Rutgers receiver Carroo charged with assault

PISCATAWAY, N.J. Rutgers’ Kyle Flood talked Monday about how everything within a football program reflects on the head coach good and bad. Less than two hours after he finished his weekly news conference, another bad reflection of Flood and his program surfaced.

NJ Advance Media reported that wide receiver Leonte Carroo was arrested by the Rutgers University Police Department and charged with simple assault under domestic violence in connection with an altercation outside the team’s stadium after Saturday’s loss to Washington State.

Carroo, 21, a senior co-captain from Edison, N.J., who holds the school record for career touchdown catches, is the seventh Rutgers player arrested since Sept. 3. The other six have been thrown off the team.

Carroo was suspended Sunday after word that an investigation was being conducted by Rutgers police. NJ Advance Media reported that two people familiar with the incident said it involved a female acquaintance of Carroo and another female.

Flood spoke in general about Carroo at his news conference in advance of Saturday night’s game at Penn State. When asked if any arrests had been made, the coach deferred to Kevin Lorincz, the university’s senior associate athletic director of communications, who had no comment.

Flood said he spoke with Carroo but would not reveal what they discussed. He said he spoke with athletic director Julie Hermann before imposing the suspension, which he said was “my decision.”

Flood was not available for comment after the arrest was made public.

The embattled Flood also is being investigated by the university for sending an impermissible email to a professor about a player’s status.

“As the head coach, everything ultimately reflects on you and it’s part of the job,” he said Monday. “If you shy away from that, you probably shouldn’t do the job.”

He said people who were invested in the program or spend time with it “know the high quality of the young men that we have down in that locker room,” and deflected a question about whether the program is in trouble.

“I understand that people that aren’t as familiar with our program and all they see are the incidents of the last couple weeks, how they could have that perception,” he said. “But I think the people that know our program, I don’t believe they have that perception.”

One person with the latter perception appears to be Gov. Chris Christie, who took the media to task Monday in New Hampshire by saying Carroo’s suspension received too much attention.

“The breathless media coverage of all of this and every time there’s a problem or some indication of a problem, some deep-seated problem at Rutgers ... man, you guys gotta find something else to do,” he said.

Hermann, who also has seen her share of criticism, addressed the team at Monday’s practice.

“It was good to see her at practice and show a lot of support for coach Flood and our seniors,” starting quarterback Chris Laviano said. “As a player, you like the support from the AD and stuff. She didn’t have to do that, but she did and we appreciate it.”

The Scarlet Knights say they won’t let any distractions take away from preparations for Penn State.

“You just have to separate things and remain focused and keep getting ready to go,” said offensive tackle J.J. Denman, who starred at Pennsbury High.

(c)2015 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.