Rutgers Suspends Football Coach for Three Games

This Rutgers graduate is disgusted. I recall the days of football Coach Frank Burns as the real "glory" days of Rutgers football. The game did not dominate the mission of the university which was the pursuit of academic excellence. Rutgers seems adrift since I graduated. Very sad.

Is Flood a Chris Christie appointee? Seems like his behavior reflects an absence of integrity consistent with others put in high places by the NJ Gov.!

Shut down the program for this year. Hire a new coach (and maybe athletic director) who have no prior ties to Rutgers (i.e. no Schiano because the recruitment of some of the players thrown off the team may well go back to his tenure as head coach), and take a good look at whether the players in the program deserve to be there based on their academic records. My concern, given the number of players thrown off the team or suspended is that there are more to come because there were no meaningful academic standards being enforced (they might be there in name, but not in reality when measured by enforcement).

From what I read yesterday in another publication, the coach is only suspended for the games, not from the weeks' practices. Which assistant will have smartphone or tablet duty during the games?

I graduated from Rutgers College in 1970. Its academic standing among public universities in this country was high. The football stadium held maybe 12,000 fans and the games, usually against Ivy League opponents and mid-size Eastern schools, were pure and unsullied competition. Do you see where I'm going? Once Rutgers decided they needed more money and had to start playing with the "big boys," its academic standing went down the toilet. I was so ashamed that I wrote then Rutgers President Richard McCormick and told him just that. He wrote me back and said, rather defensively, that, while he appreciated my views, nothing had been sacrificed. I understood--he couldn't admit the Emperor had no clothes. Now my alma mater is just another one of those jock factories that makes a joke out of the term "student athlete." They don't pay a dime for their education and then they look for someone else to do whatever minimal work they are asked to do. Coach Flood still has a job because he does football, not physics.

If Coach Flood doesn't have the integrity to follow the rules, why is he coaching young men? Certainly, he is a very poor role model.

Bring back Greg Schiano as head football coach.

Seriously.

He built the Rutgers football program back to respectability, not just on the field, but off of it as well--the school's football team had one of the leading Academic Progress Rates in the country. He's a tough disciplinarian. He's a Jersey guy who understands the state's unique culture.

There's a real void of leadership in the Rutgers Athletic Department right now. Rutgers President Robert Barchi was brought in to manage the merger of the medical school and the university and doesn't seem to have the stomach for dealing with athletics. Julie Hermann, the AD, came to New Jersey from Louisville with rumors of employee abuse hounding her. Their solution--giving Flood a 3-game suspension--is reminiscent of the same punishment they gave to the former men's basketball coach, Mike Rice, who was later dismissed.

Maybe Schiano wasn't the greatest X's and O's football coach. But he was in charge. And he was clean.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away from where I teach now, the Heir Apparent to the QB position flunked my j-class. So did his buddy, whose daddy was on a high ranking governance board of the school. "Say what? You flunked (HAQB's name)?" a colleague said in disbelief. I replied, "Are you kidding." As a former jock, I might have pulled him aside during the semester, if I had known he was a BMOC jock, and told him to clean up his act, clean up his arrogant attitude, watch his comments and do the work.

Anyway, I never got a call from the coach, nor from anyone on the team. I did get a call from a team academic advisor who did not ask me to change the grade though it was obvious that he wanted me to reconsider. Others did call and other f-ballers in my classes expressed dismay. The dept. secretary was upset. Others were in the dept. expressed dismay.

HAQB appealed the F, and the Associate Dean of the School rejected the appeal. "Maybe he might learn from this experience," the AD told me.

"Why did you bother with all this," a senior colleague told me later. "One of the deans of the college will change the grade to passing anyway." And so said others because that's how things were done in that galaxy far, far way from where I teach now. No one ever inquired about HAQB's buddy. And HAQB started the next season.

Rutgers needs to get a handle on it's football program ASAP before things get completely out of control. They're getting into the realm of other big football schools with a "win at all costs" mentality. First, it was players accused of committing serious crimes and now a head coach caught pressuring a professor to change a player's grades. The school's reputation is going to be seriously damaged if the stronger action isn't taken to reel in this program.

