Rutgers' Kyle Flood should not be coaching

It's no longer a question of whether Rutgers' Kyle Flood should be on the sideline for Saturday's season-opener against Norfolk State.

He should not be.

Not after the events of the past eight days, even if the the results of a university-led investigation into the Scarlet Knights' head coach remains unresolved.

The bigger issue now is whether Flood should coach another game at Rutgers, given that he has clearly lost control of the program.

Thursday's announcement that five of his players were arrested brings into question his long-term ability to lead the Scarlet Knights. And given the serious nature of the latest allegations, Flood, facing his own possible suspension, is in no position to lead the Scarlet Knights through this latest crisis.

This is some incredibly serious stuff on Flood's watch.

According to New Brunswick police, Andre Boggs, a sophomore who was expected to start at cornerback, and Tejay Johnson, a former Rutgers player and former student assistant with the program, were part of a home invasion last April in which they wielded a knife and baseball bat in robbing a student of $900 and an undisclosed amount of marijuana.

Boggs, along with Ruhann Peele, who missed last season in part because of legal issues stemming from an assault, Nadir Barnwell, at the heart of the academic investigation into Flood, junior defensive back Delon Stephenson and redshirt sophomore fullback Razohnn Gross, were charged as part of an assault on a group of students last April that left one with a broken jaw.

Athletic director Julie Hermann immediately suspended all five players from the team.

Last May, Darian Daley was dismissed from the team after being charged in an armed robbery in Florida. And transfer quarterback Philip Nelson was dismissed from the team in May of 2014 after being an assault charge stemming from a fight in Minnesota.

Add it all up and you're left with the profile of a program that's lost its way.

And with Flood facing a possible suspension of his own for allegedly circumventing school policy and the department's chain of command by emailing a professor directly about Barnwell's grade in a class, it will be impossible for him to be an effective head coach at a time when nothing short of a rock-solid leader will do.

It's time to forget about what happens between the white lines.

After what has been a brutal eight-day period for Rutgers athletics, it's time to take a step back and take a long, hard look at the direction of the flagship program in the nation's most heavily subsidized athletic department.

Just 28 months after the Mike Rice scandal rocked the school, the national spotlight has returned for all the wrong reasons.

And at this point, the Scarlet Knights' second season in the Big Ten has to take a back seat to returning the football program to solid ground by whatever means necessary. And if it means Flood has coached his final game at Rutgers, then so be it.

Stephen Edelson writes for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press.