ESPN College Football

It is well documented that coaches leave the Big East -- in less than graceful ways.

But I contend that nobody left their program more in the lurch than Todd Graham at Pitt.

What he did was cold and callous, resigning after he was not given permission to interview at Arizona State last December. Refusing to open the door when Pitt officials came knocking. Sending out a goodbye text to his players, the very ones he sold on honor, loyalty, trust and commitment. Now, this does not make him different than many other head coaches, who say one thing today and are gone tomorrow.

What makes his situation different are the circumstances surrounding his departure. Yes, Greg Schiano left Rutgers in the lurch for the Tampa Bay Bucs, less than a week before signing day. But he had been at Rutgers for 11 seasons and built a successful program on his own. Maybe you overlook some of the more unsavory details about the way he left because you can appreciate what he did while in New Jersey.

Graham? He stuck around for one miserable 6-6 season. He did nothing but hurt Pitt. Because his one-year tenure left the Panthers looking for their fourth head coach in a two-year span. No other program has had to deal with that type of coaching turnover. Most importantly, no player has had to deal with that type of coaching turnover.

If college football is supposed to be about the student-athlete experience, then I cannot imagine anybody at Pitt can say they have had an unbelievable time when you consider the drama.

Dave Wannstedt recruited this group of seniors. Then he got fired after delivering a share of the Big East title. New coach Mike Haywood came along from Miami (Ohio). He was then fired after less than three weeks on the job after an arrest on domestic violence charges. In came Graham, who arrived selling high-octane football in a blue-collar Pennsylvania town. Was he all about the Pitt student-athletes?

Not if you consider billboards around the city with his face on it. Not when you consider the way he criticized his players for failing to pick up his prized system. Not when you consider the way he treated quarterback Tino Sunseri. It was always about Graham, which is why he ultimately left. The job was a mistake, he says now. His kids did not like Pittsburgh, he says now. Yet during the season, his wife proudly posted photos of herself and her kids in Pitt jerseys before games and practices.

He failed Pitt, and he failed his players, who came out on Twitter to blast him publicly for the way he left. Not one player ripped into Schiano. That shows you the big difference between the two.

Now, the Panthers players have to start over again. Sunseri has to learn his third offensive system in three years. Who can blame him for being slow to pick it up this spring? Changing playbooks once in four years is hard enough. Doing it three times in three years is almost too much to ask. Credit the Pitt players for not complaining about the lot they have been given.

They are happier to have new coach Paul Chryst, a man who at least seems to want to put roots down in Pittsburgh. He is going back to the way Pitt likes to play offense, another positive step. If hindsight is 20/20, Pitt should have just hired Chryst instead of Haywood when it had the chance. Instead, the Panthers went through an unnecessary and overly straining rigmarole.

Pitt is hoping all that is in the past. It cannot afford to have another coach leave it in the lurch yet again.

Time for a little game. Think of the most vilified college football coaches today.

Your list probably looks something like this:

Bobby Petrino.
Rich Rodriguez.
Todd Graham.
Randy Edsall.

You know what they all have in common. They all were Big East coaches at one point in time. Really great Big East coaches, to boot. But alas, great coaches never stick around for long in this league, a common lament among Big East fans. Perhaps the bigger question is -- what has made the Big East a breeding ground for villainous coaches?

Consider the recent history.

Exhibit A. Petrino got his first head coaching job at Louisville, and did one heck of a job, going 41-9 in four seasons. But the Cardinals were never just right, were they? I mean, how could they be when you 1) Try to negotiate a deal to become head coach at Auburn behind your boss' back. 2) Interview at Florida, Mississippi AND LSU the following year, while pledging love and loyalty to Louisville in between. 3) Forget loyalty and interview with the Oakland Raiders after Year 3 in Louisville. 4) Finally end the misery and leave for the Atlanta Falcons after a 12-1 season and an Orange Bowl berth.

That Atlanta dream job was not quite right either, so he left with good-bye statements taped to his players' lockers before the season even ended and headed for Arkansas. You all know how well his stint ended there.

Maybe all these aforementioned Big East coaches just hate good-byes.

