Sports

Hermann eager to move on from controversy, start at Rutgers

'I’m really anxious to get to work a week from Monday.' — Incoming Rutgers AD Julie Hermann yesterday

‘I’m really anxious to get to work a week from Monday.’ — Incoming Rutgers AD Julie Hermann yesterday (AP)

Julie Hermann (AP)

Incoming Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann may be beleaguered and embattled, calling the past few weeks “tough” and a “bout of turmoil.” But she and university president Robert L. Barchi reiterated that on June 17, she will be taking over the Scarlet Knights’ athletic department.

“It’s been tough for everybody in campus. It’s been a bout of turmoil,’’ said Hermann, 49. “I’m passionate about moving forward. … I look forward to getting focused on that starting June 17.

So I’m really anxious to get to work a week from Monday.’’

Barchi stood behind Hermann figuratively if not literally, releasing a statement but not attending her 13:30-minute press conference, of which 3:40 was preamble.

“I look forward to Julie joining the Rutgers team later in the month,’’ Barchi said of Hermann, who has a five-year deal that pays $450,000 annually. “Julie and I had a great discussion today about her priorities and plans to strengthen the student-athlete experience and support the excellent coaches and staff at Rutgers by making sure they have the resources to succeed.

“Our smooth integration into the Big Ten is a top priority for the university. I am confident that Julie and her team will set the stage for a great transition.’’

Hermann acknowledged fundraising will be harder because of the scandal. Asked if she had considered stepping down, she asked rhetorically “Who wouldn’t?” before adding she was determined to stay because Rutgers was “a special place that is so uniquely positioned to do something great.’’

Hermann was hired three weeks ago to replace Tim Pernetti in the wake of the Mike Rice scandal, but she plunged RU into more controversy with accusations she verbally abused her own players 17 years ago while the Tennessee volleyball coach.

“It was extremely difficult. It was heartbreaking to hear the voices of these people,’’ Hermann said of the complaints of her Tennessee team, which sent a letter to the school’s administration in early 1997 accusing her of calling them whores and alcoholics, charges she denied. “I’m not a name-caller.

“It was a difficult time. There were so many things going on with the team, and when you’re a young coach you may or may not be equipped to manage what we were managing as a team at that time,” said Hermann, who felt her failure in Tennessee will help her succeed On The Banks.

“That lesson 17 years ago is honestly why I felt I was uniquely qualified. … I’ve been in every spot that exists in an athletic department and I understand the challenges. I’ve been successful at them and I’ve had a failure at them, and that failure was important.’’

She also has been involved in two sex discrimination lawsuits, one at Tennessee and another at Louisville, with the Volunteers losing the former and the latter under appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Hermann — who spoke with Barchi and the coaching staffs yesterday afternoon, after spending 90 minutes with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany in the city yesterday morning — said Parker Executive Search in Atlanta was aware of not just one but both lawsuits.

“In the process with [Parker], that all gets disclosed. I think they reviewed the cases. They were informed about the cases. The search firm had a conversation with me about it, and the search firm I know contacted Tennessee and had a conversation about that case and its merits,’’ said Hermann, who said she was unsure what it told RU’s six-person search committee or 28-person selection committee.

“My understanding is it would’ve been vetted through the search firm. Whatever conversations they had with the committee, I can’t address. … They knew there had been a case and it had been litigated to the resolution that it was litigated to. I don’t agree with the outcome of that jury but everyone was aware of it.’’

brian.lewis@nypost.com