Tulane football (1-4, 0-1 American Athletic Conference) lost 31-6 against Rutgers (4-1, 0-1, Big Ten) Saturday at in Piscataway, New Jersey. 

The Green Wave dug an early hole for itself and trailed the Scarlet Knights 21-6 at the half. The Wave failed to score in the second half.

Rutgers senior quarterback Gary Nova threw 3 of his 4 touchdowns to high school teammate and junior wide receiver Leonte Carroo and became the all-time career leader in touchdown passes for the Scarlet Knights.

“Defensively, we gave up some big plays early and got behind,” head coach Curtis Johnson said. “We rarely give up big plays and that is uncharacteristic of us, but credit Rutgers coaching staff on their game plan.” 

Freshman redshirt quarterback Tanner Lee suffered a shoulder injury and was done for the day after hitting 7 of 9 passes for 81 yards. Sophomore quarterback Devin Powell and senior quarterback Nick Montana served as Lee’s replacements. Montana, who made his first appearance of the year in the fourth quarter, completed all 5 passes he attempted.

“Losing Tanner really impacted our game plan. Tanner practiced all week and received most of the reps, we also do quite a few reps each week to prepare Devin (Powell) and Nick (Montana), but the starter always receives the most,” Johnson added. 

Freshman running back Sherman Badie completed his second longest career run, with an 86 yard touchdown run after beating out Rutgers defense down the sideline, bringing the score to 21-6 with 5:08 left in the second quarter.

Badie rushed for 108 yards on 12 carries for his second 100-yard game of his career and the third 100 plus yard rushing game by a Green Wave player this season. Junior cornerback Lorenzo Doss had a six-yard interception return in the third quarter and moved into third place on the school’s career list for interceptions with 13, and now has 270 interception return yards, which is the most in school history.

“I thought Sherman [Badie] had a good game. He had over 100 yards rushing and Lazedrick [Thompson] had over four yards a carry, which was good, this bye week is coming at a good time for us. We will practice hard and clean up our mistakes and get ready for [Connecticut],” Johnson added.

Tulane next plays Connecticut Saturday, Oct. 11 at Yulman Stadium.