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!

Jordan Thomas, Rutgers' leading rusher for the 2010 season, who had switched to defensive back last year, is transferring to SUNY Binghamton to run track. This is according to a tweet from Jason Baum, RU Associate AD Communications. Thomas was also a key contributor on special teams, returning 16 kickoffs last year. Thomas ran and played hard during his time at RU. A true speedster, I'm sure he'll do well upstate. Good luck to you, Jordan.

Scarletknights.com has posted a press release  announcing that Rutgers football will be heading to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the Razorbacks on September 22. Next year, Arkansas will head north to visit Rutgers on September 21, 2013. It's exciting to see that some more big-time competition will be heading to the banks, and you have to commend the ADs for both schools for putting this match-up together on such short notice. One of the things that hurts the Big East schools each year is a lack of top-flight competition in the out-of-conference schedules. This is a step in the right direction. Ideally, I'd like to see RU take on an ACC, Big Ten, and SEC opponent each year and a Pac-10 opponent every couple of years. Beating some of those schools is the only way to put the reconfigured Big East in the same conversation with the more high profile football conferences.

Scarletknights.com  has posted an official press release  confirming the hire of six of the rumored coaches. Follow the link for mini bios on the six coaches. On the offensive side: Dave Brock will serve as the Offensive Coordinator and Receivers coach. Darnell Dinkins will serve as tight ends coach Ben Sirmans will coach running backs Rob Spence will coach quarterbacks Damian Wroblewski will coach the offensive line For the defense, Dave Cohen will coach linebackers. In addition three other coaches have been elevated to new positions: Robb Smith will become Defensive Coordinator Phil Galiano is now the Special Teams Coordinator Jeremy Cole has been lifted to strength and conditioning coach, pun intended. Good luck to all of the new coaches and those in new assignments!

Soaring to Glory ,  a Boston College sports blog, had reported that their defensive line coach, Jeff Commissiong is leaving BC to take the same position at Rutgers. But since then that story has been retracted by many news outlets. Commissiong has also previously coached at Maine and Harvard, after having played is college ball at Maine. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Kyle Flood is till one coach short, and will announce the new coach in the next few days.

I enjoyed this article from Keith Sargeant  regarding Patrick Kivlehan's move from the football field to the baseball diamond. I'm always impressed with athletes who have the ability to play multiple sports in the same year and the dedication to make a transition like that happen. Good luck, Patrick.

The University of Memphis is coming to the Big East for all sports starting in 2013. Obviously, conference basketball fans are excited about adding this national power after the loss of Syracuse. But I believe this will be a boon to the football schools of the conference as well. It's true that Memphis's football team has fallen on some tough times the past few years. But it wasn't long ago that DeAngelo Williams was burning up the field out there, guiding the team to bowl appearances. From the Rutgers standpoint, I like the idea of having a team in the conference from Tennessee. The state of Tennessee has been a recruiting hotbed forever, and it may give Rutgers and other Big East schools the opportunity to go after a Tennessee kid or two, especially to fill a need. Plus, Memphis BBQ is the best imho, and all the RU players should get to experience it at away games! It seems the defection of West Virginia to the Big 12, and its ability to reach a $20 million settlem...