Rutgers Names Kyle Flood Next Full-Time Head Coach

With National Signing Day now less than one day away, Flood’s task remains pretty much the same thing it has been for the past week: trying to keep Darius Hamilton and others from evacuating one of the program’s best classes ever.

Flood has been on the Rutgers staff for the past seven years. This is his first head coaching job, though he’s also held coordinator duties before.

Flood talked to the Newark Star-Ledger at the Rutgers-Cincinnati basketball game that night to talk about it, and he sounded pretty confident.

Flood is battling four other candidates for the Rutgers job, according to the Star-Ledger, in with Temple coach Steve Addazio, FIU coach Mario Cristobal and Giants offensive line coach Pat Flaherty among them.

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Actually, looks like Rutgers fans aren’t freaking out at all. On the Banks has a lengthy list of relevant potential coaching candidates, from Mario Cristobal (yes please!) to Tim Brewster (no thank you!), and all appears to be composed.

It’s also worthwhile to revisit the 2000 coaching search that turned up Schiano in the first place, when he took over the dilapidated Knights program against Joe Paterno’s advice.

Schiano is tasked with turning around a franchise that is coming off a 4-12 season that got previous coach Raheem Morris fired after three years. That season, as well as Morris’ first in which the team went 3-13, have forced Bucs fans to relive a period of their history they probably hoped was well past them. Prior to Tony Dungy leading to the Bucs to 10-6 record in 1997, the franchise had enjoyed just two winning seasons in the first 21 years of existence. The Bucs went on to win at least nine games in eight of the next 12 seasons, and also won their only Super Bowl.

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The move doesn’t preclude the school naming another head coach, but with signing day less than a week away, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Flood remain in charge for the entire 2012 season. Rutgers has some tough choices to make in the coming days, though it’s hard to imagine they hadn’t already worked up a list of candidates back during Schiano’s various appearances in earlier coaching rumors.

For more on the Scarlet Knights, visit Rutgers blog On the Banks, Big East Coast Bias and SB Nation New York. For more on Tampa Bay, head to Buccaneers blog Bucs Nation and SB Nation Tampa Bay.

For more on the Scarlet Knights, visit Rutgers blog On the Banks, Big East Coast Bias and SB Nation New York. For more on Tampa Bay, head to Buccaneers blog Bucs Nation and SB Nation Tampa Bay.

Schiano’s deal with the Bucs will be for five years, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The two sides spoke early on in the process and the Glazer family, who owns the Bucs, did a lot of research on Schiano as a potential NFL candidate talking to people around the league, including Bill Belichick, who spoke highly of Schiano.

Schiano is coming from the college ranks, which might be a good thing considering the Bucs are one of the youngest teams in the league. He takes over a team with a lot of unrealized talent and a quarterback situation that needs to continue to improve.