Jeff Towers: Rutgers boosters firmly behind Kyle Flood

Replacing the suspended Kyle Flood as Rutgers football coach “will set the program back for years, if not permanently,” Jeff Towers – perhaps the program’s most prominent booster – told Gannett New Jersey.

In his first interview since Flood was suspended for three games and fined $50,000 by Rutgers on Sept. 16, Towers said he has “spoken to enough boosters, including some of the most prominent ones” to know that support for Flood remains strong.

“The boosters I have spoken to believe the long-term interests of the football program are best served by retaining Coach Flood,” Towers told Gannett New Jersey. “Coaching continuity is a keystone of long-term success in any sport, let alone a Division I, Power Five football program.

“A change in the head coaching position at Rutgers now will set the program back for years, if not permanently.”

Flood was penalized by Rutgers president Robert Barchi after an outside investigation determined that he violated a Rutgers athletics compliance policy. He initiated impermissible contact with a faculty member about a grade after being told that a player would be ruled academically ineligible in 2015.

“Dr. Barchi is the CEO of a substantial academic enterprise,” Towers said. “I respect his reasons for issuing the penalty he did. A three-game suspension with a fine is very harsh.”

The investigation revealed that Flood emailed the teacher from his personal account to avoid public vetting, arranged a meeting in Princeton to which he wore no Rutgers clothing to avoid recognition, and that he defied academic support’s direction and said “this conversation never happened” in doing so.

Flood, who continues to run the program on non-gamedays, is prohibited from contact with media and boosters during his suspension, and Towers declined comment on specifics of the report before speaking with the head coach.

“My confidence in Kyle as a person and as a coach remains intact,” Towers said.

But Flood lost an ally in The Rutgers New Brunswick Faculty Council, which issued a resolution Friday rebuking his actions and calling the penalty “incommensurate with the gravity of his violations of university policies and ethical standards.”

Towers said the essence of his discussions with other boosters is that Flood “has earned the right to keep his job” when his on-field track record is combined with his history of representing the school and community since first coming to Piscataway in 2005.

“All the key result areas one should measure a head football coach by – APR, graduate rate, team GPA, winning seasons, bowl games and postseason honors, including the 2014 Lambert Trophy – make a strong case for retaining Kyle Flood,” Towers said.

“Repeating the success of 2014 was going to be a challenge before these events took place and Kyle’s future shouldn’t be determined on the basis of 2015 results.”

Under a contract extension signed in September 2014, with guaranteed additional compensation pledged by Towers and other boosters, Flood is owed a $1.4 million buyout if fired without cause.

A vocal segment of the fan base also has assumed Flood’s ouster by season’s end – Rutgers was 8-5 last season – and begun calls for a bigger-name coach or a young coach on the rise.

“A ‘marquee coach’ would demand a salary and buyout amount that the university is unwilling to pay,” Towers said. “And a ‘superstar-in-the making’ would most likely see Rutgers as a stepping-stone to his next job. Until Rutgers becomes a destination-type football coaching position, coaching continuity is the best opportunity for lasting success.”

Towers attended Rutgers win Saturday against Kansas.

“Successful leaders, including many of our boosters, base strategic decisions on data and facts, not public opinion shaped by the media,” Towers said. “The boosters I have spoken to know that the Rutgers football program has not gone off the rails or lost its way.

“The recent events are an anomaly and are not indicative of all that is good and positive about the football program. You need only to listen to Darius Hamilton’s postgame interview yesterday to understand that.”

“Rutgers needs to ignore the external judgments of others and stay fixed on its current course. Retaining Kyle Flood is key to the future of Rutgers athletics and its long-term success in the Big Ten.”

Towers, the proprietor of the New York-based consulting firm Jeffrey Towers & Associates, has been Flood’s biggest supporter behind the scenes since they first met after the 2013 season.

The two discussed an arrangement where Towers would be hired as Rutgers football recruiting coordinator prior to this season, but he ultimately withdrew his name from consideration.

Around that same time, Rutgers self-reported a minor Level III compliance violation to the NCAA as a result of two public Tweets that Towers sent to recruits in December 2014, according to a report by NJ Advance Media.

Towers told Gannett New Jersey he was unaware public Tweets constituted a rules violation and immediately deleted them when brought to his attention.

Rutgers currently has 19 commitments in a 2016 recruiting class that is consensus top 40 in the nation. But recruiting analysts say it will be a challenge to hold it together in light of Flood’s suspension and other off-field turmoil, including seven player arrests and six dismissals in September.

“Given what he’s up against, Kyle is doing an excellent job as a recruiter,” Towers said. “He doesn’t have the arsenal of program attributes the historically elite programs do and that most top-level recruits and their parents want. And he’s working in an institutional and public environment that is detrimental to recruiting at best – and toxic at worst.”

Towers said he has friends and family members who are ardent supporters of Big Ten programs at Penn State and Nebraska. His financial support is thought to be critical to the athletics facilities upgrades plan released by Rutgers in May.

“Kyle works through all that with a positive spirit to find kids who capture his vision and see the opportunities that are unique to playing football at Rutgers,” Towers said. “The class of 2016 will prove that.”

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleavy@gannettnj.com