Michael Larrow Kicked Off Team, Three Others Transfer

Now that the spring semester is over with, we will begin to see some turn over on the roster. That process began Monday, when it was announced that four Scarlet Knights are no longer with the program.

Tight end Michael Larrow has been thrown off the team for disciplinary reasons. The would be senior was arrested last summer and subsequently suspend for the first four games of the 2012 season. He seemingly spent the rest of the season in the dog house after returning to the team, and he must have had another incident that triggered his dismissal on May 6. Larrow flashed talent at defensive end early in his career, but he had problems staying healthy and staying out of trouble. He was arrested again this weekend, so hopefully he uses this as a wake up call and can get his life together.

Back up center Matt McBride is no longer with the team, and he will either transfer to an FCS program or call it a career. McBride, who came to Rutgers after Hofstra folded their football program, missed all of spring practice while recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. He received some playing time last year when Betim Bujari was injured, and he leaves Rutgers with a degree.

Offensive tackle Jorge Vicioso has decided to transfer, and his future destination will be either Wagner or Stony Brook. The junior has not seen the field at Rutgers and he will pursue an opportunity to receive playing time.

Punter Anthony DiPaula has also left the team. He was a rare kicker on scholarship, and he was never able to take advantage of the opportunities he was given to earn playing time, causing Rutgers to take on a number of transfer punters.

With these departures, Rutgers now has 84 players on scholarship, including the incoming freshman, according to my unofficial count. That figure is one under the limit.

Could Rutgers Land Jabrill Peppers?

On Sunday night, Jabrill Peppers -- who is arguably the top 2014 recruit in the entire country -- will make his collegiate decision on ESPNU. Peppers has been on recruiting radars since he was a freshman at Don Bosco, and he is probably the best player New Jersey has seen in a generation. The Paramus Catholic star running back/defensive back will decide between his six finalists: Michigan, Notre Dame, Stanford, LSU, Penn State, and Rutgers, just over eight months before he can officially sign with a school. 

Quite honestly, I'm very surprised he has Rutgers listed as one of his finalists. I have never, going back a few years, thought they had any real chance of landing him, and when Greg Schiano left for the NFL, it was a death kneel to any of the slim hopes I might have had. Peppers has often been portrayed as one of those New Jersey guys who looks down upon Rutgers, and with offers from virtually everywhere, he seemed dead set on leaving the state and as good as gone.

As a sophomore, Peppers had his eyes on LSU, and as a junior, Stanford emerged as his clear favorite. When he announced his top five over the winter, the list included the Tigers and Cardinal, as well as Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame, but not the Scarlet Knights. Not long after releasing his short list, Penn State emerged as one of his favorites after he visited the school and left with a very positive impression, and Michigan appeared to take over the pole position in this race after he visited Ann Arbor last month. Things looked as bleak as possible for the Scarlet Knights' hopes of landing Peppers, but in the last few weeks, the tide has seemingly turned.

It all started when NJ.com's Todderick Hunt spoke with Peppers about Rutgers at an event last month. Peppers told Hunt "I am always going show my state school some love. They [Rutgers] are definitely still in the mix. I don't know why everyone thinks I've counted them out. But they are definitely a school that I'm still considering." At the time, I just assumed he was just blowing smoke up our asses, but things did not stop there. Peppers released a revised top six a week ago, and somewhat reaffirmed his interest in Rutgers by naming them a finalist. Still, it just seemed to me like he was playing games with everyone and had no legitimate interest in the school. The fact that he lives in state and has not visited the school since attending a camp last summer, despite the fact that two of his friends and former teammates (Darius Hamilton and Leonte Carroo) play for the Knights, seemed to back up my belief. But things have kept getting weirder and weirder.

Peppers was scheduled to take a second visit to Happy Valley last Saturday, but it has been rumored that he did not make the trip. And in a recent interview with NorthJersey.com, Peppers stated he was going to take one last visit -- at some point this upcoming week -- that would "shock people." Considering his busy schedule this week with school, a track meet on Friday and Saturday and his decision on Sunday, it's pretty clear that he is making a local trip, and obviously that means it's almost certainly to Rutgers. With Kyle Flood calling off his trip to ESPN on Thursday at the last minute, it's not too hard to envision that he made this visit yesterday.

