When the Big Ten invited Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten, many thought it was just a money grab to get the Washington DC and NY/NJ TV markets. Yes, Maryland historically has had a strong basketball program but neither brought a strong football tradition. Ironically, both athletic departments were struggling financially before the Big Ten invite.
Both programs have been a little quiet on the field since joining the Big Ten, their top moments are probably wins against the Brady Hoke lead Wolverines in football last year. This year hasn't been so good for either program as Maryland got beat at home last week by Bowling Green and Rutgers lost at home to a poor Washington State team.
Off the field the Rutgers athletic department sounds more like fiction then reality.
- Basketball coach Mike Rice was swearing and throwing basketball ball at kids during practice. He was suspended and then fired after a video came out.
- Rutgers then goes out and replaces their AD with Julie Hermann, who while the head coach of the volleyball team at Tennessee had the same reputation for abuse that Mike Rice did at Rutgers. She was even sued for firing an assistant coach for getting pregnant.
- Now lets talk about what has happened recently to the football program:
- A week after those dismissals and arrests. FB Lloyd Terry was arrested and charged with participating in an armed home invasion. He was thrown off the team.
- Just this week WR Leonte Carroo was charged with assault for allegedly body slamming his girl friend outside the football training facility after the game. Carroo has been suspended indefinitely.
-Yesterday, head coach Kyle Flood was suspended 3 games and fined $50,000 for pressuring a professor to change a grade for one of his players. The player you ask? Nadir Barnwell who was kicked off the team a few days before the season started.
The above football bullet points have all happened in the last two weeks! Flood is a pretty ironic term for the situation that is happening at Rutgers right now. How is recruiting going coach? I can't imagine too many players are looking to sign up for this crazy train.
I would also assume the folks in the Big Ten office are not really happy how Rutgers introduction to the Big Ten has gone. I hope all those Big Ten Network subscribers in NY/NJ are worth it. I can't recall any university being thrown out of a league, but it maybe time to start that conversation.
Don't get me wrong, (insert glass house and rock throwing analogy here) Michigan has had plenty of it's own less severe issues the last 5 years, but were not the newbie to the league trying to make a good impression.
4 comments:
https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1803505
Chris Clark is already transferring from UCLA. Any chance he'll be looking to get to A2, since he would have been much better suited in Jim's offense anyway?
I should have put that on the blog as he left the team last week. Hard to tell at this point, but him leaving UCLA after two weeks has to be a red flag.
I read somewhere that Michigan isn't looking for him, but would consider if he came calling. FWIW
He missed the end of fall camp with Mono, and probably was smacked with the reality of not seeing much playing time this year, followed by the reality that TE's don't see much playing time at all in Mora's system.
Who be thuggin'? Rutgers be thuggin'...
Post a Comment