What was the worst?

[G- RUnit]

It’s Littlepage and not even close. Totally destroyed our basketball program.
Anderson beat PSU.
Shea was actually a good coach just not an East Coach guy.
Ash probably 2nd worst IMHO.
Fred was right about All Sports Conference although cost us three decades.
Thought Eddie would be better.
Mike Rice was nutty and a time bomb but really firing a coach because he threw a basketball at a player… Press run amuck.

 

[Westcoast]

People want to throw rose petals on TP getting RU in the Big 10 when the credit mainly belongs to Uncle Bob and Greg. He hired two guys that ended up embarrassing RU in the two biggest sports and then the following hires were disastrous for both programs. I do not get how people just pass over this plus he failed to address the aging CVS situation and then fumbled the Fred Hill firing which meant he didnt get to do a proper coaching search for Rice....likely we would have had Fran McCaffery and Mike Rice nor Julie Hermann never would have been hired. Tim made or didnt make decisions that sent the athletic program into a death spiral

Not sure how you concluded Pernetti wasn't the main factor in getting B1G invite. Didn't you read the article where it fully explained Pernetti's role? No one else was close to Pernetti in terms of getting the invite. Now you can say "yeah but without Greg, football was so bad we'd have never gotten an invite" but that's just a disingenuous justification to avoid given Pernetti the credit he deserves. It is possible he made bad hires AND was the primary reason we got into the B1G. Both can be true.

 

[Westcoast]

It’s Littlepage and not even close. Totally destroyed our basketball program.
Anderson beat PSU.
Shea was actually a good coach just not an East Coach guy.
Ash probably 2nd worst IMHO.
Fred was right about All Sports Conference although cost us three decades.
Thought Eddie would be better.
Mike Rice was nutty and a time bomb but really firing a coach because he threw a basketball at a player… Press run amuck.

Rice was a good coach. Probably our best combination of recruiting and actual coaching in the last 40 years- until Pike arrived. Too bad he had other issues.

 

[wheezer]

Rice was a good coach. Probably our best combination of recruiting and actual coaching in the last 40 years- until Pike arrived. Too bad he had other issues.

Rice got in the face of one of our players, game one, in front of the crowd.
Normally that might have been ok, some coaches coach in a rugged way, but this just seemed like he was on the verge of losing it personally, and I noticed it with concern

 

[RedTeam1994]

Wow good poll and hard to choose

But it’s hand down gruninger.

As others have stated his decisions set the ENTIRE ATHLETIC DEPT BACK FOR DECADES!!!!

I mean Hermann was a horrific hire, as were Ash, Littlepage and Jordan but those pale in comparison to the massive, decades-long impacts of his ineptitude (which we are STILL recovering from).

as someone said above - I think the results are reflecting a recency bias. Gruninger is the worst. the damage he did outshines them all combined.

but the two leading votes (Herrman and particularly Ash) are very deserving.

 

[Big boy stan]

Pretty bad when the poll has 10 different people and there are two pages of compelling arguments for each of them to be the worst in RU history.

 

[RUHotTrumpetMonkeyLove]

Julie Hermann apologizes for this poll.

 

[satnom]

Terry Shea absolutely needs to be a part of this poll. Guy was hired because Bill Walsh of 49er fame told Grunniger and Lawrence to hire a Cali coach with no connection to the east coast or understanding of Jersey Culture to build a program post Doug Graber. The only difference between Shea and Ash is that Shea actually gave a shit about Rutgers but both took extended stays post new year’s, one for family time in California and the other to pretend like he was actually needed in a co-coordinator capacity for a football juggernaut program to prep for a playoff game before diving into the work needed in December to take on the task of building the RU football program.

That being said, Shea was a symptom of the greater disease called Fred Grunniger.

GO RU

 

[RW90]

Pretty bad when the poll has 10 different people and there are two pages of compelling arguments for each of them to be the worst in RU history.

Life of a Rutgers fan...

 

[cubuffsdoug]

I'm upset the poll doesn't allow you to select multiple choices. It may have been easier to ask which person doesn't belong in that group. 😁

 

[Good-Knight]

Pretty bad when the poll has 10 different people and there are two pages of compelling arguments for each of them to be the worst in RU history.