Hunt has reached out to his contacts "in the know", and they did not refute the rumors that Peppers is visiting Rutgers. Hunt also said a potential visit would be a win in and of its self and landing him is highly dependent on him stepping foot on campus. Based on how his previous visits have gone, Rutgers chances with Peppers probably soared if he ended up making his way to Piscataway. For what it's worth, his normally very active Twitter account was largely silent yesterday.

There are a few wild cards in play that can help Rutgers here. One is that Peppers may want to stay close to his dad, who is scheduled to be released from jail this summer after serving a 10 year sentence. He has missed a lot of Jabrill's life, but they have remained in contact with each other and may want to make up for lost time. A second factor is Peppers desire to pursue a career in rap, and staying close to New York is probably the best thing he can do for his music aspirations. The third thing, which I truly believe is an ace up Kyle Flood's sleeve that most people seem to be forgetting, is the relationship Peppers has with Rutgers' tight ends coach Anthony Campanile, who is recruiting him. Campanile was a coach at Don Bosco during Peppers' two seasons there, and they supposedly formed a very strong bond.

Paramus Catholic head coach Chris Partridge says that Peppers is still undecided, although other indications are that he is still leaning heavily towards Michigan. I am still like, 75% sure he is going to pick the Wolverines, but that figure is down from the 99.9% it was a week ago. Whether he has made up his mind or not, Michigan and Rutgers are the only two schools I could see him realistically commit to. He has never made a trip out west to Stanford, and if he was still interested in Penn State, why would he cancel his visit? I suppose he could choose Notre Dame or LSU, but there haven't been any rumors about him picking either of them of late. I do not think Rutgers will be able to seal the deal with Peppers, but the chances of it are much greater than I expected even a week ago. And if he doesn't choose Rutgers, there's still plenty of time to change his mind.

Big 10 Releases 2014Schedule

The Big 10 released their 2014 football schedule last Thursday, and it is quite exciting to get a look at who Rutgers plays in their inaugural season in the conference, even though it's still over a year away from now. The Scarlet Knights will host Penn State (9/16), Michigan (10/4), Wisconsin (11/1) and Indiana (11/15) and travel to Ohio State (10/18), Nebraska (10/25), Michigan State (11/22), and Maryland (11/29) for their eight game 2014 conference slate.

I am really glad that Rutgers will play their first Big 10 game against Penn State at home. They are the opponent I wanted for this game. They are one of the marquee teams in the conference and a regional rival, and that should lead to an exciting build up to the game. I know most Scarlet Knight fans have plenty of ill feelings towards the Nittany Lions as well, and it will be cool to finally play them with a non-terrible team and maybe get some revenge for all the years they ran up the score on us. The date for this game is kept in place from the series the two schools scheduled before Rutgers joined the Big 10, and it's two weeks before anybody else opens Big 10 play.

(Poor Maryland drew Indiana in their conference opener.)

In October, Big 10 play really heats up for Rutgers, and they will face a trial by fire. They host Michigan on the first weekend of the month, and then make their first conference road trip following a bye week to The Horse Shoe in Columbus. That game will be played in front of 100,000 fans against what should be a highly ranked Buckeye team. They visit Nebraska after that, and then host Wisconsin. The Badgers and the Huskers are the two cross divisional foes Rutgers will face, and that is....rough. Rutgers is already in the Big Boy division of the Big 10, and they will play what are probably the two best teams in the west by a significant margin on top of that.

