UPDATED 5:34 p.m. ET: Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com tweeted a short time ago that Kyle Flood has accepted the Rutgers job.
Flood was named the Scarlet Knights’ interim head coach after Greg Schiano left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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Earlier today, at least two New Jersey media outlets reported that Mario Cristobal was leaving FIU to become Rutgers’ new head coach. One went so far as to report that RU had offered Cristobal the job and he’d accepted, with mere contract details to work out.
As we have come to learn of late, the devil is indeed most times in the contract details.
According to Pete Thamel of the New York Times, Cristobal is staying at FIU and will not be the next head coach at Rutgers. No further details were given as to whether Cristobal had actually accepted the job then had second thoughts, or if the initial reports were simply erroneous.
It’s believed that the contractual hangup was, of course, financial as well as the “structure” of the deal.
With Cristobal now out of the picture -- we think -- Thamel notes that RU interim head coach Kyle Flood and former RU assistant and current Arizona Cardinals coach John McNulty are the two candidates athletic director Tim Pernetti will now consider.
At this point in time, Flood is believed to be the front-runner, barring a surprise candidate emerging. Or Cristobal changing course.