Edsall left for Maryland after UConn lost the Fiesta Bowl to Oklahoma in January 2011 and never told his players word one about his plans. In fact, he did not even take the team charter home with the team. What may even be worse than that -- he made Jordan Todman get up in front of the team to explain why he was leaving early for the NFL draft. Edsall just finished a 2-10 season at Maryland in which he took a beating and lost 24 transfers. He is working hard to right the ship -- but you can bet some folks in Storrs are thinking, "Karma!"

Meanwhile at Pitt, Graham also had a tough time with good-byes at the end of last season. He told his players he was leaving via text message and hightailed it for Arizona State after a 6-6 season in which he had his players buying into an "high-octane" and "high-energy" offense. This, of course, came after he pretty much begged for the Pitt job after the Mike Haywood fiasco. But his shenanigans started at Rice, where he also had a one-year stint before leaving for Tulsa. ESPN.com columnist Mark Schlabach dubbed Graham the new president of the Liar's Club after his Pitt exit.

Rich Rod? Well, he is persona non grata in two states, West Virginia and Michigan. Who can forget the drama after he left the Mountaineers for the Wolverines in 2007, a few short months after signing a new contract and pledging his commitment to his school? West Virginia sued Rodriguez in the wake of his departure, and Michigan turned out to be an absolute disaster. It sure ain't easy being hated in as many spots as these guys.

There are others who left in less-than-ideal ways. How about Brian Kelly at Cincinnati, waiting until the end of his team banquet to announce his departure for Notre Dame? This was hours AFTER players began hearing news reports that they had lost their coach. Most recently, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano left for Tampa Bay less than a week before signing day, not even telling his loyal assistants, who were out on the road recruiting without any idea about what was happening.

His departure was tame compared to the rest. As for the others, I think they would make an excellent subject for a new television series.

"College Football Coaches Behaving Badly."

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Any time former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was asked about his embattled offensive line, he always had a stock answer prepared.

Rutgers did not decline overnight, he would say. And Rutgers would not emerge from the decline overnight, either.

Schiano used to point to several recruiting lapses following the 2007 season -- first-round pick Anthony Davis was the lone bright spot. The season after Davis' departure was the low point, as Rutgers gave up 65 sacks in 2010 and had one of the worst lines in the nation. There was a change in scheme that contributed to the slide. Plus, Rutgers always seemed to move its players all over the line.

A move back to the preferred pro-style offense last season helped the Scarlet Knights improve, though they still struggled in the run game. Schiano continued to maintain there was a long way to go, even with the development of freshman All-American Kaleb Johnson.

Through all of this, we rarely heard from the man in charge of coaching the offensive line. The man who is now head coach at Rutgers, Kyle Flood. Schiano did not make his assistants available to the media; hence, there never was much of an opportunity to hear what Flood had to say about the struggles.

So when I visited campus last month, I asked Flood for his perspective on the decline of the offensive line, considering this was the position he had coached since 2005.

"I think that happens in programs," Flood said. "Recruiting is much more of an art than it is a science. Offensive line is the position probably where the recruiting part of it is projected more than other positions, and the game is significantly different up front. What makes you effective as a high school offensive lineman doesn't always make you effective in college. But with that being said, what we do have is some really good, young offensive linemen in our program right now. A guy like Kaleb Johnson, a guy like Betim Bujari.

"We’ve also had some success with guys who have moved over from defense. One of the things that maybe kept us from being what we wanted to be was Desmond Wynn not being healthy. Desmond Wynn was healthy finally for an entire season last year. When you lose a player like that, it’s a significant loss. But I don’t think we’re the only one who’s gone through that situation where you recruit a kid and it doesn’t work out. But when you have that, and then you have an injury situation it makes it harder for sure."

Taj Alexander, a defensive tackle who switched to offensive line last season, won the most improved offensive player award this spring. He played both guard and tackle. What really hurt Rutgers was losing time with players because of injury: Johnson missed all of spring, Bujari was out for most of it with an ankle injury, and center Matt McBride missed a few practices with an injury as well.

There really is no set offensive line headed into the offseason. Guys like Dallas Hendrikson and R.J. Dill are going to be counted on to step up. And Rutgers did just sign one of its best offensive line classes in recent history as well.

"What I’m excited about is how many young offensive linemen we have," Flood said. "The key is where do they fit and we have to leave them there and let them grow. Any time you move a guy it stunts his progress a little bit.

