (Hopatcong, N.J.). The freshman running back averaged 7.5 yards per carry and posted his first career rushing touchdown in the contest.
Louisville jumped out to the early advantage with touchdowns on their first four possessions. Cardinal senior RB Bilal Powell accounted for the first three scores. UofL QB Justin Burke connected with Powell on a 17-yard strike 4:02 into the contest and the pair hooked up again with the Cardinal running back on the receiving end of a 11-yard pass from Burke with six minutes showing on the first-quarter clock.
Sophomore QB Will Stein came in for the injured Burke midway through the second quarter and followed a Powell 11-yard rushing touchdown with a nine-play, 69-yard scoring drive for the Cardinals. Tight end Cameron Graham took a one-yard pass from Stein for the touchdown with 8:20 remaining in the first half.
The Scarlet Knights took the ensuing kickoff and marched 74 yards down the field to get on the board for the first time in the contest. Thomas did most of the damage, totaling 32 yards on the ground and punctuating the drive with a 17-yard run for his first career rushing touchdown with just over three minutes remaining in the opening half. Facing a third-and-five on the Louisville 35-yard line, true freshman QB Chas Dodd (Lyman, S.C.) found WR Mark Harrison (Stratford, Conn.) for an 18-yard gain to set up the Thomas touchdown run two plays later to close out the scoring in the first half.
Louisville’s Jeremy Wright raced down the sidelines 64 yards to open a 34-7 lead for the Cardinals midway through the third quarter.
The Scarlet Knights marched right back, taking the ball 69 yards on nine plays where true freshman WR Jeremy Deering (Tampa, Fla.) lined up in the Wild Knight and found pay dirt from one yard out for RU’s second touchdown of the contest. RU’s two-point conversation attempt failed to bring the score to 34-13.
Louisville added a touchdown with 3:36 remaining in the fourth quarter on a Johnny Patrick 35-yard interception return for a touchdown to provide the game’s final score. The extra-point attempt was blocked by senior Brandon Bing (Wyncote, Pa.).
Senior LB Antonio Lowery (Miami, Fla.) led the defensive effort for RU with a game-high 11 tackles and two tackles.
The Scarlet Knights close their regular season in Morgantown, W.Va. against West Virginia next Saturday, Dec. 4
Post-Game Notes
Team Notes
• Rutgers lost its home finale 40-13 Friday afternoon to Louisville at Rutgers Stadium. The Scarlet Knights dropped to 4-7 overall and 1-5 in the BIG EAST while Louisville moved to 6-6 overall and 3-4 in conference action.
• Louisville won for the first time at Rutgers Stadium with the victory. The Cardinals are now 1-4 all-time at Rutgers and trail the all-time series to the Scarlet Knights, 7-3.
• Rutgers honored its 17-member senior class on Senior Day prior to today’s game. The following Scarlet Knights played their final game at Rutgers Stadium vs. Louisville:
Howard Barbieri, C, Leonardo, N.J., Sorie Bayoh, DE, Miami, Fla., Brandon Bing, CB, Wyncote, Pa., Teddy Dellaganna, P, Templeton, Calif., Jim Dumont, LB, Newtown, Pa., Jonathan Freeny, DE, Tampa, Fla., Evan Lampert, TE, Montvale, N.J., Mo Lange, OL, Hillsborough, N.J., Joe Lefeged, DB, Germantown, Md., Antonio Lowery, LB, Miami, Fla., Colin McEvoy, FB, Hillsdale, N.J., Tyrone Putman, RB, Fort Washington, Md., Charlie Noonan, DT, Ardmore, Pa., Fabian Ruiz, TE, Miami, Fla., Alex Silvestro, DE, Gibbstown, N.J., Clem Udovich, LS, Annadale, N.J., Kordell Young, RB, West Deptford, N.J.
Player Notes
• Freshman RB Jordan Thomas cracked the century mark for the first time in his career with a personal-best 120 rushing yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. The 16 rushing attempts were also a career-high for the New York native.
