The Knights Watchman

Scarletknights.com  has posted the official press release  naming making it official that Kyle Flood has hired Jim Panagos to coach the defensive line. With Panagos's hiring, the football staff is complete. Aside from his impressive credentials, Panagos is a native of East Islip, New York, and has multiple ties to the NJ/NY area. Welcome and congratulations Coach Panagos!

Various news outlets are reporting that Dave Brock, most recently the interim offensive coordinator at Boston College, will be named Rutgers new offensive coordinator. Click on the post heading to read Tom Luicci's Star-Ledger article about the hire. Brock has coached with Kyle Flood while both were at Hofstra, and it's encouraging that Brock is a New Jersey guy. Just as important, the list of players he has coached is impressive. Frank Cignetti, meanwhile, seems to have landed in St. Louis as the Rams quarterbacks coach. According to Fox Sports' Alex Marvez , recent Rutgers coaches Bob Fraser, Brian Angelichio, and Jeff Hafley are all joining Schiano and Fleck in Tampa Bay. I'm somewhat sorry to see Cignetti and Hafley go because their names came up so often when I read recruiting articles as having been singled out by players as the coach instrumental in recruiting them. But I figure at least all of these coaches are leaving for a pro team rather than heading to...

I am unofficially knighting Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti for the way he has handled the Rutgers head football coaching search, the sensitivity of losing a coach so close to signing day, and for reminding the press and the Rutgers faithful what it means to be a Scarlet Knight. The thing that struck me the most about Pernetti's words during the press conference announcing the hiring of head coach Kyle Flood was that he emphasized that at Rutgers "we don't win at all costs." Pernetti wanted to ensure that his hire would be a man of character who would continue to keep Rutgers football ranked at the top of nation's student athletes while still maintaining a level of success on the field. By going the extra mile and getting certified as an assistant coach to aid in recruiting he proved how meaningful it is to have a Rutgers man and former student-athlete as the AD rather than an outsider. Thank you for doing things the right way.

The time of the Flood, Kyle Flood, is the dawning of a new era for Rutgers football. As such, it seemed appropriate for it to be the dawn of a new day for this blog. First off, congratulations to Coach Flood on being named head coach of the oldest program in BCS football after 19 long, hard years as an RU assistant. When Greg Schiano shocked the Rutgers faithful and left for Tampa Bay, at first it seemed to me to be almost a panic measure for AD Tim Pernetti to install Flood as the interim head coach rather than simply leaving the position vacant until naming a permanent replacement. But it made sense to me from the perspective of him already being the Assistant Head Coach, who else would you name, especially at such a delicate time in the recruiting process. As the days went on, more and more current and former Rutgers players, prospective recruits, and local big-name high school coaches essentially vouched for Kyle Flood. It's like the old Elvis album title 100,000,000 Elvis F...

There's actually been a considerable amount of news this week coming out of the Sonny Werbelin rec center at good ole Rutgers. First, Greg Schiano addressed some of the holes on his staff. Bob Fraser and Ed Pinkham have been named co-defensive coordinators, while Kiar Ciarocca and Kyle Flood were named co-offensive coordinators. As far as the de-co spot goes, I'm happy that Schiano feels that he is in a good enough place to relinquish the coordinator duties. It will give him more time to focus on other aspects of a continuously expanding program, as well as give him the opportunity to focus more on the task at hand during possession changes and things of that nature. Having two offensive coordinators is a little strange, but can work if both guys have fully bought into Schiano's philosophy, which to me seems to be to have a varied offensive attack to get the lead and then run out the clock to keep the lead. So, it could be as simple has having Coach Ciarocca call the passes...