Rutgers fired football coach Kyle Flood and athletic director Julie Hermann on Sunday, stripping the athletic department of its most prominent employees after a season that was a failure on and off the field.

University President Robert Barchi announced that Patrick Hobbs, Dean Emeritus of the Seton Hall University School of Law, will take over for Hermann.

Hobbs did a stint as Seton Hall's AD and was initially targeted to be an interim replacement for Hermann, but Barchi said Rutgers decided to offer him the job permanently Friday.

Barchi said in his statement that he decided last week to make a change in leadership.

The Scarlet Knights finished 4-8 after blowing a big lead to Maryland on Saturday, a game that was not even close to being the worst of the team's embarrasments this season.

Flood was suspended for three games for making inappropriate contact with a professor regarding a player's academics. Also, seven players have been arrested since August, though charges were dropped against star receiver Leontee Carroo.

Flood was 27-24 in four seasons at Rutgers, including bowl appearances in his first three. He was given a two-year contract extension at the beginning of the 2014 season that was to run through the 2018 season and made $1.26 million this year, according to USA Today's coaches' salary database. Among Big Ten coaches, only Illinois' Bill Cubit, who was interim coach until getting a two-year deal on Saturday, made less.

Assistant head coach Norries Wilson will be interim coach.

Hermann took over in 2013 after the Mike Rice scandal led to Tim Pernetti's firing. Hermann's contract was to run through the 2017-18 school year.

She came from Louisville, where she was an associate AD, and walked into reeling athletic department after Rice was fired for physically and verbally abusing his players. Pernetti, the AD who helped land Rutgers in the Big Ten, was let go for only suspending Rice when a video of Rice's actions were first brought to him.

But Hermann brought her own baggage. She had been accused of verbally abusing players when she was volleyball coach at Tennessee and was named in a discrimination lawsuit there.

Her first few months at Rutgers were tumultuous and she never seemed to gain the administration's full trust. When Flood was under investigation and ultimately suspended, Hermann made no public comments beyond prepared statements.

Hermann met with Rutgers University president Rob Barchi at his home Sunday morning. The meeting lasted 11 minutes, and Barchi later released his statement.

Flood was hired in a rush after former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano left to become coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January 2012. Flood, a former assistant under Schiano, came up a victory short of taking Rutgers to its first Big East Conference title in 2012 and finished 9-4.

The Scarlet Knights slipped to 6-7 the next season, but went a surprising 8-4 last year in their first season in the Big Ten.

This season, however, has been a wreck.

Flood was suspended Sept. 16 and fined $50,000 after the university's investigation determined he knowingly broke rules regarding contact between coaches and professors when he asked to meet with a professor for a player who was unable to become academically eligible in summer school.

Flood missed games against Penn State, Kansas and Michigan State with Wilson as acting coach.

When Flood returned, the team was 2-3 and then beat Indiana 55-52. But they only won one more game the rest of the way, against Army. The season ended Saturday with a brutal 46-41 loss to Maryland, blowing a 31-13 halftime lead at home to finish 1-7 in the Big Ten and last in the East Division.

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AP college football website: collegefootball.ap.org