• Thomas became the fourth player in 2010 to rush for 100 yards in a game this season and the sixth player on the roster to break the century mark in a game. In 2010, Thomas joined Mohamed Sanu, Joe Martinek and Jeremy Deering as backs who have rushed for more than 100 yards in a game. Kordell Young and De’Antwan Williams have also capped the 100-yard mark in a game during their careers at Rutgers.
• Thomas scored the first rushing touchdown of his career with a 17-yard scamper in the second quarter.
• Thomas also posted the longest run of his career with a 34-yard burst in the second half.
• With 92 yards on kickoff returns, senior DB Joe Lefeged became Rutgers’ single-season all-time leader in kickoff return yardage with 894 yards on the season. He surpassed Terrell Willis’ school record of 813 kickoff return yards during the 1995 season.
• Senior LB Antonio Lowery led Rutgers with 11 tackles and now has a team-best 97 tackles on the season.
Post-Game Quotes
Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano
COACH SCHIANO: We have a lot to work on. So, that's what we're going to do. We're going to work on it. And improve. Questions?
Q. The offensive line, you called it epidemic earlier in the year. Is it pretty much an apt description at this point?
COACH SCHIANO: We've been struggling there, struggling there all year. It's no secret.
Q. Two things, earlier in the season, when it wasn't going well, you talked about getting things fixed and this would be a better team obviously November. Why do you think that hasn't happened, either of those two things?
COACH SCHIANO: There's a lot of reasons. It doesn't really matter. It hasn't happened. And we have one game left. I hope that we'll improve this week and play better at West Virginia.
Q. Were you surprised when you look up and you see 40'13? You come into a game expecting to win.
COACH SCHIANO: Nothing surprises me. You play the game. It unfolds right in front of you. Did I think that we would do that? No, I didn't. I thought we'd play much better. Disappointed in the way we played; disappointed in the way we coached. We just didn't do a good enough job as an organization and they did. We got licked.
Q. Was any of it effort that you saw?
COACH SCHIANO: I don't think it's effort. I think it's execution. We're making mistakes now that we didn't make in the first six weeks of the season, which is disappointing now.
Is it because we're trying too hard? Maybe. Trying to make something happen, I don't know. But it's very frustrating, obviously. But we will get it fixed, that's what we do here.
And this year we're running out of time. We only have one chance left.
Q. As far as concentration, this is a little bit off topic, can you give me an idea how much their thoughts of Eric might affect their gameday concentration?
COACH SCHIANO: Each individual is different. I'm not sure. I think I'd be naive to think it hasn't had an effect on our football team. But as I've told them, in life you're going to have things that are thrown at you, and the rest of your life doesn't stop.
We have not done a particularly good job with a lot of different adversities this year, foremost being Eric. But a lot of them we just haven't done a great job of handling it.
Again, I put it on me first; it's my job to get the ship steady and to right it. We haven't done that. But we will. It took a while to get built, and this program will continue to grow. We're having a little bend in the road. It's not the end. We'll be back. This isn't the end of the world.
Q. How much can you do offensively when the offensive line gives up nine sacks?
COACH SCHIANO: What do you think? I mean, you tell me. That's an open-ended question, I guess, right? Not much. Two sacks at the half, right? What happened is in the last two drives, I don't know how many sacks we gave up.
I don't want to send a signal that you're getting out of there and we need to just improve. But then they just started sending more than we could block. And in retrospect run it and probably call it a day. But we didn't. So I'm not worried about numbers. I'm not worried about anything right now.
I'm worried about getting better and making sure the young players we have in this program, they understand how it's done and that the older guys that have one more game left, that they understand how we're going to play this last one. And we have a great opportunity. It's 1'12 coming up. We have a one game season against West Virginia. As they go through this one painstakingly, we'll turn our attention to them.
Q. What did Louisville do early on?
COACH SCHIANO: Nothing. They out-executed us. Nothing schematically that was confusing or anything like that. We made more mistakes than we've made, in the last two weeks, than we made all season.
But, again, why do those mistakes happen? That's my job.
Q. The majority of the seniors are on defense. I know there was some thought this would be a good defense. Are you surprised or disappointed what's happened in the past two weeks?
