I hate all of the headlines going on right now and totally understand the fact that someone in Flood's position can be a fall guy and be let go in an attempt to make a clean break from all of the ugly headlines of the last few weeks. While I don't fully blame Flood for everything, I do think that it is fair and reasonable to ask questions of why all these things have happened at once (the headlines, perhaps, more than the events, many of which happened in the Spring) and whether he has brought the right people into the program and put in place the structure and the discipline necessary to minimize the risks of bad events (impossible to eliminate it 100%). If he is let go over all this stuff...I get it. I think it is both a credit and a detriment that Rutgers takes this stuff seriously, as worse things happen elsewhere and get swept under the rug (Florida State, Baylor, etc.), but it does make it harder to coach here as you will get more heat and less support for the behavior of 100+ young men than you would elsewhere.
All that said, I still think he is a pretty good coach and a great bargain if you look at his management of the team on the field. Look, I know we lost to Washington State this past weekend and that some don't love the QB decision (and the penalties were too much), but I think he has shown enough to say that he can coach. Let's be honest...we have, overall, an average Power 5 conference roster when it comes to talent...which means that more often that not, we don't have a drastic talent advantage. We certainly don't have an overwhelming advantage relative to Washington State, North Carolina, Maryland, Penn State, Michigan (they almost certainly were more talented), etc. In general, we have done well against those teams and have won more than we lost. Against Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State, the team was overwhelmed...they weren't good enough to compete. But we don't have big institutional advantages, financial advantages, or talent advantages relative to many of the programs we play, yet we have hung in there and won more than we lost. There are better coaches out there than Flood...no doubt about it...but there is no guarantee that we will find one unless our budget is much better than it has in the past.
Anyway...this stuff exhausts me. I should stay off the board until the Penn State game.
All that said, I still think he is a pretty good coach and a great bargain if you look at his management of the team on the field. Look, I know we lost to Washington State this past weekend and that some don't love the QB decision (and the penalties were too much), but I think he has shown enough to say that he can coach. Let's be honest...we have, overall, an average Power 5 conference roster when it comes to talent...which means that more often that not, we don't have a drastic talent advantage. We certainly don't have an overwhelming advantage relative to Washington State, North Carolina, Maryland, Penn State, Michigan (they almost certainly were more talented), etc. In general, we have done well against those teams and have won more than we lost. Against Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State, the team was overwhelmed...they weren't good enough to compete. But we don't have big institutional advantages, financial advantages, or talent advantages relative to many of the programs we play, yet we have hung in there and won more than we lost. There are better coaches out there than Flood...no doubt about it...but there is no guarantee that we will find one unless our budget is much better than it has in the past.
Anyway...this stuff exhausts me. I should stay off the board until the Penn State game.
