Gary Nova

Gary Nova, who plays his final game at High Point Solutions Stadium on Saturday, deserves a nice ovation from the crowd for his perseverance.

(Nati Harnik/AP Photo)

PISCATAWAY – "How do you want to be remembered?"

It's a tough question for anyone to answer, much less a college senior hoping he has another month and a half of football left in his career, and Gary Nova let out a long “ummm” before he gave it his best shot.

“Hopefully,” the quarterback finally answered, “just as a guy who fought through his whole career, through the ups and downs, and just came to work every day and tried to set an example for all the guys on the team.”

All that, certainly, is a given. Anyone who has followed Rutgers has had to admire Nova's perseverance and toughness. He's been benched. He's played through injuries. He's been harassed on campus, wearing headphones when he walks to class so he doesn't hear the taunts from the idiots who are supposed to be his peers.

Still, through it all, he's given four years and taken a pounding for Rutgers football, and hopefully fans will remember that when he's introduced for the final time at High Point Solutions Stadium and he gets the ovation he deserves.

But as for how he's remembered – five, 10 or 20 years from now – these next three games and a potential bowl trip will help determine that. Will Nova quarterback this team to a winning record and into the postseason in its first Big Ten season?

If so, that's a pretty good legacy, especially given the turbulent career in Piscataway. I mentioned to Nova that some college quarterbacks haven't faced as much adversity in a four-year career as he has in a month at Rutgers, and he just laughed.

“I knew coming here wasn't going to be easy,” he said. “We had goals to win championships and games and things like that, and obviously we've had some tough seasons and some good seasons. But all of it has made me better.

“I wouldn't change my decision at all if I had to go back and do it again. It's all made me a better person and I'm grateful for it.”

To fairly judge Nova you have to take the turmoil into consideration. He's had four offensive coordinators in four seasons, spotty offensive line play and a hit-or-miss running game. Yes, Nova has been inconsistent – maddeningly at times – but it's hard to imagine many players thriving under those circumstances.

But Nova is right. It has made him a better person, according to the people who know him best – including the head coach who benched him last season when it looked like Nova had cracked under the pressure of the job.

“His ability to handle adversity, I'm watching a player as good at it as any player that I've been associated with in my career,” Kyle Flood said. “That position, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny. That's just the reality of that position, and learning to handle that and then learning to overcome it and move past it and continue to get better and perform better, it's a tremendous statement, I think, about what Gary has done his senior year.”

His senior season, in many ways, has been his best even as the offense has struggled against top Big Ten defenses. He's completing 58 percent of his passes for a 9.41 yards-per-attempt average – both career high – and five of his 10 interceptions came in that nightmarish one game against Penn State.

The numbers aren't great, but the competition has been the best in program history. Finally, that changes when a struggling Indiana team comes to Piscataway, and a win will make the Scarlet Knights bowl eligible again.

Then, there are a pair of road trips to end the season, a final chance to measure up against the best in the conference against Michigan State and another test against fellow conference newcomer Maryland. Nova and Co. will be underdogs in both.

Can he pull off an upset at the end of his college career? If he does, a complicated career at Rutgers could be remembered for the way it ends.

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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.