Message from Chris Ash That Bears Repeating

[LETSGORU91_]

+1. It really is shocking reading some of these posts and trying to comprehend how some of these perceptions are created. So many willing to discard Ash after 2 years. Lots of instant gratification folks out there.

Unfortunately, that is much of our society. Everyone wants McDonald's like turn around, but this process is not that quick. The program was a mess. Ash has it going in the right direction.

I don't follow you guys enough now and especially then to speak to what Ash inherited v Greg. What I can say though is this is Ash's 1st head coaching gig. I think too often we think of coaches as binary. Meaning either they can coach or they can't. However, I think coaching is like any other profession where you get better at your job with experience. I remember reading an article that said basically year 3 of any job is when you "figure it out". That included moving to a new company in the same profession. It just takes time to learn the in and outs.

There are two reasons when I think a coach needs to be fired early. 1. He has an off-field incident. 2. He loses the team. If the team is tuning him and not taking any coaching then it's hard to improve. But if you look at a coach and everything he's doing around the program is all pointing up I think you got to give the guy 5 years. He'll probably figure the game day stuff out.

According to your reasons to be fired, it looks like Flood was given a little leeway through the years.

 

[JoeRU0304]

Really? If anything, the foundation built by Ash today is much more tangible than the one Greg was building in his early years. People have very short memories. In Greg's first year, he won 2 wins with losses to Miami 60-0, VTech 50-0, Pitt 40-0, WVU 80-7 .... heck even lost to Temple 30-5. Also did we forget the fiasco with the Cubits? By his second year, Ryan Cubit transferred out and Greg was losing to teams like Buffalo and Villanova (that's right - Villa-freakin-nova!!!!) and people were ready to run him out of town. But Greg was a fighter and forged ahead, building the foundation that led to 2005 and 2006.

Some people will say that Ash has a lot more to work with than Greg and I would agree with that - to a point. Perhaps in terms of infrastructure. But in terms of talent relative to the competition? I don't think so. People talk about Greg's early teams as if they were completely devoid of talent. Folks forget Ryan Cubit was a Clemson commit before he flipped to Rutgers. People also forget about NFL guys like Nate Jones, Tres Moses, LJ Smith, Gary Brackett, Gary Gibson.

Don;t get me wrong. I'm not saying Ash needs to be given five years to get to a bowl game (same as Schiano). All I'm saying is give more than one year before calling for his head. 3 years to show improvement on the field I think would be fair.

Another great post. It's all relative. I don't think as a program we're in the same spot as the Shea-Schiano transition but when you adjust for playing in the B1G East with a minimum of 9-10 P5 games vs playing in the Big East with a maximum of 8-9 P5 games it's the same principle. People I guess forget that like 75% of our big playmakers during Schiano's first 6 years were from out-of-state and that for the first 2 years we were getting blown out by 1-3 win teams.


Joe P.

 

[RUInFlorida]

You keep repeating this Terry Shea years and I wonder if you even know what that is.

Okay, let's take a look, shall we?

Shea's first year: 2-9 (0-8 Big East) with wins over Temple and Villanova, and four blowout losses to Miami, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. The team was outscored 380-143.

Ash's first year: 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) with wins over New Mexico and Howard, and five blowout losses to Washington, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State (I'm being generous not including the Maryland game). The team was outscored 450-188.

As we now know, Terry Shea's first year at Rutgers was actually better than Chris Ash's. So the "you're a troll if you don't have blind confidence in Ash" stuff really needs to stop. 2016 was an unprecedented disaster for a first-year Rutgers head coach.

 

[JoeRU0304]

Okay, let's take a look, shall we?

Shea's first year: 2-9 (0-8 Big East) with wins over Temple and Villanova, and four blowout losses to Miami, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. The team was outscored 380-143.

Ash's first year: 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) with wins over New Mexico and Howard, and five blowout losses to Washington, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State (I'm being generous not including the Maryland game). The team was outscored 450-188.

As we now know, Terry Shea's first year at Rutgers was actually better than Chris Ash's. So the "you're a troll if you don't have blind confidence in Ash" stuff really needs to stop. 2016 was an unprecedented disaster for a first-year Rutgers head coach.

Shea beat a bowl team in his first season? Shea signed Top 15 NJ recruits after that 2-9 season? Shea played two Top 4 teams and 4 Top 10 teams in 1996? Shea revamped strength and conditioning, nutrition, helped contribute to fundraising for new practice fields, etc? Wow must have missed all of that.


Joe P.

 

[RUskoolie]

Okay, let's take a look, shall we?

Shea's first year: 2-9 (0-8 Big East) with wins over Temple and Villanova, and four blowout losses to Miami, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. The team was outscored 380-143.

Ash's first year: 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) with wins over New Mexico and Howard, and five blowout losses to Washington, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State (I'm being generous not including the Maryland game). The team was outscored 450-188.

As we now know, Terry Shea's first year at Rutgers was actually better than Chris Ash's. So the "you're a troll if you don't have blind confidence in Ash" stuff really needs to stop. 2016 was an unprecedented disaster for a first-year Rutgers head coach.

