CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, ESPN, and all other sports reporters have already called this a disaster from moment one of the Flood scandal to the bizarre Norries Wison press conference. Now BTN's Gerry Dinardo has weighed in with a warning that this is a crisis at Rutgers of such magnitude that the program could crumble quickly and much faster than it took to build. He emphasized that unless the university, not just the football program, gets its act together, everything that Schiano built may be lost. Does the administration understand how bad it is? Does the administration realize that this is a university crisis that is spinning out of control? Does the administration realize how inept Rutgers looks to every outside observer? Do Barchi and company understand what is at stake? Will the Big Ten leadership endure this embarrassment again and again? Is Rutgers about to fall into the abyss?
I'm afraid that Bogdanovich, devoted2RU, Zapaaa and others are 100% right. Our joyous ascendency into the B1G has crumbled into a worst case scenario and the respectability that Schiano brought us has all but disappeared in an alarmingly short amount of time. Those who say, in effect, it's not so bad, we'll get through this, are just plain wrong, or delusional, or, as others posted, too young to remember the bad old days, before Schiano. RU was indeed lucky that he took over a laughable program in the first place. Sure, many other programs have had players of dubious character (this seems to be the price of going big time) or have had scandals in recruiting or academic support, but this convergence of very bad events in a virtually concurrent time frame is, to the best of my knowledge, unprecedented in college football (somebody correct me if I am wrong, by coming up with an example), but so many major messes all happening at once seems to be a first, and no, I am not forgetting the Penn State story, or the older SMU scandal. The RU FB program is an embarrassment to the conference and I am sure they hugely regret inviting RU. I don't know what the legalities in RU's membership agreement are, but I would not be surprised if the league imposes performance standards on the program, with expulsion being the long term risk and penalty for not meeting those sanctions. Which brings me to the most important point, that I, and many others, are making: Flood (and eventually his staff) truly has to go. Can the adminsitration see that?
I am certain that the university attorneys advised Barchi and the BOG and athletic administration that Flood's transgression with Barnwell's dance course, by itself, was insufficient cause for dismissal (or, it was strictly a fiscal decision, or both factors), but it seems to me that this was an opportunity missed to dismiss him. He was just a guy that got lucky and was appointed HC by default, happenstance and timing, but he's been in over his head from day one, in every way. Employing bargain basement coaches at RU in football and MBB typically has backfired significantly, although the Flood regime tops them all by orders of magnitude. Almost makes you wish for naked free throw shooting or FHJ's antics at a baseball game. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN RESCUE THE FB PROGRAM IN THE SHORT TERM IS IF ALUMNI COME UP WITH A WAY TO ENDOW A DECENT HEAD COACH AND HIRE HIM AS QUICKLY AS CIRCUMSTANCES PERMIT. Sure, I fantasize about Greg coming back, but it's not going to happen, absent a small miracle. Otherwise, it's going to be a painful slide into pre-Schiano incompetence and national irrelevancy. Almost makes me long for the CL days--Columbia, Cornell. Colgate, Lehigh and Lafayette.
