After a swirling afternoon of premature reports on Monday, Rutgers found its new football coach just 36 hours before signing day. Rutgers assistant Kyle Flood, 41, will be named head coach when his contract is finalized Tuesday, according to a school official with knowledge of the hire who requested anonymity since he was not authorized to comment publicly.

Flood, the Scarlet Knights assistant head coach and offensive line coach, was named interim head coach when Greg Schiano left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Thursday. Flood is expected to keep Rutgers recruiting class largely intact. According to Rivals.com, the Rutgers class, currently with 17 commitments, ranks 34th nationally.

Flood, who has been at Rutgers since 2005, is considered to be a popular hire among New Jersey's high school coaching fraternity. "Kyle doesn't need a map to get around the Garden State Parkway," Rich Hansen, head coach at St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, told The Newark Star-Ledger. "The high school coaches in the state know him. That's important."

Early Monday afternoon, The Star-Ledger and The Home News Tribune reported that Florida International coach Mario Cristobal, a former Rutgers assistant, had accepted the job, and all that remained was details of a contract. But a few hours later those papers reported that Cristobal would stay at FIU. The Rutgers official said those reports were premature and a deal was never reached with Cristobal.