Yikes you are an idiot. Do I need to point out 4 of our blowout losses were to teams in the top 10?

 

[Knight Shift]

Okay, let's take a look, shall we?

Shea's first year: 2-9 (0-8 Big East) with wins over Temple and Villanova, and four blowout losses to Miami, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. The team was outscored 380-143.

Ash's first year: 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) with wins over New Mexico and Howard, and five blowout losses to Washington, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State (I'm being generous not including the Maryland game). The team was outscored 450-188.

As we now know, Terry Shea's first year at Rutgers was actually better than Chris Ash's. So the "you're a troll if you don't have blind confidence in Ash" stuff really needs to stop. 2016 was an unprecedented disaster for a first-year Rutgers head coach.

It's only a matter of days (hopefully hours) before you are gone from this board. You are a TROLL.

 

[RUInFlorida]

Yikes you are an idiot. Do I need to point out 4 of our blowout losses were to teams in the top 10?

What's with the namecalling? I simply laid out the facts.

Notre Dame and Miami were in the Top 10 in Shea's first year. We also played #18 Virginia Tech and were somewhat competitive, losing 30-14 on the road. So again, Ash and Shea's first years were comparable, and you could easily make a case that Shea's was actually better. Those are the facts, and they are undisputed.

 

[JoeRU0304]

What's with the namecalling? I simply laid out the facts.

Notre Dame and Miami were in the Top 10 in Shea's first year. We also played #18 Virginia Tech and were somewhat competitive, losing 30-14 on the road. So again, Ash and Shea's first years were comparable, and you could easily make a case that Shea's was actually better. Those are the facts, and they are undisputed.

Your last point is also 'opinion'.

Shea beat a bowl team in his first season? Shea signed Top 15 NJ recruits after that 2-9 season? Shea played two Top 4 teams and 4 Top 10 teams in 1996? Shea revamped strength and conditioning, nutrition, helped contribute to fundraising for new practice fields, etc? Wow must have missed all of that.


Joe P.

...don't worry, I'll wait...


Joe P.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Shea beat a bowl team in his first season? Shea signed Top 15 NJ recruits after that 2-9 season? Shea played two Top 4 teams and 4 Top 10 teams in 1996? Shea revamped strength and conditioning, nutrition, helped contribute to fundraising for new practice fields, etc? Wow must have missed all of that.

It's pretty obvious that Chris Ash is no Terry Shea!

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

wow, this board has turned into the CE side. No need for name calling or the bs we are seeing. If you disagree, do so intelligently. Anyone name calling etc ought to be cut off.

 

[RU31trap]

This is a joke, right? Before RU, Flood coached at St. Francis, CW Post, Hofstra, and Delaware. Before RU, Ash coached at Drake, Iowa State, San Diego State, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Ohio State.

RU simply does not have the financial resources to go up against the B1G East in terms of spending money on coaches. It will, but it doesn't right now. It's not a matter of not caring. It's a matter of not having nearly as much money to spend as the competition.

Part of Greg's success was making sure the OOC schedule was filled with cream puffs. And the conference schedule was only 7 games. Now, the conference schedule is 9 games and at least 6 of them are tough. In 2009, we played Howard, Army, FIU, Texas Southern, a terrible Maryland team, and UCF before they were decent.

All I was trying to say is if we struggled in the Big East we will struggle even more in the B10. Dreams of a Rose Bowl appearance may never come to fruition and a National Championship will never happen. We can all talk till we turn blue in the face but as long as our destiny is dictated by Rutgers Brass we're not going anywhere and Chris Ash will figure that out for himself in a couple of years.

The Miami Hurricanes were a joke in 1982 and in 1983 H. Schnellenberger won a NC. You know why, because their University President, Deans and boosters bought into big time sports. I bet Penn State plays in a NC game before we go 8-4 and they built their team on 65 scholarships for 6 years.

 

[DJ Spanky]

wow, this board has turned into the CE side. No need for name calling or the bs we are seeing. If you disagree, do so intelligently. Anyone name calling etc ought to be cut off.

Shadup you sheep pumper! I'm sure you're gonna be hitting the livestock corral during the Big 'N Beefy concert at the Spring Game.

 

[RU2055]

Okay, let's take a look, shall we?

Shea's first year: 2-9 (0-8 Big East) with wins over Temple and Villanova, and four blowout losses to Miami, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. The team was outscored 380-143.

Ash's first year: 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) with wins over New Mexico and Howard, and five blowout losses to Washington, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State (I'm being generous not including the Maryland game). The team was outscored 450-188.

As we now know, Terry Shea's first year at Rutgers was actually better than Chris Ash's. So the "you're a troll if you don't have blind confidence in Ash" stuff really needs to stop. 2016 was an unprecedented disaster for a first-year Rutgers head coach.

Ok, now lay out Greg's first year. Then maybe you'll see what I'm trying to get at.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

It's pretty obvious that Chris Ash is no Terry Shea!

