Vocal calls early in the week for the ouster of embattled basketball coach Mike Rice gave way to strong support for Tim Pernetti, who resigned.
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Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti, right, presents Mike Rice with a jersey in May 2010 after Rice was introduced as the school's men's basketball coach during a news conference in Piscataway, N.J.
Social media shone a spotlight of outrage on Mike Rice before his firing as Rutgers University men’s basketball coach Wednesday.
Leading up to and following the resignation today of athletic director Tim Pernetti, the Scarlet Knights saga turned up again on Twitter and Facebook.
By then, calls for Rice’s ouster had given way to vocal voices of support for Pernetti.
“Rutgers is losing one of #R finest today. Saddened by the loss to our University. @Tim_Pernetti is a great leader,” tweeted Julie Culley, of Clinton, who competed in the women’s 5,000-meter track finals last summer at the London Olympic Games.
Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers football player who was paralyzed during a game in 2010, said on Twitter: “When you’re in a situation like I have been for the past 2 1/2 years, you truly see the character of people. Tim Pernetti has shown me and RU how great of a person he really is, and how much he really cares. He’s a stand up guy that only wants to better the university.”
The two sides of this week’s online Rutgers debate reminded Jeremy Littau, assistant professor of journalism and communications at Lehigh University, of Penn State University’s firing of Joe Paterno in November 2011.
Underlying the passionate comments were lines of allegiance — to Rutgers, in the case of Rice and Pernetti, or to Penn State, amid the unfolding scandal surrounding sexual abuse of children by Jerry Sandusky, Paterno’s assistant football coach.
“When you end up with a difference of opinion on different fault lines in a social media firestorm … generally there are real-life social alignments that are taking place,” Littau said. “There are loyalties that I think are built into kind of just our social connections that offline really play a heavy part in what I would term an emotional response in an online realm.”
Four gone at Rutgers
Pernetti dismissed Rice on Wednesday after a videotape aired showing the coach shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players, and using gay slurs during practice. The videotape, broadcast Tuesday on ESPN, prompted scores of outraged social media comments and sharp criticism from Gov. Chris Christie and Miami Heat star LeBron James.
The tape was made available to Pernetti in November by a former university employee, but after an investigation, and with the approval of the new university president, Pernetti only chose to suspend Rice.
Today, Pernetti submitted his letter of resignation to university President Robert Barchi.
Barchi also said today that John B. Wolf, Rutgers’ interim senior vice president and general counsel, who is believed to have recommended against firing Rice in December, had resigned. The university said Thursday that assistant coach Jimmy Martelli resigned.
According to Glen Gilmore, who teaches digital marketing and social media marketing at Rutgers, the video left little doubt that Rice had to be fired. Social media gave a platform to those pushing for action.
“I think it’s a healthy thing because it does help people understand what’s taking place and to add their voices to those saying, ‘This is unacceptable,’” Gilmore said. “There are times when silence is not appropriate and you say a lot if you say nothing.”
‘Whole thing is a shame’
Christie was among those who today praised Pernetti’s decision to retire, calling it “appropriate and necessary given the events of the past six months.
Pernetti’s supporters remained staunch. A Facebook page titled, “I Support Tim Pernetti,” drew more than 4,000 members by this afternoon.
Justina Cassavell, a 1992 Rutgers graduate and Voorhees High School girls cross country coach, said Pernetti “did a lot for Rutgers. He got Rutgers to the Big Ten.”
“It’s a shame,” the eight-time Express-Times Cross Country Coach of the Year said. “The whole thing is a shame with the negative attention Rutgers is getting.”
Culley, the Olympian, called Pernetti “probably, arguably, the best AD we’ve ever had.”
“And I think, outside of the Mike Rice situation, it’s a real shame to the university to lose him. I’m really saddened by it,” she said.
Staff members Kurt Bresswein and Josh Folck, freelancer Andrew Prezioso and the Associated Press contributed to this report.