Rutgers Football

Rutgers has fired head football coach Chris Ash after a 1-3 start to the 2019 season, as first reported by Bruce Feldman of The Athletic.

The team confirmed the news in a statement, announcing tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile will take over as the team's acting head coach.

Ash released a statement on his firing:

"I’d like to thank Dr. Barchi and Pat Hobbbs for the opportunity to serve as Rutgers Head Football coach. Thank you to the fans and the state of New Jeresy for all of your support. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching so many outstanding young men during my time here. I loved all our players and appreciate the effort they gave everyday on and off the field."

The Scarlet Knights suffered a 52-0 loss to Michigan Saturday, the team's second shutout loss so far this season. Over their last three games, they have been outscored 112-16 with two of the losses coming against conference opponents.

Ash was in his fourth year with the program, producing just seven wins in his first three years combined. This included a 1-11 campaign in 2018, which likely put him on thin ice to begin this season.

The blowout losses to kick off 2019, with the squad ranking outside the top 100 in both points scored and points allowed per game, didn't help his prospects.

"Progress has been achieved in many areas, but, unfortunately, that progress has not been realized on the field of play," athletics director Pat Hobbs said in the statement. "As such, it is in the best interest of the program to make a change."

Ash joined the team after serving as defensive coordinator at Ohio State and could be tapped for a similar role after an unsuccessful head coaching stint.

Meanwhile, Rutgers will try to find someone who can at least replicate the success of previous head coaches Kyle Flood (27-24) or Greg Schiano (68-67).

For Rutgers, having two weeks to prepare for a game after a 30-0 loss apparently leads to a lot of pent-up energy that can come out in the most inopportune ways. 

When the Scarlet Knights got on the board in the first quarter thanks to Artur Sitkowski's 74-yard pass to Raheem Blackshear, offensive lineman Michael Maietti shared a unique moment with his quarterback:

Although one could suggest Rutgers' shutout loss to Iowa on Sept. 7 led to a lot of hard feelings and Maietti simply picked the perfect opportunity to unload, it seems a lot more likely he was just trying to pat the side of Sitkowski's helmet—if you want to be logical about it. 

In any event, Sitkowski came out of the ordeal perfectly OK.  

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are receiving some much-needed help at quarterback after an abysmal 1-11 season in 2018.

On Sunday, graduate transfer McLane Carter announced he will join the Big Ten program after playing two seasons with the Texas Tech Red Raiders:

Bobby Deren of 247Sports noted he will be one of four scholarship quarterbacks on the Rutgers roster and is expected to compete with sophomore Artur Sitkowski for the starting job.

Carter arrived at Texas Tech as a 3-star junior college transfer in the class of 2017, per 247Sports' composite rankings. He appeared in 10 different games for the Red Raiders and put up pedestrian stats at best by completing 51 of 97 passes (52.6 percent) for 677 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions while adding negative-three rushing yards.

Still, those are improvements over the totals Sitkowski posted in 2018.

The incumbent completed just 49.1 percent of his passes for 1,158 yards, four touchdowns and a stunning 18 interceptions. He threw multiple picks in five different games, including four against Maryland, three against Illinois, three against Kansas and three against Texas State. He also had negative-66 rushing yards last year.

Rutgers still has plenty of ground to make up in a Big Ten East that includes the likes of Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State, but it at least has a chance to foster some quarterback competition and perhaps improve on the aerial attack heading into the 2019 campaign.

Rutgers linebacker Izaia Bullock was arrested Tuesday on two first-degree attempted murder charges and two counts of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder after allegedly plotting to kill two "family members of an acquaintance." 

Middlesex County prosecutor Andrew Carey and Rutgers police chief Kenneth Cop announced the charges (via Joe Brandt of NJ Advance Media). Brandt reported Rutgers has removed Bullock from its football team.

Bullock, a junior, has not recorded a defensive statistic in his career at Rutgers. He is from Linden, New Jersey.

No one was injured in the plot and any motive in the case has not been made public.

Eight Rutgers football players, including linebacker Brendan DeVera and defensive back K.J. Gray, stole approximately $11,000 as part of a credit fraud scheme, according to NJ Advance Media's Keith Sargeant and Craig McCarthy.

DeVera and Gray were pegged as the "ringleaders," per Sargeant and McCarthy, and have been formally charged with second-degree credit card fraud and money laundering. They were dismissed from the program in July. 

The other players allegedly involved in the scheme include: linebacker Malik Dixon, defensive back Edwin Lopez, defensive back Naijee Jones, defensive back Kobe Marfo, linebacker Syhiem Simmons and linebacker  C.J. Onyechi. 

Each member of that group, in addition to DeVera and Gray, will reportedly be charged with conspiracy to commit credit card fraud. 

According to Sargeant and McCarthy, Simmons and Lopez have also left Rutgers with criminal proceedings ongoing. 

