Thanks to Matt Hladik from Rivals for retweeting a bit about this earlier. Following Delaware's shocking firing of K.C. Keeler, some early speculation suggests that the Blue Hens may have some interest in one of their former assistants, Rutgers offensive coordinator Dave Brock. It's unclear whether there is any merit to these reports, or it's just speculation based on Delaware's athletic director formerly working at Boston College. I have mixed feelings on this. Brock isn't Kirk Ciarrocca (another former Delaware assistant), meaning, his offenses aren't fundamentally, structurally unsound. He has called good gameplans at times. The problem is that the offense was overwhelmingly, impossibly conservative this year. Whether that came from Brock or Flood I can't say, but I want a bigger name offensive coordinator if only so it's a guy who has credibility to take the hammer to anyone if needed. That's what that sort of cachet allows more than anything. Update: reports say Dave Cohen may be a candidate too.

Former Rutgers WR coach P.J. Fleck hiring Ed Pinkham from Elon to be the new defensive coordinator at Western Michigan was a sensible enough move. He was a decent enough DB coach at Rutgers, sharing co-coordinator duties near the end of his tenure with LB coach Bob Fraser. Pinkham was mainly let go because Schiano wanted to bring in Jeff Hafley for recruiting reasons. It's not outlandish to suggest that he could succeed there. Another point to note is that current Rutgers LB coach is the former defensive coordinator at WMU under Bill Cubit, who coincidentally was just hired as Illinois's new OC. For offensive coordinator however, Fleck has gone in a shocking direction in digging up former Rutgers offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. Since being fired from Rutgers following the 2010 season, Ciarrocca spent one year as the interim offensive coordinator at Richmond in 2011, before returning to Delaware as RB coach last year. Ciarrocca was a decent enough WR coach at Rutgers in 2008, but his tenure as offensive coordinator was, frankly, an unmitigated disaster that the program is only now recovering from. He probably ranks among the worst offensive coordinators in DI history. It's hard to fathom how Fleck came to the conclusion that this was any sort of a good idea.

To elaborate, the Star-Ledger's sports desk has not been unfair to Rutgers athletics over the years, but the rest of the paper sure has been. No more. You can't exactly deny how incredible the accomplishment of getting into the Big Ten was, although as Pernetti notes, it will come with facility upgrade commitments. We do see the tidbit that the Big Ten move led directly to a $10m donation for the RAC upgrade project. Issuing more debt for RAC renovation is a sound move with interest rates as low as they are right now, and a certain revenue stream coming down the line. That should also silence the basketball fans upset that Rutgers issued a bond for football but had not yet to this point for hoops. The piece also includes some biographical details about Pernetti, including his father's battle with cancer, and Tim's unabashed love of Ronald Reagan. Guess that makes sense given how much Tim seems to praise Chris Christie.

There had been some speculation about this, but looking at this logically, it didn't really make a lot of sense. Jamison had a good season, and is an improving player, but he had trouble staying healthy this year, and could have definitely improved his stock with a good 2013. Some would argue that this year's crop of RBs is going to be weak, but I still don't really see Jamison being a high pick. If he came back and had a strong 2013, his stock would have probably risen to the third round range. Perhaps Jamison sees his stock rising during the pre-draft workout process, or is worried about the well-documented short shelf live for running backs in the pros. Rutgers should be fine with former blue chipper Savon Huggins starting, who did look good in his limited opportunities this season. The problem is more behind him, where the team has walk-on Paul James, speedster Ben Martin, and spark plug Des Peoples, none of whom have seen especially a lot of in game action. That doesn't mean that they can't play, but this definitely will open up the competition in April. Dontae Ayres is signed for this year's class, and there's always the possibility that Rutgers could try to get back into the mix with some other RB prospects as well. Sure, this is a loss. Jawan Jamison is a good player, and although I think Huggins probably has more raw talent, Jamison's slashing running style was a better fit for Kyle Flood's offense than Huggins, who is more of a straight-ahead type. It's not devastating though. It'll be tough, but Huggins can fill Jamison's shoes. Losing a potential first round pick in Logan Ryan, at a spot where Rutgers is hurting for depth looms as a far bigger loss.

Rutgers is losing a lot of really good talent on defense this year to the NFL, but with top underclassmen like Kevin Snyder and Darius Hamilton ready to step up, the front seven isn't a big concern in 2013. At safety, we also have transfer Sheldon Royster to help soften the blow. Corner is a bigger problem though. Tejay Johnson is ready to play, but the other starting job is now a big question mark with the news that Logan Ryan is declaring early for the draft. Ryan should go in the top two rounds most likely, and has all the measurables and cover skill to be a NFL starter. The depth chart is pretty inexperienced after Johnson and maybe Gareef Glashen, which could open the door for true freshman Nadir Barnwell next year.

as is Louisville. In fact, no Big East eastern division team will travel as much as Rutgers next year. No, the Big East isn't being punitive at all.... Luckily, this could be good leverage in an upcoming lawsuit. It's also short-sited, considering that Boise could just as easily leave soon too, and the Big East is probably leaving money on the table by putting all of its eggs in the Boise basket.