"I’ll know more about the line in August. Right now it’s hard to gauge. To me, the biggest factor in all that is who is going to be our starting center? Is it going to be Dallas, McBride, Betim? That one is still up in the air. I’ve got a good feeling for what I think Betim can do in there. Now we have to see how everybody else does and go from there."

Whatever bond the two might have had changed right then and there on the Meadowlands turf on a cool October day in 2010.

Eric LeGrand lay there motionless. Greg Schiano stood above him, praying.

Schiano has spoken at length about how that day changed him as a man and as a coach. How it changed his relationship with LeGrand, paralyzed from the neck down after he made a tackle against Army that day. In that one devastating moment, football meant less than humanity, brotherhood, family. All the little things Schiano spoke about every day at Rutgers meant living them out in more ways than he, LeGrand and every single player on the roster could have ever imagined.

So what Schiano, who is now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach, did Wednesday morning seemed incredibly fitting, in his symbolic signing of LeGrand as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers free agent. Downright amazing, really, given the cynical times we live in today. More than ever, sports is about business. We hear it all the time. Schiano made a business decision when he left Rutgers for Tampa Bay with time ticking down to national signing day.

The future four-team playoff will be terrific for business. Branding stadiums is about business. Increasingly, bottom lines are all that matters. Fans are having a harder time finding good intentions without raising their eyebrows and wondering if there is something else going on behind the scenes.

But then a story like this comes along, and we are reminded of what we love about sports. The brotherhood, determination, hard work, perseverance, love, joy. Dreams coming true.

"Coach Schiano is like a father figure," LeGrand said on a conference call. "Going into Rutgers as a little boy and coming out a man. When you're faced with adversity, he's not going to say you back down at all. You deal with whatever it is. In life, you can't control what cards you're dealt. That's what's helped me through my whole situation. Sometimes it's hard, but I think about all the stuff I was taught at Rutgers. You fight through it. Tough times don't last. Only tough people do."

One of the biggest regrets Schiano had about moving on to Tampa Bay was leaving LeGrand behind. The two have grown incredibly close. Schiano has helped with the Believe Fund that was set up to help LeGrand. He helped get LeGrand into the radio and television booth for games to begin a sports broadcasting career. Schiano had LeGrand lead the team onto the field before the West Virginia game last year, the one-year anniversary of the injury.

Schiano also has lobbied for the elimination of kickoffs, the play that ended up changing LeGrand's life.

It is incredibly easy to see Schiano has been his biggest champion. So it is easy to see why Schiano and the Bucs decided to sign LeGrand, announcing the move on May 2 in honor of the No. 52 LeGrand wore at Rutgers. Tampa Bay has shipped a No. 52 jersey up to New Jersey for LeGrand along with a helmet.

For his part, LeGrand had no idea Schiano was going to do this. The two still talk about once a week, but Schiano never mentioned he had planned on signing him. Schiano called his mother Monday and told her his plan. She got off the phone with Schiano and merely told her son, "Coach is going to call you tomorrow. Make sure you are by your phone."

The phone rang Tuesday afternoon. LeGrand picked it up and got the news. His response: "Are you serious?"

"He said, 'It's the least we can do,'" LeGrand recalled. "[I said] 'I don't know what to say to you right now. Coach, this is amazing.' This is something I always dreamed about. Dreams do come true if you really believe. He did this out of the kindness of his heart, and he wanted to do it. I had no idea this was going to happen."

"I really appreciate it. Just shows the man he is."

Tampa Bay has done something pretty amazing.

The Bucs announced today they have signed defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, the former Rutgers player paralyzed during a game in 2010. Tampa Bay, of course is now coached by his former coach, Greg Schiano.

“Leading up to the draft, I couldn’t help but think that this should’ve been Eric’s draft class,” Schiano said in a statement. “This small gesture is the least we could do to recognize his character, spirit, and perseverance. The way Eric lives his life epitomizes what we are looking for in Buccaneer Men.”

Despite being told that he would be a quadriplegic, LeGrand persevered. Five weeks after the injury, he resumed breathing on his own. Later, he even became able to stand upright with the help of a metal frame. LeGrand is planning to graduate next fall with a degree in labor studies. He has been featured on several Rutgers television and radio broadcasts as well.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- The story of how Kyle Flood ended up at Rutgers has nothing to do with deep personal connections, or networking, or a long-standing relationship with former coach Greg Schiano.

