Cleaning Up The Rutgers Mess

I would imagine more than a few people had similar reactions to Rutgers naming of Julie Hermann as the school’s new athletic director Wednesday by saying or thinking “men have screwed things up enough there…its time for a woman to clean up the mess.”

The 49-year old Hermann clearly has the qualifications after 15 years as the senior associate AD at Louisville and she leaves Kentucky for New Jersey where frankly things have been pretty messy when it comes to the state university’s athletic department.

A former college volleyball player and coach, Hermann arrives in Piscataway on the heels of a scandal that rocked the university and cost basketball coach Mike Rice, Athletic Director Tim Pernetti and others their jobs.  She is just the seventh athletic director in Rutgers history and the first woman to lead the department and takes over at a critical time with the Scarlet Knights getting ready to make the move from the Big East to the Big Ten.

While Hermann was not directly involved with the football or men’s basketball programs  at Louisville, she does have considerably more experience than predecessors Perentti and Robert Mulcahy did when they were hired as Rutgers AD’s.  Hopefully that experience will pay off because she has plenty of obstacles to overcome.

Expect the Todd Frazier fan club to be on display in Philadelphia and New York over the next week or so.  The Cincinnati Reds second-year third baseman from Toms River makes his only local visit of the season beginning tomorrow night when the Reds play the first of three games against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Then it’s on to Citifield for three games with the Mets starting Monday and you can be sure the Frazier clan will be large and loud.  Todd is batting just .229 but has 6 homers and 25 RBI’s and is tied for second on the team in both categories.

Of course the former Toms River South and Rutgers star is coming off a tremendous rookie season in which he batted .273 with 19 home runs and drove in 67 runs.  The 27-year old Frazier got married in the off season and built a home in Toms River where he spends as much time as possible.