Here's something interesting. The firm Public Policy Polling recently polled New Jersey residents on a variety of political issues. Also included in the poll were a number of sports-related questions, which also happen to be cross-tabbed to political factors. According to the poll, 35% of New Jerseyans support Rutgers athletics, vs. 65% do not. As that 65% ranges can mean virtually anything (and is probably just passive indifference in most cases), 35% of 8.8 million people gives you approximately 3.9 million fans in varying levels of support, which is nothing to sneeze at. As a basis of comparison, the Giants are at 37%, with significant showings for the Eagles and Jets as well. According to the poll, Rutgers fans lean left, with a somewhat higher percentage of Obama supporters following Rutgers than Romney supporters. Voters of all stripes support the move to the Big Ten conference, with respondents describing themselves as somewhat liberal showing the strongest support base for Rutgers athletics. Self-described moderates had the smallest amount of support, closely followed by strong conservatives. When it comes to political affiliation, Democrats also demonstrate a significantly higher level of support for Rutgers sports than Republicans. Where the poll really skews odd is on gender. Far more men than women support the move to the Big Ten, although women are largely reporting that they are unsure instead of being in opposition. However, according to the poll, a much higher percentage of females as opposed to males like Rutgers athletics, which seems rather unintuitive given common stereotypes about sports. Women slightly edge out Obama voters (who were a big majority in NJ this year) as a larger base of support. The poll really gets interesting when it comes to ethnicity. Whites (who constitute the largest ethnic group in New Jersey, although the state is far more diverse than most) are the most indifferent to Rutgers sports, followed by African Americans, "Other" (which is quite an odd label, given the state's large Asian population), and Hispanics. Indeed, the poll states that a majority of New Jersey Hispanics are Rutgers fans, which is the highest level of support in the poll from any single demographic group. A lot of these results seem somewhat strange, and the weirdest result of all may be when it comes to age. Supposedly Rutgers lags in support among young and the middle aged, while making up ground among the elderly. This is, quite frankly, completely contrary to all past reported data on the subject. The Rutgers fanbase skews very young, younger than most, owing to its history. You might be able to argue on the other points, but this specific data point makes me want to throw the whole thing out the window.

Reports out of practice today have the Rutgers coaching staff taking a look at a few possibly intriguing position changes for the 2013 season. Move number one is giving Marquis Wright a look at guard. This is probably long in the coming. The old staff was somewhat lukewarm on Wright at DT due to schematic reasons, seeing him as more of a guard, and liking Al Page more. Hopefully this means that Page is healthy, along with Daryl Stephenson, and that Jamil Pollard is ready to contribute next year. Wright to OG clears up the DT glut somewhat. It would also add another needed interior offensive lineman to the 2012 recruiting class. You've got Bujari, Lowery, Civil, Alexander, Osei, McBride, Nelson, and Arch, with Miller coming in. Eight guys for three spots isn't terrible, but there are a lot of seniors next year, and one of those guards could conceivably swing out to tackle. There, you've got Johnson, Lumpkin, Muller, Brodie, and Denman, along with Vicioso and Fonti, and any further recruits here or inside. Mike Larrow to TE is interesting. He was really good last season, but between recovering from an injury and his summer suspension, Larrow has barely played this year. There will be a lot more playing time open at DE in 2013 with Glaud and Booker leaving, but there are other guys ready to step up too. I think Larrow deserves another chance at DE, but moving some DE to TE to add depth there isn't the worst idea in the world. There will be Carrezola, Kroft, and two incoming freshmen, so you really need another body at the minimum. Lastly is the report that Jeremy Deering will get another look at safety. Rutgers was just loaded at WR this year, but Deering not getting more looks was just confounding every week. You figure Coleman and Pratt start next year, with Shuler, Carroo, and then the rest of the freshmen in the mix. Actually, I'd be a lot more comfortable with Deering staying at WR, but DB depth is definitely an issue too. Lorenzo Waters and Sheldon Royster are early favorites to start at S, but then there are a bunch of players who could end up at CB or S.

As pointed out on the boards this morning, a Sports Business Journal story today posits that the BTN has a way around the fact that they already are on the expanded tiers in much of the NYC and DC markets. Come 2014, the Big Ten may simply refuse to air Rutgers and Maryland games not picked up nationally anywhere on television in an effort to pressure local cable companies to cave, and carry the channels on a basic tier. This is nothing new for Rutgers fans, who were used as a pawn in the fight between ESPN and Cablevision over ESPN3 in 2010 and 2011. ESPN simply made all of its Rutgers games ESPN3 exclusives so that local regional sports network SNY could not pick up the Rutgers games, as it is normally apt to do. ESPN did not care that Comcast did already have the service. Bowing to furious Rutgers fans, Cablevision did finally cave this season, and now Rutgers football games are magically on SNY again.