Rutgers fires Flood and athletic director after losing season
PISCATAWAY, N.J.—Rutgers fired football coach Kyle Flood and athletic director Julie Hermann on Sunday, stripping the athletic department of its most prominent employees after a season that was a failure on and off the field.
University President Robert Barchi announced that Patrick Hobbs, Dean Emeritus of the Seton
Hall University School of Law, will take over for Hermann.
Barchi decided last week to make a change in leadership, he said in a statement, and told the football team of the change at about 2 p.m. Sunday. As players left the team meeting room about 45 minutes later, everyone declined to comment except senior Quentin Gause, who was team captain.
“Just business decisions,” Gause said was the message from Barchi. “Everyone cares for Flood, but decisions have to be made.”
The reaction in the room was silence, Gause said, and Barchi provided no other details about the Flood decision or what would happen to the assistant coaches. Assistant head coach Norries Wilson will be interim coach.
“We asked questions and stuff but at the end of the day, it’s a business decision, but keeping everybody together. That’s what it’s all about at this point,” Gause said.
The Scarlet Knights finished 4-8 after blowing a big lead to Maryland on Saturday, a game that was not even close to being the worst of the team’s embarrassments this season.
Flood was suspended for three games for making inappropriate contact with a professor regarding a player’s academics. Also, seven players were arrested since August, though charges were dropped against star receiver Leontee Carroo.
Flood was 27-24 in four seasons at Rutgers, including bowl appearances in his first three. He was given a two-year contract extension at the beginning of the 2014 season that runs through the 2018 season and made $1.26 million this year, according to USA Today’s coaches’ salary database. Among Big Ten coaches, only Illinois’ Bill Cubit, who was interim coach until getting a two-year deal on Saturday, made less.