Kyle Flood once again lacking the respect he deserves from national media

In an article recently published by Athlon Sports, Kyle Flood was ranked as the the 13th best B1G head coach -- out of 14. It is no surprise that Flood finds himself on the bottom part of this list, for he only has one season under his belt and the national media refuses to take the Rutgers football program seriously after only one successful year.

Athlon Sports has seemed to be against Rutgers since Day 1 in the B1G. This article was published last March, before Rutgers played a B1G game and tabbed Flood as the worst coach in the conference. After an 8-5 season with a bowl victory, it is evident that Flood is not a bottomfeeder among B1G head coaches. There are multiple coaches in the more recent article that are tabbed as better coaches than Flood when a very strong argument can be made for our fearless leader to be ranked higher.

6. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern

Fitzgerald is a very interesting coach. He had great success through 2012 and the beginning of 2013, establishing himself as one of the better coaches in the conference. However, a primetime loss to #4 Ohio State put them at 4-1 on the season and derailed the program as they closed out the season 1-7, including that game, to finish at 5-7.  He led the Wildcats to a second straight 5-7 season in 2014 as they finished on an incredibly low note, losing at home 47-33 to Illinois. Despite another losing season, Northwestern managed to peg wins against ranked opponents Wisconsin and Notre Dame. Although Fitzgerald has proven he has the ability to win big games, the big concern is losing games that they should easily win, something Flood did not do in his first season "on the banks".

8. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

Ferentz is similar to Fitzgerald, as he has had great success in the past but is clearly not enjoying the same success of years past. Iowa went 7-6 with a fairly easy schedule that included the 2-10 Iowa St. Cyclones, who beat the Hawkeyes. Ferentz clearly has a better resume than Flood but Flood had a better record with a harder schedule along with winning the games he should have. I do not believe that Kyle Flood is a clear cut, no doubt better head coach then Ferentz. However, I do think that it is worth discussing if Ferentz deserves to be 5 spots higher than Flood in these rankings.

9. Randy Edsall, Maryland

No question in my mind that Kyle Flood is a better head football coach than Randy Edsall. First things first, which coach blew a 35-10 lead? Oh yeah, that would be Edsall. C'mon, Athlon Sports; it is one thing to put Edsall ahead of Flood, it is one thing to put Flood 13 out of 14, but to have the audacity to put him 4 spots ahead of Kyle Flood leaves me in a state of doubiousness. Flood has been on a staff that has faced Edsall 7 times, once as head coach. Rutgers has been 7-1 against Edsall coached teams, dating back to 2005. While only head coaching records should matter for these rankings, Flood still owns Edsall, embarassing him in front of a quite embarassing senior night and season finale crowd. Flood undoubtedly had a better B1G debut season then Edsall which makes me wonder how much money those dirty Terps dished out to Athlon sports.

10. Kevin Wilson, Indiana

Do I even need to justify this? Are you kidding me? I attended the Indiana vs Rutgers game and couldn't help but notice that Indiana literally ran 6 plays: Inside run to Tevin Coleman, Outside run to Tevin Coleman, Bubble screen, Slants, Verticals, and Read Option. They ran literally SIX PLAYS. I am absolutely baffled with this. I could write a thousand-word story on this but am trying to limit myself to a paragraph. Sure, he may have Indiana moving in the right direction but his 14-34 record speaks for itself.

12. Tim Beckman, Illinois

Tim Beckman is simply not a better coach than Kyle Flood. He has gone 4-20 in B1G games with the Illini along with a 12-25 overall record. They have improved every year but Beckman has yet to produce a winning season. He has not done enough in his three years at the helm of the Illinois program to prove that he is a better coach than Kyle Flood. While this rank isn't outrageous as Edsall or Wilson, I am still highly questionable in regards to Athlon's process of ranking head coaches.

This is not the first and most likely not the last example of Kyle Flood and the Rutgers program being disrespected by the national media.