Rutgers suspends coach Kyle Flood

Rutgers coach Kyle Flood has been suspended three games and fined $50,000 for rule violations, the school announced.

The Rutgers University Office of Ethics and Compliance, with the assistance of outside counsel, investigated Flood for an email he allegedly sent to a Mason Gross part-time lecturer inquiring about a grade for Nadir Barnwell, who was known to be in danger of being ruled academically ineligible.

“Based on what we know now”, Barchi wrote, “it is clear to me that Coach Flood had inappropriate communications with the faculty member in violation of an established policy”. “I met with Coach Flood this afternoon and informed him of the suspension and the fine and he has accepted responsibility for his actions and my discipline”.

“Any correspondence that I had with a professor in regards to a student-athlete would really be of this nature: One, to be in support of whatever decision that faculty member made”, Flood said.

The meeting with the teacher came after a member of the athletics academic advising staff reminded Flood not to have contact with any faculty member regarding a student’s academic standing.

“Coach Flood and the student both have acknowledged that Coach Flood provided grammatical and minor editorial suggestions to the submitted paper”. The professor, who wasn’t named in the report, then told a Rutgers academic advisor that Barnwell was “badgering me to change his grade”.

Rutgers University faculty says it’s tremendously important that President Robert Barchi has made his 21-page investigative report public.

Dohn said Rutgers’ recruiting success moving forward will depend on the “strength of the relationships” with recruits as well as “how much these kids and their families believe in the coaching staff”.

The university forbids such contacts between coaches and professors, and warned Flood about such interaction.

For a coach to basically flat-out ask if there was “anything that could be done” to change the grade of one of his players to make him eligible for the 2015 season goes to show what kind of individual Kyle Flood truly is. What’s that? Having your head football coach suspended for 3 games isn’t a good thing?

According to Flood’s contract, Rutgers “may suspend Flood without pay pending the outcome of a compliance investigation”.

But while that scandal played out, law enforcement was preparing to arrest and charge Barnwell, and several other current and former Scarlet Knights, with violent crimes including home invasions and the April 25 assault.

The coach faced suspension or being fired if he was found to have gone against institutional policy.

Rutgers got it right on Kyle Flood.

There’s still an investigation going on, and the legal issues with the players are still being worked out, so for now, the suspension is created to keep the coach off the sidelines against Penn State, and for the next few weeks. And just after Saturday’s game against Washington State, star wide receiver Leonte Carroo was arrested and charged with assault after his involvement in an altercation.

Barchi said that because the alleged crimes are part of an investigation by a prosecutor, the university can’t do its own probe now.

Everything about the last six months at Rutgers suggests that Flood is either completely overwhelmed by the weight of his duties, or is willfully doing anything in his power to win football games, no matter the cost.

Carroo’s arrest has added to a flurry of negative publicity for the Rutgers football program in this, the Scarlet Knights’ second season in the vaunted Big Ten conference.