Laker Set to be Knighted: Eddie Jordan and Rutgers Close to Deal

BY VALERIE CHAMPAGNE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The assistant coach to the Los Angeles Lakers, Eddie Jordan, is close to making a deal with Rutgers University as the next head coach of the Scarlet Knight’s basketball team, reported the Associated Press who spoke with a person familiar with the situation.

The source asked to remain anonymous because Jordan and the interim athletic director at Rutgers, Carl Kirschner met Sunday night to finish going over the language of the contract before an announcement was made. Jordan flew out to New Jersey on Saturday, and it is expected that the deal would be made on Monday with a press conference planned later in the week reported, ESPN.

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FBI Investigating Possible Extortion By Former Rutgers Assistant Eric Murdock

According to the N.Y. Times, Murdock's attorney sent the university with a request of $950,000 two weeks after Rice was suspended in December for his behavior in several practices that were videotaped by Murdock. The school declined to pay the amount, so Murdock leaked the video to the media. 

This is making the FBI believe that this was all a BLACK MAIL ATTEMPT, which they are now investigating.

What Virginia Tech is Saying About Rutgers Football

Chris Lang

When Khaseem Greene was growing up in the northern New Jersey city of Elizabeth, the local FBS program wasn’t exactly at the forefront of peoples’ minds, and understandably so. Rutgers was a non-factor, both in the Big East Conference and the local sports scene. In the early 2000s, the Scarlet Knights were simply put, awful.

From 1995-2004, the Knights endured 10 straight losing seasons, and Greene knew all about it.

“I had two cousins who played for Rutgers back in those days,” said Greene, a standout linebacker for this year’s Rutgers squad, which will face Virginia Tech on Dec. 28 in Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.

“They used to come to our middle school and hand out tickets and stuff like that. It’s taken a big-time leap to where it is now.”

Undoubtedly. Virginia Tech and Rutgers shared the same conference home from 1992-2004, before Tech left for the ACC. Rutgers will spend one more season in the disintegrating conference before leaving for the Big Ten.

Most Tech fans will remember the Scarlet Knights as a benign punching bag, a respite on the schedule. The Hokies won 11 straight against the Knights after losing the first matchup between the teams as Big East rivals. The last nine victories were by no fewer than 16 points, and some came with embarrassing margins, like the back-to-back years where Tech won 49-0 and 50-0.

The lack of success made it difficult for the local talent in Jersey to take the Scarlet Knights seriously.