After another bye, things wind down a little bit, and the Knights will visit the Spartans in East Lansing, take on Indiana at home, and travel to Maryland. The Maryland game will finish off the regular season, meaning the Terrapins have probably been designated as the Scarlet Knights' "rival." The Big 10 season always ends with this "rivalry" game, so expect this game to take place at the end of every season. Hopefully everyone just lets this series play out with out forcing it as a serious rivalry, unlike Penn State and Michigan State's bogus "Land Grant Series" that neither fan base particularly cares about more than any other regular season game and has this stupid/God Ugly trophy. (Penn State and Michigan State's rivalry only exists because they were the only two non original members of the conference from 1993-2010.)

With the release of the 2014 schedule, it finally feels real that Rutgers is going to be joining the Big 10. Because of how the schedule is laid out, Rutgers will have either Michigan or Ohio State anchoring their home slate every year, and have a close road trip at either Penn State or Maryland every year. This is finally some much needed good news after the brutal last six weeks the athletic department endured.

Big 10 Divisions

With Rutgers and Maryland set to join the conference in the 2014, the Big 10 has officially announced the divisional format it will use beginning that season. The conference has elected to go with an East-West layout (Option number two of the three choices they proposed in December) and Rutgers will obviously make their home in the East. Accompanying them in the Eastern Division are Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Penn State, while Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin occupy the Western division. It is a true geographical split, and all the teams in the east are in the eastern time zone, and all the teams in the west are in the central time zone, with the lone exception being Purdue.

It's certainly exciting seeing Rutgers in the same division as those other great programs, but this division option was probably the worst case scenario of the three proposed options for Rutgers. The East-West division structure is extremely unbalanced competitively, and Rutgers is in the tougher division. When the Big 10 originally separated the conference into divisions when Nebraska joined in 2011, they made sure to split the traditional powers (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska) and the emerging powers (Wisconsin and Michigan State) up evenly, but this time that was apparently not an issue, since four of those six teams are now in the east division.

Things are going to be very tough for Rutgers, but it might not be as tough as it seems. The only two of these programs who should definitively be better that Rutgers are Ohio State and Michigan. The Buckeyes have of course been a national power for a while, save for the post tattoo-gate disaster of 2011, and they are only going to get scarier under the direction of Urban Meyer. The Wolverines have fallen on some hard times recently, but Brady Hoke has them back on track, and they look poised to become a powerhouse program again.

Penn State would have fit in the same group as those two a few years ago, but they are facing an uphill battle to stave off their downfall, as they deal with their extreme scholarship restrictions and a bowl ban. Additionally, NFL teams are probably going to keep coming after Bill O'Brien, and if he leaves, will anyone want this job with the all of those factors working against them? Michigan State briefly rose to the top tier of the conference, but I'm not sure if they can keep it up. Their rise coincided with Michigan's down fall, and they will have a tough time maintaining the uptick they saw in recruiting, due to Michigan reestablishing themselves. Indiana may improve under Kevin Wilson, and Maryland might be able to be more successful with a different coach, but I'm not going to worry about them yet.

The Big 10 will play eight conference games in 2014 and 2015, and will begin playing nine game slates in 2016. Thankfully, they are making it so the teams in the same division will play the same number of home and road games in a given year. The eastern teams will get five conference home games in even years, and the western division teams will play five conference home games in odd years.

It's going to be tough for Rutgers to win this division, but it certainly won't be impossible. Every Big 10 school other than Indiana, Minnesota and newcomer Nebraska has won at least a share of the conference title with in the last thirteen years. The East Division champion should be favored to win the Big 10 Championship Game in most seasons, so if Rutgers wins their division, they should be able to win the conference. Rutgers just has to hope their up years happen at the same time Michigan and Ohio State experience down years.

Let the Search Commence....

No matter how wrong it was that Tim Pernetti was forced to resign, and no matter how much we may want him back, Rutgers is moving on and will hire a new athletic director with in the next few weeks. The University's 26 member search committee, which includes former football player Shaun O'Hara, began interviewing candidates earlier this week, and they will supposedly whittle the list down to the three finalists at some point this weekend. The three finalists will then meet with some of the school's coaches so the coaches can offer their opinion of the finalists to the committee before the final decision is made. Tom Lucci and Keith Sargeant both have the list of candidates being interviewed.