It's even worse than that. There are compelling reasons for a couple of people left off the list.

 

[OJRutgers]

I cast my vote for Littlepage. He did nothing (only futility) with Tom Young's players. Bob Wenzel took Littlepage's guys (and some of his own) to the A-10 Championship.

 

[RUtrumpet92]

Worst football hire - Ash. He had something to work with, even though there was slippage under Flood, and burned it down. Trashed all of the traditions Schiano started like spring camp awards, never connected with the recruiting area, 78-0.

Worst basketball hire - Littlepage and it's not even close. 23 wins in three seasons, taking over for Tom Young who had ZERO losing seasons in 12 years as head coach.

AD - Gruninger solely on the decision to turn down the chance to be a Big East founding member. Imagine if that was us instead of Seton Hall. Although.... if we had been in the Big East from the get-go and had better basketball, that may have lifted the football program, too. Then we'd have been a juicy target when the ACC expanded, not one of Syracuse or Big East. Would we have been in the ACC expansion before? If so, would we have jumped to the Big Ten with Maryland still? Interesting thought experiment. But there is no doubt in my mind we would've been a STRONG basketball program in the Big East (if we hired better than Littlepage after Young).

 

[RU848789]

Bowl and Dance in the same year? Up from the depths. What was the worst?

You missed Shea, who was worse than anyone on that list, except maybe Littlepage, from a coaching perspective, although Gruninger probably did more to torpedo RU's sports future than any other person on the planet by not joining the BE when it was formed.

 

[RU848789]

Ash. A guy unfamiliar with NJ gets hired and decides to goof off instead of hitting the ground running (sound familiar?). Then he becomes a know it all, shitting on Rutgers traditions.

He should've been fired for cause after 78-0.

Ash was terrible, but Shea was worse, IMO.

 

[rudad02]

Why is Dick Anderson on this list?

Yes.

 

[rudad02]

Not sure how you concluded Pernetti wasn't the main factor in getting B1G invite. Didn't you read the article where it fully explained Pernetti's role? No one else was close to Pernetti in terms of getting the invite. Now you can say "yeah but without Greg, football was so bad we'd have never gotten an invite" but that's just a disingenuous justification to avoid given Pernetti the credit he deserves. It is possible he made bad hires AND was the primary reason we got into the B1G. Both can be true.

Yes Pernetti was the force behind getting us in the BIG.

 

[RU_DIO]

Yes Pernetti was the force behind getting us in the BIG.

Yet people deny this. They'll rip him for some bad hires but down play what he did getting us into the B1G.

 

[RU_DIO]

Dick Anderson's main issue on Day 1 was to yell at guys for wearing hats while working out. He was a bad hire at at specifically bad time. We could have gone up when we went down. He was another dirty trick played on us by Joe Pa. Even his son chose Penn St over Anderson's Rutgers. I have him as far worse than Shea, worse than Flood... but Littlepaige is the worst.

I can't agree with this. In fact, saying he was better than Shea is absolutely crazy.

He was much better at his job than most of the people on this list.

 

[willisneverrana43]

Easily Littlepage given the circumstances of where RU was in hoops and where they went

Yes. Easy. Littlepage.

 

[RU848789]

I can't agree with this. In fact, saying he was better than Shea is absolutely crazy.

He was much better at his job than most of the people on this list.

Agree completely. It's simply nuts to say Anderson was worse than Shea, who was 11-44 (and kind of 14-64 if you count Greg's first two years with Shea's leftovers). There's a reason we call it the Shea Error. The man destroyed Rutgers football. Anderson always fielded hard-nosed competitive teams with an overall record of 28-33-4, including at least 2-3 teams that would've gone bowling had there been as many bowls as we have today.

 

[BIGRUBIGDBIGredmachine]

Worst football hire - Ash. He had something to work with, even though there was slippage under Flood, and burned it down. Trashed all of the traditions Schiano started like spring camp awards, never connected with the recruiting area, 78-0.

Worst basketball hire - Littlepage and it's not even close. 23 wins in three seasons, taking over for Tom Young who had ZERO losing seasons in 12 years as head coach.

