NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Rutgers University has suspended football coach Kyle Flood for three games and fined him $50,000 for contacting a faculty member over a player’s grade.
Rutgers President Robert Barchi announced the punishment Wednesday, a day after he said he received an internal investigative report.
The report found that Flood emailed and met in person with a faculty member even though he knew or should have known of the university’s policies prohibiting coach-initiated contact with faculty members regarding students’ academic standing.
The report also found that Flood provided grammatical and minor editorial suggestions for a player’s paper to complete a course. The report said that assistance was in line with standard student support and did not constitute academic misconduct.
“I believe that the discipline is severe and justified for his failure to follow policy,” Barchi said, adding he met with Flood and that the coach accepted responsibility for his actions and the discipline.
Flood was not immediately available for comment. It not immediately known who would coach Rutgers (1-1) on Saturday at Penn State.
The only assistant who has head coaching experience is running backs coach Norries Wilson. He was the first African-American head football coach in the Ivy League with Columbia, from 2006 to 2011.