Here's a run down of the eleven people who are vying for the job.

The first interview conducted was with Kevin MacConell, who is the preferred choice of many Rutgers alumni. MacConell currently serves as the Director of Football Operations with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he is a New Jersey native and a Rutgers alumnus himself. Before following Greg Schiano to Tampa, he worked in Rutgers' athletic department for 26 years, most recently as the Deputy Athletic Director. He should be a strong candidate for the position, but it seems like Rutgers prefers an outsider.

Wisconsin Deputy Athletic Director Sean Frazier is considered the heavy favorite to land this job. The Long Island native has plenty of experience at big time football programs, as he played at Alabama and has oversight of the three time defending Big 10 champion Badgers football program. He has served as Barry Alvarez's right hand man since 2007, and he received experience as an athletic director at Merrimack College (a Division 2 school in Massachusetts), Clarkson University and Manhattanville College prior to his time in Madison. His Big 10 experience is obviously a huge plus, and he has even somewhat subtly campaigned for the job on Twitter.

Louisville Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director Julie Hermann is viewed as one of the leading candidates as well. Louisville has established themselves as one of the top athletic departments in the nation, and Hermann oversees 20 of their programs, including the women's basketball team that made a run to the final four this year. Her background is as a volleyball player and coach, and she has little experience with football. She is a graduate of Nebraska.

Fresno State athletic director Tom Boeh has 18 years of experience as an athletic director, at both Fresno State and Ohio. He brokered the deal that moved Fresno from the WAC to the Mountain West, and he has a strong track record hiring coaches, bringing on Frank Solich at Ohio and Tim Deruyter at Fresno. Under his watch, the Bulldogs' baseball program has won a national championship in 2008. Boeh is an Illinois native, and has Big 10 experience from his time working at Northwestern. But for all his pluses, I really did not like his decision to fire Pat Hill after 2011 (it's like if Rutgers fired Schiano).

Jim Fiore has been the Athletic Director at Stony Brook since 2003, and he has taken the Seawolves' athletic department to new heights. Their football program has grown from not offering scholarships to being a power house at the FCS level, the baseball program made a Cinderella run to the College World Series last year, and he has upgraded a lot of their athletic facilities, including the basketball arena. He is known as a tremendous fundraiser, but he does not have any experience with big time football, as he worked in Ivy League athletic departments before Stony Brook. He is from Long Island and played football at Hofstra.

Ohio AD Jim Schas has served as an athletic director since 1999, first at Wichita State and now with the Bobcats. Schas is known for running economically efficient athletic departments on a fairly small budget while keeping his teams competitive on the field. Ohio has been one of the better football teams in the MAC in recent years, and their basketball program did the yearly honors of knocking off Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2010. He is a graduate of Purdue.

Northeastern AD Peter Roby is from New Britain, Connecticut and is a Dartmouth alumnus. He was the head basketball coach at Harvard once upon a time, before moving into an administrative role. He currently resides on the NCAA tournament selection committee. He took on his position with the Huskies in 2007, and he has also worked as an executive at Reebok.

Michigan State Deputy Athletic Director Greg Ianni has been at the school since 1993, so he obviously has a ton of Big 10 experience. He is second in command with the Spartans, and he has been in charge of expansion to their football stadium.

Iowa senior associate AD Jane Meyer has worked for the Hawkeyes since 2001, and she oversees the women's athletic programs at the school. She was the primary contact for the renovation of Kinnick Stadium in the mid 00's, and she obviously knows the Big 10.

Texas associate AD for compliance Amy Folan is a Connecticut grad and former basketball player who has been at Texas since 2001.

Florida State Athletic Director Randy Spetman was probably the most surprising candidate mentioned, but he has since shot the rumors down. He claims that Rutgers reached out to him and he declined interest in the position.

To me, Frazier seems like the runaway choice here because of his experience as an athletic director and his understanding of big time football. I also like Fiore, especially since the RAC needs to be renovated, and MacConnell would also be a really good choice to please the alumni (ie. donors).