AD - Gruninger solely on the decision to turn down the chance to be a Big East founding member. Imagine if that was us instead of Seton Hall. Although.... if we had been in the Big East from the get-go and had better basketball, that may have lifted the football program, too. Then we'd have been a juicy target when the ACC expanded, not one of Syracuse or Big East. Would we have been in the ACC expansion before? If so, would we have jumped to the Big Ten with Maryland still? Interesting thought experiment. But there is no doubt in my mind we would've been a STRONG basketball program in the Big East (if we hired better than Littlepage after Young).

R 3 stooges right there

 

[RU848789]

Worst football hire - Ash. He had something to work with, even though there was slippage under Flood, and burned it down. Trashed all of the traditions Schiano started like spring camp awards, never connected with the recruiting area, 78-0.

Worst basketball hire - Littlepage and it's not even close. 23 wins in three seasons, taking over for Tom Young who had ZERO losing seasons in 12 years as head coach.

AD - Gruninger solely on the decision to turn down the chance to be a Big East founding member. Imagine if that was us instead of Seton Hall. Although.... if we had been in the Big East from the get-go and had better basketball, that may have lifted the football program, too. Then we'd have been a juicy target when the ACC expanded, not one of Syracuse or Big East. Would we have been in the ACC expansion before? If so, would we have jumped to the Big Ten with Maryland still? Interesting thought experiment. But there is no doubt in my mind we would've been a STRONG basketball program in the Big East (if we hired better than Littlepage after Young).

Ash was terrible, but I think Shea was worse, but that's like arguing about who's the shortest midget. Littlepage was easily our worst hoops hire and that's saying something given the crappy coaches we've had between Waters and Pike.

And yep, Fred was the worst and I agree there's a good chance we would've been much better in hoops and football if we had been in the BE from day one, meaning there might've been a good chance of us getting that ACC invite. Plus, it's also likely Young doesn't leave for friggin' ODU if we went to the BE and continued to be one of the best teams in the East, like we were before the BE.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Wow. How can anyone vote for anyone other than Chris Ash???

The Liberty game result tells all you need to know. The high school coach who replaced Ash mid-season was able to beat an FBS bowl team by a comfortable MOV with a depleted roster from a team that was bad to begin with. This speaks volumes. Ash is in his own category.

 

[RU848789]

Wow. How can anyone vote for anyone other than Chris Ash???

The Liberty game result tells all you need to know. The high school coach who replaced Ash mid-season was able to beat an FBS bowl team by a comfortable MOV with a depleted roster from a team that was bad to begin with. This speaks volumes. Ash is in his own category.

Nope, Shea was worse - maybe you weren't around back then...

 

[jrm75]

It says a lot about Rutgers sports that this was not an easy vote - so many "deserving" candidates.

 

[djrc89]

it’s littlepage. I don’t think it’s close. If you look at success before during and after for the program. Flood struggled after schianos success but not that bad. The other guys were awful but we’re essentially starting from nothing

 

[Luvscarletknights]

Shea should be there. Man we’ve had some mistakes. Recency bias will likely play a role here. I voted turn the page. Men’s hoops program was perennially successful prior to his hire

He put a QB in the NFL from Western PA

 

[Luvscarletknights]

it’s littlepage. I don’t think it’s close. If you look at success before during and after for the program. Flood struggled after schianos success but not that bad. The other guys were awful but we’re essentially starting from nothing

I agree 100%......It took me 1 second to vote for him.

 

[Local Shill]

DIck Anderson beat State Penn - he doesn't belong on that list at all. Other than that, you can make a solid argument for any of them.

 

[rutger80]

Voted for Littlepage. Was told by a Penn fan (where he coached before) that we made a huge mistake and unfortunately that is the way it went. Not being in the BE was no excuse, Temple had dominant teams then. Like someone said above, Wenzel took his players and won the A10.
Gruninger deserves a special place by himself for his decisions.

 

[RUHotTrumpetMonkeyLove]

From a sports perspective, should Barchi be an option?

 

[Good-Knight]

Are people forgetting the coach who was by far the greatest embarrassment: Kevin Bannon. For years after that if you got introduced as "former Rutgers Basketball player," people just laughed . Most of us have found ourselves in a position where we were in over our heads, plenty of us have lost our tempers or otherwise had mental meltdowns, but having a promising career snuffed out due to weirdo perv stuff? That's difficult to understand and hard to forgive. For all the others on this list I think their hearts were in the right place. Can't say that about Kevin Bannon.