COACH SCHIANO: Yes, very disappointed. But we're all part of it. Disappointed in all of us. Not discouraged, though. I know that what we do and how we do it is the right way for us. And we just need to do it well. When I looked at the Cincinnati tape, I saw the exact things that we have done in the past and didn't do.
I'm sure when I put this one on '' I didn't have to put it on, I watched it live, and it was easy enough. Cincinnati was a little harder to see from the field. This one wasn't as hard to see. It was nuts and bolts football. We just didn't execute.
Q. You took a lot of pride in the Bowl streak. Is it frustrating for it to end this way?
COACH SCHIANO: It's frustrating in the fact that's become what we do here. Sometimes in life you've got to take a step back maybe to take two steps forward. Hopefully that's what we're going to do with this setback here. That's my plan, you know.
Q. Aside from Eric's situation, you've been in the game a long time, coaching a long time, is this season right now, with all the close games and the last two weeks, defense giving up points, has this been a very different season, or is this just one of those types of seasons?
COACH SCHIANO: This has been one'of'a'kind. This has been one'of'a'kind. But that's life. You got to learn how to fight through one'of'a'kinds. It's a test. We're getting tested. From the outside, maybe we're not passing the test but from the inside we're passing the test. We'll be fine. We're learning a lot. We'll be fine. We're better than fine. We'll be real good.
Q. You just didn't want to get Tom into the game, late in the game, just wanted ''
COACH SCHIANO: I don't think to put him late in the game; we left most of the guys in there through the game. We're trying to get better. I thought Chas, although his numbers weren't great it in the first half, I thought he was right on doing what he was supposed to do. I wasn't going to make any change. He came out and did well in the third quarter, I thought.
I don't know, when you get hit and sacked, the sacks are one thing. Getting hit the way he made some big throws and took a walloping, we need to get the offensive line improved. There's no doubt about it.
Q. I know it was hard to take any positives out of this, but what about Jordan Thomas and his running? Were you encouraged with that at all?
COACH SCHIANO: It's not hard for me. That's one thing as a coach. It's like your own kids; just because one guy doesn't do well and the other guy does, you can't forget about the one who does. I thought Jordan Thomas ran well. I think Jeremy '' Jeremy did a good job again.
Jordan did a good job, more of the conventional running game, to be able to mix it up and go back and forth. I was pleased with that. I thought Jordan ran the ball well.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
Rutgers Student-Athlete Quotes:
#96 Charlie Noonan, Senior Defensive Tackle
On the cause of the defense’s struggles: “It’s a combination of things that lead to us not executing and that includes being beaten one-on-one, not being in the right place and mental lapses.”
#29 Jordan Thomas, Freshman Running Back
On what senior running back Kordell Young has meant to him and his game: “He’s like my big brother, I learn everything from him. Him and Joe (junior running back Joe Martinek) are like big brothers. All of us running backs are like a family and I just look up to them to the highest standard and try to follow suit.”
#19 Chas Dodd, Freshman Quarterback
On wanting to send the seniors out with a win: “You definitely want to send your seniors out with a win and I’m sure they’re disappointed. They wanted to win, as did the underclassmen but we just need to work at it and improve.”
On why he thought the conventional running game was working so well: “We really stressed that in practice. The line made some holes and that’s what we did running the ball but there’s always room for improvement and we just need to keep working at it.”
#50 Antonio Lowery, Senior Linebacker
On having the bowl streak end: “That’s frustrating especially with how it happened. We started off good and it went downhill I guess.”
On what he thought the problem has been the past few weeks: “I’d have to say the lack of details and the small things. The lack of details leads to making big mistakes and that’s how those big plays happen.”
Louisville Head Coach Charlie Strong
Opening Statement:
“(It was) just an outstanding job today. On our football team, we talk about resiliency. You talk about commitment. You talk about attitude. You talk about sacrifice and being a disciplined team. Today we showed that. It was so important for us to go out today and play well. We had one game and we wanted to get to a bowl game. You have a group of seniors that have shown so much leadership in this program. It was so important to us to go to a bowl game. I said, ‘I want you guys to leave a landmark. I want you guys to etch your name and we’re going to put it in a stone so that when you do come back, you’re more than welcome.’ I was just so happy to see that happen today – to see steps taken in this program. We haven’t been to a bowl game in so long, just to get to .500 (6-6), we’re so proud of the guys.”