It has everything to do with persistence, perseverance and a relentless determination to go after what you want -- the atypical way of doing business these days.

So let us go back to 2005, when the job to coach the offensive line at Rutgers opened up. Flood was at Delaware, but he always wanted to coach at Rutgers, having grown up in Queens, New York. It was as close to returning home as he could get.

So he sent his resume to Schiano.

"I don't know that Greg was looking for me," Flood recalled recently. "I had no relationship with him or anybody on that staff . It was a situation where I did everything I could to see if I could get my resume on his desk. The one on the top of the pile must have fallen off the desk, and he called me."

Flood had recruited the area for years, so he had long-standing relationships with high school coaches in the area. Could that have helped? "I may have had one or two or 300 people call him on my behalf," Flood joked.

Now here we are, seven short years later, and Flood is the new face of the Rutgers program. That doggedness should not be lost on anybody who is wondering how the Scarlet Knights will fare now that the chief architect of the Rutgers revival is off to Tampa Bay.

Flood has been preparing for this job since he arrived, believing that one day his opportunity would come. It just so happened that day arrived in January amid a pressing need to get a hire in place to save a recruiting class and steady the ship. Flood sold athletic director Tim Pernetti the same way he sold Schiano all those years ago.

He was the right man for the job. The only man for the job. He had the recruiting ties, the Northeast roots. His parents still live in the same home he grew up in, and his father has already been a fixture during spring practice. His mother is a huge football fan, and checks the Internet and message boards daily to track what everybody is saying about Rutgers and Flood.

There is no question he wanted this job, and wanted it badly. But the big question is how do you prepare for your first head coaching job when you have spent your entire career as an assistant?

"Bill Walsh said, 'You’re never ready for your first head coaching job," Flood said. "Well if Bill Walsh felt like that -- he is one of the great football minds of all time -- certainly if I have a moment of angst, I’m not the only head football coach to have one. What I go to bed every night feeling good about is, we have good people in this program. The assistant coaches I’ve been able to bring here are good family men, they’re good football coaches. On defense, we have three assistants who have been coordinators, two on the Division I level. On offense, three of the coaches have been Division I BCS offensive coordinators. We have the football minds here.

"If you trust the people you hire, that allows you to feel really good when you come to the office. You have to hire people who can do their job."

In that way, Flood and Schiano may be different. Flood has delegated much more to his assistants, particularly at practice. He does not yell the way Schiano did. But if there are going to be difference between them, there are not going to be many. Particularly when you consider the two worked together for so long.

Flood took diligent notes as he watched Schiano. He has got file folders filled with those notes, referring to them nearly every day.

"I tried to stay very close to Greg," Flood said. "I would ask him questions in private a lot of times: 'Hey, tell me why you did this or tell me where you think this is going,' and I got some great feedback. I just kept files and notes on things. Everything from the organization to spring practice and training camp to here’s what you need to talk to these players about."

He did the same at stops in Delaware and Hofstra, giving him plenty of information to work with as he continues to settle in to the job. From a player perspective, there has not been much of a transition. The offensive, defensive and special teams schemes have remained the same.

"The biggest thing we appreciate is he didn't change," quarterback Gary Nova said. "He's been the same guy. We really love him, and we're looking forward to him taking us to where we want to go."

Developing those relationships with players is one of the biggest reasons Flood got into coaching. Right out of college, his dream job was to be a high school teacher. So he did that, teaching algebra and algebra II at his old high school. He eventually took a part-time coaching job at C.W. Post on Long Island, juggling his teaching responsibilities during the day before heading to practice in the afternoon.

"As a young person, you get curious," he said. "I was 26, and I wondered, 'Can I do this? Can I advance in this profession?'"

He had an opportunity to take a job as an assistant at Hofstra. Now here he is, all those years later.

Flood advanced in this profession all right. All the way to the top.

If Greg Schiano had stuck around at Rutgers, no doubt he would be applauding the latest NCAA rule change to kickoffs -- even though it doesn't go as far as his own proposal.

The NCAA playing rules oversight panel approved a significant change to kickoffs last week -- they will move from the 30 to the 35 yard-line in an attempt to keep players safer. In addition, a touchback on a kickoff means the ball will be placed on the 25 yard-line, instead of the 20. In addition, players on the kicking team will only be allowed a running start of 5 yards.

