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Kyle Flood is making the Rutgers program his own by giving players more freedom.

(Photo by John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger)

Anyone interested in pursuing Rutgers’ (again) vacant offensive coordinator’s position needs to know one thing from the start: If you don’t already have coordinator experience, there’s no need to apply.

Saying his goal was to find “the right person” for the job, and that he had no timetable yet for replacing Dave Brock, coach Kyle Flood put just one restriction on a pool of candidates that figures to swell during the next few days: Prior coordinator’s experience is a must.

“We’re going to look outside the program. We’re going to look inside the program,” Flood said yesterday, a few hours after Brock was named Delaware’s head coach. “We’re not going to limit ourselves any way other than this, I would say: The only limitation I would put on the position is I would not hire somebody who did not have coordinating experience.

“That would be something to me that I wouldn’t do.”

Within the program, that doesn’t restrict two current assistants: Running backs coach Norries Wilson was the offensive coordinator at UConn (2002-05) and Bucknell (1997-98) and quarterbacks coach Rob Spence has been an offensive coordinator at six schools, including Syracuse, Clemson and Toledo.

Outside the program, it likely eliminates a rising coaching star candidate like Oakland Raiders quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, but not Mark Whipple, current Tampa Bay assistant (and former Rutgers assistant) Brian Angelichio or Florida running backs coach Brian White.

Whipple, most recently the quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns, has been a successful head coach at three college stops (New Haven, Brown and UMass) and was the University of Miami offensive coordinator in 2009-10. He has extensive NFL experience.

White was the offensive coordinator at Syracuse in 2006 and 2007 and the co-offensive coordinator at Wisconsin from 1999 to 2005. But he might be out of Rutgers’ price range, having just received a $50,000 raise to $290,000 annually.

Meanwhile, Flood said he is not in a rush.

“I don’t have a time frame that I’ve put on it,” he said. “I think if it could be before signing day (Feb. 6) there certainly would be some advantages to that — but only if you find the right person. I think the real key and the importance of this search is to really find the right person for our football program, and that will outweigh any time restrictions.”

Brock, 45, had mixed results in his one and only year overseeing Rutgers’ offense, with the Scarlet Knights finishing No. 104 nationally (out of 120 schools) in total offense and No. 96 in scoring.

“There were certainly things I wish we could’ve done better, and I deem myself the culprit,” Brock said of a unit that produced just four touchdowns, all passing, in the final four games. “I think when you don’t have the production you’d like to have, it falls on me.”

For Flood and Rutgers, the search for an offensive coordinator will be the program’s fourth in as many years.

“I would say it’s not ideal,” Flood said of the turnover in the job, adding, “Anytime there’s change there’s also the chance to get better.

“I think this is an opportunity for us to make sure we do a diligent search and try to get the right person and then get to work at the business of being better,” he said.

SMU added to Big East schedule: Rutgers will play Southern Methodist in Dallas in Big East Conference play as the replacement for a game the Scarlet Knights were supposed to play at Boise State, the league announced.

The Big East released its amended, 10-team, one-division schedule — which no longer includes Boise State or San Diego State — yesterday.

The decision by those two schools not to join as planned left Big East newcomers SMU and Memphis as the only options to fill the void on Rutgers’ league schedule created when Boise State opted to stay in the Mountain West. San Diego State followed that move by also deciding to remain in the Mountain West this week after originally committing to play in the Big East with Boise State.

The Rutgers-SMU game will be the first meeting between the schools.

Rutgers’ nonconference schedule features the opener at Fresno State on Aug. 29, followed by three consecutive home games: Norfolk State (Sept. 7), Eastern Michigan (Sept. 14) and Arkansas (Sept. 21).

The Scarlet Knights will host Cincinnati, Houston, Temple and South Florida in Big East play. They have league road games against Louisville, SMU, Central Florida and Connecticut.

Tom Luicci: tluicci@starledger.com; twitter.com/tomluicci