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Report: Rutgers’ Kyle Flood could be fired after alleged rules violation

By Jeremiah Sharpe

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Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood could be fired after having impermissible contact with a university faculty member about the status of one of his players.

Rutgers has had its fair share of issues in the recent past with coaches and athletic directors, so any news of more misconduct by any coach is going to be investigated thoroughly.

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Apparently Rutgers head football coach Kyle Flood has found himself in hot water after being accused of trying to help football players who are in danger of being academically ineligible skirt rules and get their professors to pass them allegedly, according to Keith Sergeant of NJ.com.

"“Kyle Flood could face a suspension or firing because of impermissible contact with a university faculty member regarding the status of one of his players.”"

That sounds fairly serious and not something Rutgers wants to be talking about heading into the new season next week. It would be a serious blow to Rutgers, a team that has shown signs of becoming a better program under his watch.

"“The university’s office of general counsel is investigating the severity of the alleged violation, which, the sources said, is focused on an email Flood allegedly sent from a personal account to a faculty member at the university’s Mason Gross School of Arts regarding the status of Nadir Barnwell. The junior cornerback is reportedly in danger of being deemed academically ineligible.”"

Sooner or later coaches will learn from others’ mistakes and stop ruining their careers over a player. No player will make or break your season and Rutgers could have easily overcome the loss of Barnwell. The loss of a head coach though for any amount of games can have severe ramifications on a program. If Flood did what he is accused of doing the NCAA will likely get involved as well which could further hurt the program.

In the end this will come down to what Flood said in those emails. Unfortunately or fortunately there is clear evidence in this case in those emails, so Rutgers players and fans should know pretty quickly what the fate of their coach and player will be when this investigation ends soon.

Flood responded to the article with this statement, via NJ.com:

“Let me start by saying I’m disappointed at the tone of the article that (associate athletic director for media relations/football) Hasim (Phillips) showed me this morning. I’ve been the head coach now, this is going into my fourth season, and I’ve had a lot of interaction with the teachers on our campus. I think that that article not only insults my integrity, but insults the integrity of our faculty. I’ve come to realize that our faculty here at Rutgers is beyond reproach and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them.

“Our faculty are part of our program. Just as recently as the other day, we had two faculty members at our practice. Now, any correspondence that I had with a professor in regard to a student-athlete would really be of this nature: One, to be in support of whatever decision that faculty member made, and two, to inquire as to whether or not there would be an opportunity to earn a better grade. Now, this practice is not unusual at Rutgers. Many students all over campus receive what are called ‘T grades’ doing work outside of when the class ends that semester to earn a better grade.”

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