Two days before Rutgers is scheduled to open its season, the reeling program suffered its latest embarrassment, suspending five football players indefinitely after they were arrested Thursday for their alleged roles in a group assault or series of home invasions.
Safety Delon Stephenson, cornerback Ruhann Peele, fullback Razohnn Gross and defensive back Nadir Barnwell, as well as former Scarlet Knights Daryl Stephenson and Tejay Johnson, have been charged with assaulting four people, including a 19-year-old male student who suffered a broken jaw. The men also were charged with riot and conspiracy to commit a riot stemming from the April incident in New Brunswick, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Cornerback Dre Boggs, a sophomore who had been expected to be a starting cornerback this season, faces charges of robbery, burglary while armed and conspiracy to commit an armed robbery after allegedly breaking into three homes over the span of two weeks on the Piscataway campus, along with Johnson, to reportedly steal money and marijuana from the student dorms.
“The students involved are currently suspended from our program,’’ Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann said in a statement. “We continue to monitor the situation. We will have no further comment as this is a pending legal matter.’’
Barnwell already had been in the middle of an ongoing scandal at the school — an investigation into coach Kyle Flood allegedly contacting a professor regarding the grades and eligibility of the junior. Barnwell also had been suspended for one game in 2013 after a DWI charge, while Johnson and Peele both had been charged in separate assault cases over the past two years, with the latter serving a suspension last season, but the charges eventually were dismissed.
Despite the university examining Flood’s actions over the past week, the fourth-year head coach said he anticipated coaching Saturday at home against Norfolk State.
“I have no reason to believe I will not be coaching on Saturday,’’ Flood said after Thursday’s practice, prior to news of the arrests.
Flood, who has been at the university for 11 years and has compiled a 23-16 record as head coach, had been asked last week whether his team had a discipline problem, following the suspension of five players for the first half of the season-opener due to a curfew violation.
“No, for the most part, I’m pleased with the way our team has handled themselves,” Flood said. “We have 105 players on the team plus more. We have some guys who are injured who don’t count in the 105 right now. They are not perfect people. Things are going to come up. When they come up we have to address them, and we have to move forward.”