New York Sports Fan Blog

Rutgers has been under fire recently due to the hiring of an alleged abusive coach

I feel a need to comment on Rutgers’ athletic department. After Mike Rice was fired (months after the tape of him throwing balls at players and using homophobic slurs first surfaced), Rutgers underwent a lot of changes, not just within the basketball department but engulfing the entire athletic department.

The AD they hired to replace this whole situation? None other than Julie Hermann, a former Tennessee women’s volleyball coach who quit 16 years ago after her entire team submitted a letter complaining of humiliation, fear, and emotional abuse. The letter was quoting as saying, “The mental cruelty that we as a team has suffered is unbearable.”

Hermann supposedly occasionally forced players to do sideline pushups midgame, and made them go without meals or showers, ruling through tyranny that left many girls struggling to find joy in a sport they previously loved. When asked about the issue, Hermann said she doesn’t recall the letter, or any of the name-calling or mistreatment of players.

Whether it’s true, rumored, blown out of proportion, or anything else, Rutgers should have known better. After the firestorm that Mike Rice ignited, the first thing you should do is extinguish the blaze, focusing on hiring an athletic department head who’s very focused on player well-being. What does it say for your school as a whole if you’re going to associate yourself with administrators and coaches who act like this?

This obviously is not a reflection of the entire university, who can proudly boast a large number of notable alumni, including actor James Gandolfini, CEOs of Motorola, GEICO, and Citigroup, along with countless mayors and members of Congress. Rutgers can brag about its philosophy, law, criminology, and top-notch business and engineering schools. This isn’t meant to be shameful slander. But I just hope Hermann has turned things around from her days at Tennessee, or we may be in for more of the same in central Jersey.

by Kevin Pulsifer
Sports Fan Blog Network

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Mohamed Sanu ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns to lead Rutgers past Louisville 34-14 on Friday.

Joe Martinek added 90 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Tom Savage threw for a score and ran for another as the Scarlet Knights (8-3, 3-3 Big East) bounced back from an ugly loss to Syracuse last week.

Adam Froman passed for 254 yards and a touchdown for Louisville (4-8, 1-6), which has posted consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1996-97.

The Scarlet Knights were held to 130 yards during the loss to the Orange, but bettered that total by the end of the first quarter against injury-depleted Louisville.


Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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Greg Schiano used words like “talented,” “incredible,” and “very fast” when describing South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels. But the Rutgers coach didn’t really get his team’s attention until he mentioned another dual-threat quarterback featuring those same attributes.

“Coach has been comparing him to the great (Michael) Vick from (Virginia) Tech,” safety Khaseem Greene said. “B.J. Daniels is a very elusive quarterback. When you watch film on him, some of the plays he makes, it’s like: “Wow, this kid has it.’ ”
The Scarlet Knights will see first-hand the player Schiano has spent the past 11 days raving about tonight (7:30, ESPN), when South Florida visits Rutgers Stadium for a pivotal Big East game.
A sellout crowd and a national TV audience will witness Rutgers (6-2, 1-2 Big East) and South Florida (6-2, 2-2) squaring off in a game both teams need to improve their bowl standing. While both need just one more win to become eligible for a bowl game, there will be even more incentive on the respective sidelines.


Click here to read the full article – By KEITH SARGEANT of courierpostonline.com

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In the immediate aftermath of Rutgers’ 28-24 victory at Connecticut, Tom Savage wasn’t quite sure if his game-winning 81-yard touchdown pass to Tim Brown with 22 seconds left actually counted as success in the two-minute drill.

One play?

“It was more like a two-second drill,” the true freshman quarterback joked.

But it does count as one. And that means that six starts into his college career, Savage has done something that Mike Teel, the most accomplished quarterback in school history, could never do.

He has rallied Rutgers to a come-from-behind victory in the final two minutes.

The closest Teel came was in 2006 when he drove Rutgers to the game-winning field goal in the epic 28-25 victory over Louisville. But that game was tied at the time the drive started.


Click here to read the full article – By Tom Luicci of The Star-Ledger

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Damaso Munoz says he can’t remember the last time he set an individual goal. But he’s going to make an exception this season.


He wants a touchdown.

There. He admitted it.

“I’m trying to get one,” he said, “just so I can get those guys to stop talking about theirs and reminding me all the time that I’m the only linebacker without one.”

“Those guys” would be Rutgers teammates and fellow starting linebackers Ryan D’Imperio and Antonio Lowery. Both have already scored a defensive touchdown off interception returns this season. A third defensive player, end George Johnson, has a touchdown as well after falling on a fumble in the end zone against Maryland.


Click here to read the full article – By Tom Luicci of nj.com

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