EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Fallen Husky cornerback Jasper Howard would have been proud of what he saw Saturday at Rentschler Field.
With the Scarlet Knights trailing 24-21 after squandering an 11-point lead, Tim Brown, Howard’s childhood friend, made the play of his career when he snared a bullet from quarterback Tom Savage with only 34 seconds left and blew past the entire UConn secondary for a 28-24 win.
“I just looked up into the sky and knew that he was looking at me,” Brown said. “He probably would have called me right now and been like ‘there’s nothing he could have done about it.’ It was a great ball and a great catch.
“I don’t know if he would have thought he would have caught me or not. Jazz was a guy that always thinks he’s so fast. He probably would have said he would have caught me.”
Brown finished the day with five catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns — putting him at 712 yards and five scores on the season — but no play was bigger than the 81-yard snag that he said he knew was coming.
“I looked in everybody’s eyes on the offensive side of the ball and we had that eye that we had to chop that tree down,” Brown said. “Somehow we have to chop this tree down and that’s what we did. We went out there and took that first swing and I guess that first swing knocked that tree down.”
Head coach Greg Schiano said that the play was drawn up to keep the ball moving and get into field goal position to tie the game, but Brown’s incendiary speed with the ball was better than anything he could have hoped for.
“It was a basic play,” Schiano said. “We were trying to get a chunk. If you don’t get chunks, especially first downs, you have to use your timeouts. We had one left. It was a heck of a throw and catch.”
The Rutgers defense managed to force four turnovers in the game and gave backup quarterback Zach Frazer a very hard time after starter Cody Endres got dinged and left the game, but the unit wore down in the second half, allowing for the comeback.
After an abysmal three-turnover first half for Frazer, he put it together in the second half and finished with 333 yards on 21-for-46 passing attempts.
“It almost happened again where the backup quarterback [hurt us],” Schiano said. “We’ve had our [issues] with them over the years. [Frazer] came in and threw for over 300 yards. The kid played great.”
UConn (4-4, 1-3) running back Jordan Todman provided the go-ahead touchdown, however. After three failed goal-line punches, Todman slipped in untouched from two yards out with 38 seconds to go.
“Coach [Randy Edsall] told me the play and I ran it in,” Todman said. “There wasn’t really a lot of time on the clock and I knew I had to get it through the wide receivers and the linemen. So we got the play out there and we knew it was fourth down and we had come too far to quit now.”
In his first Big East road test, Savage did not disappoint. Despite a slow start, completing three passes for 25 yards in the first quarter, Savage exploded in the second quarter, going seven-of-eight for 114 yards and two touchdowns en route to the first-ever conference win for a true freshman quarterback at Rutgers.
“I wasn’t down [after UConn took the lead], but of course we were upset,” said Savage, who finished the game with 236 passing yards. “We were on the 19-yard line with 38 seconds and one timeout. We knew we needed to get a field goal.”
Savage’s first strike of the quarter came when Brown broke wide open, but the second came on a perfect 20-yard strike to wideout Mark Harrison up the middle.
The touchdown marked the first of the true freshman’s career.
Through eight games, Savage now has eight touchdowns and just one interception, making Rutgers (6-2, 1-2) just one win away from bowl eligibility for the fifth straight season.
“We’ve never won like this,” said junior tailback Kordell Young. “We’ve never won with 30 seconds left and had somebody score on the last play. It ranks right up there with all of them.”
Duce runs wild
Brown's 81-yard explosion lifts Knights over Huskies 28-24 at Rentschler
Published: Saturday, October 31, 2009
Updated: Sunday, November 1, 2009
 "Photo: Andrew Howard / Photography Editor")
Andrew Howard / Photography Editor
Kneeling on the ground with teammates in front of the Rutgers crowd at Rentschler Field, senior wideout Tim Brown gathers his emotions after scoring an 81-yard touchdown with 34 seconds left to win the game. Brown finished Saturday’s 28-24 victory over Connecticut with five catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns.
5 comments
Leon
His eyeblack that day actually was "R.I. P Jazz"; his commeration of Jasper (jazz) Howard
Your name
Go RU!!!
Eddy Arnold
Thanks for the clarification--the "Duce" connection is really great since this becomes a triple entendre with Duce/deuce/2! (Previously it was a double entendre--pun intended!) Of course these comments, while entertaining, are missing the point that the Tom Savage to Tim Brown 81-yard TD connection was one of the great highlights in RU football history...congratulations to the Scarlet Knights!!!
Your name
If you take a look at his eyeblack, it always says Duce because that's Timmy's nickname
Eddy Arnold
I think you mean "deuce" runs wild (not duce)...as in the original internet e-mail version of the report. Deuce was cute since it stands for two (as in Tim Brown's #2) and often is the wild card in numerous games. Wonderful game!
