Keith Sargeant, on May 15th.
sources said other committee members were kept out of the loop throughout the interview process.
Two sources familiar with the search process for the new athletic director said the headhunter firm, Parker Executive Search, submitted an initial list of 47 candidates to Rutgers. Hermann was not part of that initial group, added later by committee co-chairwoman Kate Sweeney.
Here's the truth. Julie Hermann was a pick forced on the Rutgers athletic department by a small cabal of people intent on pushing an agenda; an agenda that is widely believed to be in opposition to the Rutgers football program, The department did not want her or ask for her. Regardless, this insidious plot has now blown up spectacularly. What's truly sad is that their incompetence and failings will now stain an athletic department that had been previously run with class and dignity by Tim Pernetti.
We went from a gentleman to a monster. Of course Hermann should be fired, or resign, before that option is no longer available to her. She never should never been hired. Not only was she a walking public relations nightmare, but she was completely unqualified by every possible metric, and both of these facts were clear even before the latest revelations. Five minutes of internet research was all it took for me to originally find the Tennessee lawsuit, and I seem to have done more due diligence than the Rutgers administration. Contrary to the assertions of some critics, this was not because I was being unreasonable. It was because I love Rutgers; as an institution, not an athletic department. The idea that a search committee could read even that story and still hire her is incomprehensible, even if Kate Sweeney and her cohorts really did force Rutgers to make the hire.
In fact, Rutgers passed up a far more qualified African American candidate in Sean Frazier to hire Herman. Beyond the ghastly allegations, there's the fact that Hermann lied in her initial press conference, and was frankly, idiotic enough to blame her former assistant Ginger Hineline as being baby crazy in her interview with the Star-Ledger. There is no scenario where she is an acceptable choice to lead Rutgers athletics. She is an embarrassment to Rutgers University, which should immediately and permanently cease all ties with not only Hermann, but every official that supported and approved her hiring. Until this happens, every donor and booster should rightly boycott supporting the university. Not only was this a horrific, ghastly choice that simply cannot be defended, but there is absolutely no scenario moving forward where she can possibly succeed at her job.
Fire Julie Hermann, now. Also, fire a lot more people, and pray to whatever deity of your choosing that someone like Sean Frazier would be willing to step into this mess created by the Rutgers University administration and athletic director search committee. I'm even to the point where I think that Tim Pernetti might be the only person who can put everything back together again, but would Rutgers dare crawl back on its knees and beg for the return of the savvy administrator that they unfairly scapegoated and dismissed?