The coach admitted to violating a serious rule he knew nothing about. I'm reminded of the "violation" committed by a snow-belt university coach when he bought a Florida student a winter coat. The kid had no coat and it was freezing outside. I've read the report and the rule. Nothing here but a well-intentioned mentor and a technical violation. No evil intent. The coach should have received a public reprimand. GoodellGate rears its ugly head at Rutgers.

The coach made multiple contacts with a faculty member attempting to arrange for a supplemental assignment that might give his player the chance to pass the course. There is no doubt that the coach broke school rules designed to prevent improper pressure on faculty members. Presumably, the faculty member turned him in. That suggests to me that the faculty member wasn't the least bit intimidated and that either he acted out of deep-felt principles or he just had a feather up his backside. I.m guessing it was the latter. Many professors are notably self-righteous and many of the self-righteous will reveal themselves here.

Why does Coach Flood still have a job at all?

If the reporting in this story is accurate and evidence supports these allegations as fact, the Coach should be fired. This was a well thought out and carefully executed attempt to use his position to influence the teacher on behalf of one of his players. It is clearly a firing offense and violation of the contract he signed.

Let's see. Just fire the guy.

I know it's just Rutgers. But just fire the guy.

Rutgers should be ashamed of its athletic program, which for five years, at least, has been a series of outrageous and poorly-handled breaches by many people who should know better.

Why not fire the man?

We should become realistic about college athletics and admit that athletes are engaged in a full-time endeavor, which is athletic competition. Why should we expect them to earn college credits?

Ever since Rutgers decided to enter "big time" college sports, the scandals have been ongoing -- basketball and now football. What does THAT tell us about the corrosive effect of big time sports on colleges?

Not to mention these "coaches" obscenely high salaries!

What is happening in our colleges? Let me get this straight, “Coach Flood denied that that conversation took place and insisted he had not been aware of the policy.” He said, “I take full responsibility and accept the consequences of my actions.” What do they define as ‘full responsibility?’ The coach denied the conversation took place but REPEATEDLY contacted the faculty member for the player that pass courses and also was reported to be charged with assault. Coach Flood was found to ‘personally help the student by suggesting changes to an email and to a paper he wrote for the professor’ – but apparently these instances were NOT in violation of university policy. Coach Flood then emailed (from his personal email so it could not be subpoenaed under the Freedom of Information Act) the professor offering to let the student complete extra work to achieve a sufficient grade “during football hours.” Unbelievably, the professor capitulated and gave the student 10 days to re-submit the paper. The only bright spot in this situation was the academic advisor who professed to not wanting “any part of this.” At least someone has some ethics. Coach Flood edited the student’s thank-you response to the professor and the final paper. The Board of the University should take action that will ideally prevent this type of action by coaches and others in the athletic departments. If all this is true, and the data points to YES, I believe Coach Flood should be fired.

Only 3? $$$ talks and perps walk.

What more can one say that Joe Nocera has already said?

And why was he not fired? Such suspensions are ridiculous. He knew his duty. He failed to perform. He abused the system. He abused his responsibilities. He has shown he is unfit to hold this position. This is a no-brainer. You fire him. As you would in ANY OTHER PROFESSION.

Oh, I forgot, this is football. A good old boys club where we take care of one another. Let's show them we are "tough" and suspend for three games. They'll think that we really care about such abuses. That we actually care about academics. That we actually don't consider players to be just pieces of meat for our own glorification. What a crock of sh*t. Has Rutgers learned NOTHING from the debacles of the last several years that have hurt real live human beings?

"The next day, the professor emailed the student, giving him the opportunity to submit a new paper in 10 days."

The state university for which I teach does not allow submitted ("posted") grades to be changed. Has the professor violated any university regulations and the faculty code of conduct? Was this same opportunity extended to every student in that class? I understand the story was focused on the football coach, but this additional information would have been pertinent.

This Rutgers graduate is shaking her head, reading this story.

Time for an exorcism!