The desired result is for more touchbacks. The reason? It is believed that kickoffs cause the most injuries throughout the course of a game. Last summer, Schiano proposed eliminating kickoffs all together after watching one of his own players, Eric LeGrand, suffer a serious neck injury on a kickoff during a game against Army in 2010. LeGrand is paralyzed from the waist down.

At the time, Schiano made headlines when he first told Steve Politi of the Newark Star-Ledger that he felt all kickoffs should be replaced with a punting situation. “I don’t think we’d lose that much,” Schiano said, “and we’d gain a bunch for the welfare of the players.”

The NFL moved its kickoffs up to the 35 yard-line for the 2011 season in an effort to lessen injuries. Schiano told Politi, "I think we’re wrong in college football. We should at the least do what the NFL is doing -- at the least. For us not to follow the league with the most research on anything? I don’t think we’re being as responsible as we should be. They wanted the fan excitement. But at what cost?"

After Schiano made his comments, Georgia coach Mark Richt stated that he, too, would be in favor of eliminating kickoffs. Richt also saw one of his players break his neck on a kickoff in 2003.

That idea proved to be radical for many. But if these rule changes work as intended, kickoffs might very well go the way of leather helmets and $5 tickets.

Plenty can happen in a month. Just ask Rutgers. So with that, we are taking another stab at our way-too-early 2012 power rankings. These are subject to change after spring practice and again before the season starts, but it's never too early to let the debate begin.

Only one change since the first version after the national championship game -- I swapped Louisville and Rutgers.

1. West Virginia:* Every day it seems more apparent that the Mountaineers will do whatever it takes to get into the Big 12 for the 2012 season. But if they are held up in the Big East, they'll be the consensus preseason pick to win the league.

2. Louisville: I moved the Cardinals up from No. 3 to No. 2 based primarily on the upheaval with the Scarlet Knights. As you have seen me say already many times, I think Louisville and Rutgers will be the top two contenders to win the Big East if West Virginia leaves.

3. Rutgers: I still think the Scarlet Knights have an excellent shot to contend for a title, but now there is more uncertainty surrounding this team than there was in January with former coach Greg Schiano gone. I think Kyle Flood can keep the train going, but there are still questions at quarterback and about who will run the defense -- and whether he will be as good as Schiano was in 2011.

4. Cincinnati: I know Bearcats fans continue to harp on the "keep doubting us" mantra, but there is no denying this team is losing a good chunk of its starters and will be one of the least experienced teams in all of college football next season. There is talent, but how does everybody come together?

5. South Florida: The Bulls will have one of the most experienced teams in college football. This should be the year they seriously contend for a Big East title because of all the players coming back. Plus, they made some good junior college pickups and signed several players who can contribute immediately. But they have to show me something before I start bragging about them.

6. Pittsburgh: There are many question marks, even with a terrific signing class. Who is going to be quarterback? Will the offensive line be better? How will the young defense do? How does Ray Graham look in his return from a major knee injury? How will a first-year coach do? The Panthers will be very interesting to watch during the spring and fall.

7. Connecticut: Of all the teams in the league, I think the Huskies have the potential to surprise. They should be better on defense; they get D.J. Shoemate back; and they have signed the best player in Connecticut at quarterback. But relying on a true freshman is always a mixed bag. I will watch this team closely to see how it does in Year 2 under Paul Pasqualoni.

8. Syracuse: The Orange ended on the bottom at 2011, so they start at the bottom for 2012. You will remember I did that with Rutgers and was dead wrong. But this team has many more questions -- receiving depth looks thin; how will the running back rotation go; who steps up in the secondary and defensive line? I want to see those questions answered in the spring and fall.

The speculation began as soon as the vacancies hit.

What would happen to the recruiting classes at Pitt and Rutgers after their head coaches surprisingly bolted? Both schools had amassed quite a bit of four-star talent under Todd Graham and Greg Schiano. It would take a herculean effort to retain everybody in the fold, many pundits said.

Well, consider Paul Chryst and Kyle Flood the Goliaths of the Big East. The two first-year coaches delivered top notch classes on signing day Wednesday, retaining every four-star player who committed under their predecessors while also picking up a few more stellar players along the way.