 

[RUHouston]

Ash. A guy unfamiliar with NJ gets hired and decides to goof off instead of hitting the ground running (sound familiar?). Then he becomes a know it all, shitting on Rutgers traditions.

He should've been fired for cause after 78-0.

Same argument could’ve been said for HCGS when Richard dropped 80 on us…. But yeah, Ash sucked moose balls…

 

[RedTeam1994]

Same argument could’ve been said for HCGS when Richard dropped 80 on us…. But yeah, Ash sucked moose balls…

no. no it cannot. not even remotely the same. at all.

the WVU game was in 2001 (which I believe was GS') first year. he inherited THE WORST PROGRAM IN D1 FOOTBALL.

the 80-spot by WVU was a result of the complete lack of talent that GS inherited.

GS then built the program into what it eventually became under his first tenure (a respectable program that went to bowls consistently and was ranked a number of times including a high of I believe #7

Ash inherited a much, much, much much better program (compared to what GS started with) AND HE DROVE THAT PROGRAM INTO THE GROUND.

the 78-spot on Ash was DUE SOLELY TO ASH'S INCOMPETENCE

while the results were similar the relative amount of blame that you could reasonably put on each head coach at the time.... literally could not be more apples-to-oranges.

 

[Plum Street]

Not sure how you concluded Pernetti wasn't the main factor in getting B1G invite. Didn't you read the article where it fully explained Pernetti's role? No one else was close to Pernetti in terms of getting the invite. Now you can say "yeah but without Greg, football was so bad we'd have never gotten an invite" but that's just a disingenuous justification to avoid given Pernetti the credit he deserves. It is possible he made bad hires AND was the primary reason we got into the B1G. Both can be true.

Any competent Ad would have got the BIG invite . Any incompetent AD would have made those program killer hires and wanting to keep awful coaches .

 

[S.W.A.I.N]

Ash was terrible, but I think Shea was worse, but that's like arguing about who's the shortest midget. Littlepage was easily our worst hoops hire and that's saying something given the crappy coaches we've had between Waters and Pike.

And yep, Fred was the worst and I agree there's a good chance we would've been much better in hoops and football if we had been in the BE from day one, meaning there might've been a good chance of us getting that ACC invite. Plus, it's also likely Young doesn't leave for friggin' ODU if we went to the BE and continued to be one of the best teams in the East, like we were before the BE.

Both awful, but Shea inherited same old RU, Ash had all the support, facilities, TV deals, etc. to be successful and still sucked.

 

[bac2therac]

Not sure how you concluded Pernetti wasn't the main factor in getting B1G invite. Didn't you read the article where it fully explained Pernetti's role? No one else was close to Pernetti in terms of getting the invite. Now you can say "yeah but without Greg, football was so bad we'd have never gotten an invite" but that's just a disingenuous justification to avoid given Pernetti the credit he deserves. It is possible he made bad hires AND was the primary reason we got into the B1G. Both can be true.

RU was going to get in no matter who the AD was....Greg and Bob set the table. Its a nice story for revisionist history of TP to place importance on his constant contact with Delaney but its fantastical to say it rested in his hands as the main factor

 

[cubuffsdoug]

RU was going to get in no matter who the AD was....Greg and Bob set the table. Its a nice story for revisionist history of TP to place importance on his constant contact with Delaney but its fantastical to say it rested in his hands as the main factor

Did Mulcahy meet with Delaney about joining the B1G, or are you talking about the work Mulcahy did to upgrade Rutgers' infrastructure to big boy standards?

 

[RUGiddy777]

Think we’re too hard on Flood. Not many coaches would have survived, let alone be successful, on the shoestring budget he was given nor the dumpster fire that was the entire AD and it’s kind of hard to recruit when it’s not even a secret your boss is looking to get rid of you. 3 bowls in 4 years and an 8-5 start to the B1G. Perhaps too much of a players coach, but he loved the university and did a better job than Greg in being engaged outside of the FB program. Now he’s gone on to be part of a natty staff and potentially another one at UT. Let’s see what he does with his next college HC job.