On seeing focus in team:
“I think that moment (when I saw their focus) started last Sunday after we got beat by a good West Virginia team. Then, I walked into the meeting and I said, ‘I’m not going to beat you up. I’m not going to say much. We know what we have to go get done. We have to go on the road. When we go on the road, we have to pack our defense; we have to pack out special teams, our togetherness and our discipline. If we want to get to a bowl, it’s up to you to get us there.’ We had 25 seniors sitting there. So it was important that we got to this bowl.”
On importance of seniors:
“I just want them to know, when this program turned, it’s going to be because of what they did.”
On if he thought getting to a bowl was possible:
“We were just talking about this as a coaching staff. That we got to this point and we’ve provided so much hope with our players and with the Cardinal Nation, that now we have to go get this bowl win. No, I did not see it turning so quickly. When you go through spring ball and you think, ‘I don’t know how good we are guys. I don’t know if we can win any games.’ But, just to see our players get better each day and how bad they wanted to be successful.”
On when he thought they could make a bowl:
“When we went out to Oregon State, it could have gotten really ugly because they were up 21 points. To watch our guys come back (is when I knew). I came in and said, ‘Don’t ever tell me that you can’t play and don’t ever tell me you guys can’t compete. If we can go play the way we played today, than we have a chance and we can be pretty good.”
On Will Stein:
“You know what’s good about that? Whenever someone goes down, it’s like it doesn’t affect us at all. A lot of times, my man (Stein) thinks he’s Brett Favre. But I told him, ‘Stein, I just need you to manage the offense. Don’t go out there and try to do anything great. Just go manage the offense.’ It was so fun to watch him go play and compete.”
Louisville Student-Athlete Quotes:
#19 Johnny Patrick, Senior Cornerback
On getting to a bowl game:
“It feels great. When we were here two years ago, it was embarrassing. Everyone on the team was looking forward to getting back at (Rutgers). We got the job done.”
On when he knew the team was focused to win:
“(I knew at) the start of the game. The whole team was focused. We had one goal in mind – to get to a bowl game. The coaching staff knew what was coming and had us prepared.”
On practice leading up to the game:
“It was great. We were ready the whole week.”
On celebration in the locker room:
“It feels really good. We have a great coaching staff. They changed our focus and our attitude. They changed everything and got us to a bowl game. It’s trememdous.”
#4 Will Stein, Sophomore Quarterback
On getting into the game:
“(Justin Burke) had been having back spasms during the week, so I had to go in for him at practice. Coach Strong told me this could happen in the game and the same thing happen. He told me to go get my helmet and I couldn’t find it. I didn’t know where it was. I’m prepared. They prepare me well. (Quarterbacks) coach (Mike) Groh is a great coach. They have faith in me, so when I went in there, I told the o-line, we’re not going to miss a beat. It was awesome.”
On head coach Charlie Strong:
“He has an unbelievable will to win. He instills that in us every day - his toughness, his tenacity, his positive attitude. We knew all along the type of team we had. We just had to put it together for four quarters. Today we did, so we’re really proud.”
On not trying to do too much:
“They just said too keep running the offense, don’t try to do anything special. I had to make some plays to keep us going and get some big first downs. I just played my game. I did what I’ve done since the seventh grade.”
#79 Mark Wetterer, Senior Left Guard
On making a bowl game:
“It feels really exciting. This team has been through so much and we’ve worked through so much. All we’ve done is kept our head to the grindstone and kept pushing day-to-day. It got us pretty far.”
On last time Louisville was at Rutgers:
“Last time we were here, we left and it wasn’t a good situation. From where we were then to where we are now, it’s totally different. From day-to-day, to the staff, to the team – everyone has a different attitude. It’s a really good feeling.”
On how the team got to a bowl:
“(We got here) by working hard every day and just keeping to it. (We) worked through adversity and never gave up.”