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team currently has "several" players under investigation for credit card fraud, according to Keith Sargeant of NJ Advance Media. 

The Rutgers University Police Department is handling the investigation, and as many as eight players may be involved. However, NJ Advance Media did not disclose the names of those involved since no charges have been filed so far.  

Defensive back K.J. Gray and linebacker Brendan DeVera were dismissed from the team on Wednesday for violating team rules. When asked if his dismissal was related to the investigation, Gray said, via Sargeant, that his lawyer advised him "to keep quiet about the situation."

Both players took to Twitter to address their departures:

Neither player has been indicated as a part of the credit card fraud investigation. 

Scarlet Knights head coach Chris Ash has yet to provide a statement on the matter.

Ash was hired by Rutgers in December 2015 and has gone 6-18 in his first two seasons on the job. After the Scarlet Knights made appearances in bowl games in nine of the 10 seasons prior to his arrival, they have failed to qualify for postseason to this point in his tenure.

Former Rutgers defensive back Johnathan Aiken died early Friday morning in a single-car accident at the age of 26, according to Keith Sargeant of NJ.com.

Per Local 10 News, the crash occurred on the interstate in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Aiken reportedly lost control of his vehicle before striking a light pole, guardrail and palm tree.

He was later pronounced dead at Broward Medical Center.

According to Sargeant, Aiken spent much of his childhood in foster care after his mother's boyfriend shot and killed her when Aiken was three years old.

The Jacksonville, Florida, native went on to spend four seasons with the Scarlet Knights. His best performance came as a senior when he appeared in 12 games and finished with 51 tackles.

Aiken also became the first Rutgers player to ever be named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week that season.

Overall, Aiken finished his collegiate career with 76 tackles and 2.0 sacks.

While Aiken never played in the NFL, he did receive a minicamp invite from the Miami Dolphins following his time at Rutgers.

Former Rutgers wide receiver Dacoven Bailey has been kicked off the football team and dismissed from the university, according to ESPN, after being one of four men accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in July in Pilot Point, Texas.

Bailey was arrested December 29th and released on a $20,000 bond, according to that report.

Desmen Crawford, Treymon Johnson and Xavier Scott were also arrested and charged with sexual assault, according to KXII.com.

"I didn't raise my son to be that way," his mother, Shileta Bailey, told KXII. "I didn't raise him to do those things but everybody gets caught up in certain situations.

"I feel like he's just being caught in a bad situation, but every situation is a learning experience and this is one that he has to learn and has to go through," she added.

She also noted that neither her or her son were aware of the incident until December.

Bailey spent two seasons with Rutgers, appearing in 23 games.

The NCAA announced Friday that Rutgers University would be placed on two-year probation beginning immediately for multiple violations over a five-year period.

Rutgers "failed to monitor its football program" the NCAA said in the official release. The governing body of college athletics noted issues included the school not ensuring its drug-testing program was in compliance and a failure to "promote an atmosphere of compliance" by former head coach Kyle Flood.

Other penalties imposed by the NCAA featured a one-year show-cause period for both Flood and former assistant Darrell Wilson as well as "public reprimand and censure" for the university.

The NCAA also accepted Rutgers' self-imposed reductions in off-campus recruiting days and official visits from recruits, a one-week prohibition on prospect contact and a $5,000 fine.

"The former head coach took a casual approach to compliance as it relates to the host program," the Division I Committee on Infractions panel said. "He exercised little, if any, oversight of the group, permitting recruiting staff to administer the program with no supervision. As the individual who had ultimate oversight of all aspects of the football program, it is implicit that the head coach was also responsible for the actions of football hosts and, ultimately, the violations they committed."

Flood took over as the Scarlet Knights' head coach in 2012 after seven years as an assistant on the program's coaching staff. He accumulated a 27-24 record across four seasons before getting fired in November 2015.

The 46-year-old New York native currently works for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons as an assistant offensive line coach.

Chris Ash took over the Rutgers football program from Flood. He guided the team to a 2-10 record during the 2016 season and a 1-2 mark so far this season.

Although the team struggled during the investigation, the Scarlet Knights' outlook improved by avoiding a bowl ban or scholarship reductions as part of the NCAA's ruling.

Rutgers students will be able to enjoy the school's football home opener versus the Washington Huskies from unique seats at High Point Solutions Stadium on September 1.

Per Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com, Rutgers plans to install a temporary pool or Jacuzzi in the student section for the university's first football game of the season. Students will have an opportunity to win access ahead of the matchup. 

According to the official website for Rutgers football, this is part of a "War Before the Shore" promotion meant to serve as an unofficial farewell to summer. Beach towels and sunglasses will be given away to set amounts of fans, and the "Block R Party" will feature a makeshift beach that includes volleyball nets, lifeguard stands and a sand sculpture. 

OddsShark.com has Rutgers is a heavy underdog, but that won't stop fans from enjoying their own version of a night on the beach. 

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