Rutgers finished in the ESPN Recruiting Nation Top 25, at No. 24 with Flood leading the way. Both the Scarlet Knights and Pitt earned B-minus grades from the ESPN recruiting experts -- the highest grades given out to any Big East team. Stop and consider that first-year coach Rich Rodriguez at Arizona got a C for his class, and Graham got a C-plus for his class at Arizona State.

"There's a group of guys, Pitt was the place for them," Chryst said. "They wanted to be here. They've got a unique bond because of sticking together and going through what they went through. Recruiting is about finding the right fit and they believe that Pitt is the best fit for them. It's exciting. It gives me encouragement that [Pitt] stands on its own."

Just how rare is it for first-year coaches to do well? Aside from Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Flood was the only new coach to have a Top 25 class. And he did it in an incredibly compressed time frame, something that deserves a standing ovation. Schiano left six days before signing day. Flood was named interim head coach and went to work holding his class together. He assured recruits he would be the next head coach at Rutgers, and that gave them a sense of relief.

Flood was hired Monday and formally introduced as Schiano's successor on Tuesday afternoon. Later that night, Rutgers picked up its best commitment of the class -- ESPNU150 defensive end Darius Hamilton, the No. 1 player in the state of New Jersey. Flood lost one committed player to Boston College, but that was minimal when you consider he added one of the best players in the nation.

Rutgers ended up with six four-star players -- double what it got last year.

“It has been a great testament to what I have always believed about recruiting and I think sometimes this gets distorted," Flood said. "If you recruit good people and you deal with them honestly, you can get through any situation. That was what we were able to do with this recruiting class, because at every stage of events from Friday to Monday to Wednesday we were completely open, completely honest and one of the best things that we did was bring (athletic director) Tim Pernetti on the road with us as an assistant coach to show them that.

"We didn’t hide anything. When I said that night that I fully expected to be the head coach at Rutgers they believed me and they stayed with us. When that came true on Monday it just gave more credit to that way of dealing with people. I think if you deal with people like that in recruiting you have a chance to get through anything.”

As for Pitt, Chryst had a much larger time frame with which to work. He was hired in late December, and almost immediately the big-name commitments who gave their word to Graham came out and re-affirmed their pledge to the Panthers. None was bigger than seeing four-star quarterback Chad Voytik and ESPNU150 running back Rushel Shell say they still wanted to go to Pitt.

Chryst did lose several three-star players who had committed under Graham, but he also picked up a huge signature on signing day from four-star linebacker Deaysean Rippy, the No. 12 player in the state of Pennsylvania. That gave Pitt five four-star players in its class. Last year, the Panthers had one.

There is nothing bold and nothing daring about this new era for Rutgers football.

But Rutgers did not need bold and daring. It needed a seamless transition from Greg Schiano. It needed a man who did not have to start over. A man who did not have to win over players or an administration. A man who has an understanding of what it takes to own the tri-state area in recruiting. A man who will never sacrifice the core values of the program.

It needed Kyle Flood.

Say what you will about the roundabout way Rutgers hired him. Or that he appears to be the second choice. Or that money played a hand in this decision. Is it a reflection on Rutgers that FIU coach Mario Cristobal elected to stay in the Sun Belt? No more than it is a reflection on Pitt, which also struck out in its efforts to land him.

When you consider how quickly Rutgers needed to get a head coach in place, and the terrible bind Schiano put the program in, there really was only one option for athletic director Tim Pernetti -- the safe option.

So Flood has never been a head coach? Schiano had never been a head coach when he remade this program 11 years ago. Dana Holgorsen was never a head coach when he took over West Virginia this past year. The winningest coach in Rutgers history was never a head coach until he was promoted to the position in 1973. Head coaching experience can be vastly overrated sometimes.

Having said all that, the task that is in front of Flood is not an easy one. There are many coaches who believe it is much easier to build a program than it is to win championships year after year. Flood does not have to rebuild. He cannot maintain. Rather, he has to take a step that Schiano never did. He has to win a championship.

When specifically asked what he has to do to get Rutgers that elusive and first Big East title, Flood demurred.

"I don't think it's Kyle Flood as opposed to Greg Schiano," he said. "I think the time is right for Rutgers to win championships."

The program is positioned to do so, and should be one of the favorites to win the Big East in 2012 with a stellar core of players returning. Anything less than being in contention for a title would be considered a disappointment in Year 1. So already, expectations on Flood will be greater than anything Schiano experienced his first five years as head coach.

