Where is it said that anything else will be dug up?
Like it or not Flood deserves another year or two.
No, Flood does not deserve another year to be head coach of Rutgers football. And in my opinion, you're either insane or simply have near-zero expectations of head coaching competence (let alone success) to even suggest that he may deserve two more years.
In typical college football programs with actual expectations and reasonable talent levels, a head coach is given an average of three years to prove their mettle. Thanks to his relative success in first-year B1G play last year last year, Flood was generously given a fourth year to do so. Unless something drastically changes in the last four games of this season, here is what we are dealing with:
Win-Loss records: under Floods tenure we have been roughly 4-22 against winning teams (somebody can research the exact number if they wish). That would mean that of the 44 games played under his tenure to date, we will have beaten 4 winning teams and 22 losing teams. That is a whole lot of crappy wins to pad 9-4, 6-6, and 8-5 schedules.
Margin of Losing: it would be one thing if most of our games lost against good teams were played competitively with an arguably solid game plan (see: Michigan State this season). But Rutgers has looked absolutely powerless, twice getting its doors blown off by Ohio State and Wisconsin, as well as ***-kickings by Michigan State last year and Penn State this year. While in the non-P5 AAC conference, we also got blown out by Houston and UCF.
Level of talent: Schiano got a pass for his first three or four years coaching at Rutgers because the lack of football facilities and winning history left the talent cupboard all but bare. Flood inherited a team loaded with defensive talent and seniors from Schiano, and managed a 9-4 record. That team was easily good enough to win a wide open AAC conference, but sleepwalked into a loss at Pittsburgh and put themselves in a bad position to let the referees decide the Louisville game. What is his excuse for the declining level of play and seemingly regressing talent level?
Recruiting: we can argue about this one all day, but you can't have a talented football team without doing at least a decent job here. Virtually no commitments from Top 10 New Jersey kids, and a lot of two-three star kids with a small number of four-starts. Either the top talent doesnt like what the coaches are telling them, or the coaches are simply not closing.
Quarterback management: we all know what we had with Gary Nova: flashes of brilliance and carrying the team interspersed with turnover-filled performances where he should have been benched. He was the most talented QB on the roster at the time, no doubt. But there was no excuse for keeping him under center to throw seven interceptions vs. Kent State in 2012, and practically move the team backwards in the bowl game vs. Virginia Tech. Schiano may have been criticized for switching QBs too often, but at least he recognized when one of them needed a breather from their own mistakes. Now we have a quarterback "controversy", where we were told all spring and summer that Laviano and Rettig were neck-and-neck. Flood sticks with Laviano through thick and thin, even when "thin" means averaging 10 points per game in our B1G losses this season and playing the same quarterback well into garbage time when trying Rettig clearly won't change the outcome of the game for the worse anyways. In my opinion, Laviano lacks arm strength relative to Rettig and has regressed in the last two games, and yet he keeps getting trotted out there to "learn".
Running a clean, honorable program: this was up until this year, Flood's greatest strength. Now, Rutgers image as a clean, ethical football program is in tatters. Players arrested for armed robbery, assault, and domestic violence, while perhaps not directly Floods fault or in his control to directly prevent, shows a complete lack of discipline. And how the hell can your football players be ethical when you violate academic policy in the most bumbling of ways? All for a kid who was already academically ineligible from the spring, had already failed the class In question, and was subsequently arrested and dismissed from the team. This paragraph right here is where he truly lost my support, and will not be getting it back.
And I'll close with this: Flood's behavior on the sideline displays a lack of fire, competitive nature, and arguably borderline apathy. Answer this: would you be more confident in this football program with a coach like Schiano running 30 yards down the sideline to scream at the refs after a wrong USF fumble recovery ball placement, Bo Pellini winning games for Nebraska and basically telling his detractors to f' off, or a Flood standing there with a straight face and writing on a notepad during live game action? This attitude, or lack thereof, will ultimately rub off on an otherwise very dedicated fanbase if Flood is allowed to keep coaching after this year. Most of us here may ignore calls to stop buying season tickets and attending games, but apathy will manifest itself in the form of a quieter stadium devoid of raucous cheering (see: OSU) , fans who don't care about coming late/leaving early based on team performance, and even season-ticket holders having no qualms about selling out to rivals' fans for top dollar, Financially, few will donate just for the sake of sparking progress in moving Rutgers football forward, rather than just keeping the seats and parking passes they want.
Based on the aforementioned, Flood deserves nothing from this administration or fanbase. Okay, end of rant.