There also is an expectation that many of the coaches on staff will remain. But first and foremost on Flood's list has got to be hiring a defensive coordinator to elevate an already terrific group that finished first in the league in total defense.

It was Schiano that was the architect of that unit in 2010, resuming his old, familiar role of defensive coordinator. Co-Big East Defensive Player of the Year Khaseem Greene returns, along with seven starters. Flood should be most familiar with offense, so he must know the importance of settling on a quarterback. He cannot afford to have a twitchy finger the way Schiano did, not with where the program is positioned today.

Flood promised that he will not change for the sake of changing. The philosophy on offense, defense and special teams will remain the same. He seems truly grateful for the opportunity, choking up at one point when thanking his wife and children. He mentioned that Schiano has been one of his biggest coaching influences. Players have come out with their full support.

There is no doubt Flood has plenty going for him. It is not a knock to say he is the safe choice. Ultimately, though, he and Pernetti will be judged on much more.

Right after Greg Schiano stepped down as Rutgers coach last week, there was a mild panic about the future. With less than a week before signing day, how would athletic director Tim Pernetti manage the crisis?

He assured everybody it was doable to hire his next coach before signing day rolled around. Pernetti delivered on that promise Tuesday, though the man he hired may not have been No. 1 on his list.

Rutgers removed the interim label from coach Kyle Flood, naming him head coach with one day to go before signing day. It appears Rutgers has kept most of its stellar class intact, and the move should play well with in-state recruits and players on the team. But it was not the tidiest of coaching searches.

Pernetti reportedly had been in contract negotiations to hire FIU coach Mario Cristobal before the deal fell apart Monday afternoon and Cristobal decided to stay in Miami. That is when Pernetti quickly turned to Flood, who has served as offensive line coach at Rutgers for the past seven years. He has ties to the tri-state area for recruiting, is well liked and may even keep most of the coaching staff. The only thing missing from his resume is head coaching experience.

That hasn't stopped coaches before him from being successful (ahem, Schiano). And he has been a part of several programs that have had success. In 16 of his 17 seasons as an assistant, his teams have finished with winning records, including a national championship at Delaware.

The last time Rutgers promoted an assistant coach on staff to head coach was in 1973, when Frank Burns replaced John Bateman. Burns became the winningest coach in school history.

Rutgers has decided to hire interim head coach Kyle Flood, The Associated Press has reported.

Flood, the offensive line coach the last seven seasons, replaces Greg Schiano. He interviewed for the job this weekend and was one of two finalists. The other, FIU coach Mario Cristobal, reportedly pulled out of contract negotiations on Monday.

The move should help Rutgers keep its recruiting class intact and some continuity in the program.

Floyd was appointed interim head coach when Schiano left for the Tampa Bay Bucs last week. Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti said of that decision: "A lot of the reason that we are moving Kyle into that position is that he has been here a long time. He has great relationships with the players. He has great relationships with recruiting. Already, we’ve had some impromptu meetings, he has embraced it. He’s excited to do it. The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I’m going to get the staff together and we’re going to figure out how to get this class in here.’ So far, so good. Kyle has been around here a long time and it was just an obvious choice."

The search for the new Rutgers coach continues.

Multiple outlets have reported that Mario Cristobal will stay at FIU. Earlier in the day, it was reported that Cristobal was in negotiations to replace Greg Schiano at Rutgers.

Interim head coach Kyle Flood interviewed this week and remains a viable candidate for the Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers is in talks with FIU coach Mario Cristobal to become its next coach, ESPN's Joe Schad confirmed Monday.

The New Jersey Press Media and Newark Star-Ledger also reported that Cristobal will replace Greg Schiano, who resigned to take over the Tampa Bay Bucs job last week.

Cristobal's name came up immediately when Schiano left. He is a young up-and-coming coach who previously worked at Rutgers under Schiano. Just like Schiano, he did a masterful job building FIU, taking the young FBS program to back-to-back bowl games for the first time in its history.

Outgoing Rutgers coach Greg Schiano owes the school $800,000 in buyout and loan payments, according to Bloomberg News.

His contract calls for a $500,000 buyout, and there is $300,000 remaining on a home loan that also was arranged through his contract.

Schiano was officially introduced as the new coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs on Friday. He reportedly signed a five-year deal worth around $15 million.