I'd bet a bag of donuts that with identical teams, Shea smokes Ash

 

[Knight Shift]

All I was trying to say is if we struggled in the Big East we will struggle even more in the B10. Dreams of a Rose Bowl appearance may never come to fruition and a National Championship will never happen. We can all talk till we turn blue in the face but as long as our destiny is dictated by Rutgers Brass we're not going anywhere and Chris Ash will figure that out for himself in a couple of years.

The Miami Hurricanes were a joke in 1982 and in 1983 H. Schnellenberger won a NC. You know why, because their University President, Deans and boosters bought into big time sports. I bet Penn State plays in a NC game before we go 8-4 and they built their team on 65 scholarships for 6 years.

What?
Schnellenberger's records:
1979 5–6
1980 9–3
1981 9–2
1982 7–4

This does not sound like a joke at all. They won the Peach Bowl in 1980. They also had Bernie Kosar as QB in 1983, after he redshirted in 1982. It took Schnellenberger 5 seasons to win the NC. Chris Ash will do it in 4 years. :fistbump:

How did the boosters work out for them in 2011?

 

[mdh2003]

What's with the namecalling? I simply laid out the facts.

Notre Dame and Miami were in the Top 10 in Shea's first year. We also played #18 Virginia Tech and were somewhat competitive, losing 30-14 on the road. So again, Ash and Shea's first years were comparable, and you could easily make a case that Shea's was actually better. Those are the facts, and they are undisputed.

When Ash loses to a 4 win Temple by 34 in year 5, get back to me.

 

[mildone_rivals]

So the "you're a troll if you don't have blind confidence in Ash" stuff really needs to stop.

I don't have blind faith or limitless confidence in Ash and I don't really see too many people here who do. That's not why you're coming across like a troll.

2016 was an unprecedented disaster for a first-year Rutgers head coach.

Ridiculous comments like that one are why you're coming across like a troll. An overly dramatic troll who's possibly a wee bit too fond of his opinions. If you said Flood's last season was an unprecedented disaster, that might actually have a grain of truth given all the off-field issues which, IIRC, were unprecedented at RU.

But going 2-10 with lots of blowouts could well have happened with just about any coach we could have hired last season. You can offer up an opinion about that - but it's just another opinion about a hypothetical and while voicing such opinions might be fun, they aren't worth anything.

 

[MoobyCow]

But going 2-10 with lots of blowouts could well have happened with just about any coach we could have hired last season. You can offer up an opinion about that - but it's just another opinion about a hypothetical and while voicing such opinions might be fun, they aren't worth anything.

I both agree and disagree. It's hard to argue that the offense we rolled out last year was anything other than as bad as an offense can get. It certainly wasn't unprecedented (sadly, we've had teams be about as bad as they can get multiple times), but it's to say it was anything other than just about the worst case scenario for his first year on the field. Almost no one was predicting 2 wins. I understand it is explainable. I understand coaches have recovered from the same sort of results, but it was simply awful, and it was worse than expected by most.

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/t...-prediction-thread.103067/page-2#post-2489999

 

[mildone_rivals]

I both agree and disagree. It's hard to argue that the offense we rolled out last year was anything other than as bad as an offense can get. It certainly wasn't unprecedented (sadly, we've had teams be about as bad as they can get multiple times), but it's to say it was anything other than just about the worst case scenario for his first year on the field. Almost no one was predicting 2 wins. I understand it is explainable. I understand coaches have recovered from the same sort of results, but it was simply awful, and it was worse than expected by most.

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/t...-prediction-thread.103067/page-2#post-2489999

I thought a bunch of us predicted 2 or so wins. I did. @AreYouNUTS did. Others did, IIRC.

I'm also predicting 2-4 wins for this season. It's not until 2018 that I believe progress in the form of more wins is likely to occur. There are simply no in-conference gimme games and one of our three OOC games is going to be as tough as our toughest in-conference games. Not with our current situation in some very key positions (QB/Kicking/OL/DL/LB/WR). We need a really good kicker and punter, a couple pretty good QBs that can run, a bigger, stronger, faster OL, and more depth of experience at LB and DL. And we need to find a couple WRs who can make stuff happen.

Last season sucked, no argument. But as you said, it wasn't unprecedented for us or even other programs. And, at least for many of us, it wasn't even unexpected. And yes, the youth and inexperience of two of our three coaches definitely was a factor.

Nonetheless, we cannot succeed by having a revolving door w/respect to coaches. We need some stability. Barring any off-field scandals, I wouldn't even consider firing Ash for at least five years. At which time, we can look at overall progress and make a decision with a full share of the Big Ten income in hand to ensure a true upgrade and not a lateral hire.

Also, what reasonably good coach with the name-recognition to recruit well instantly is going to come here if we shuffle a coach w/Ash's pedigree out the door after a couple/few years in a situation like ours? My guess is not too many D1 college coaches, analysts or fans from outside RU were even remotely surprised by our struggles last season.

[Edit] I'm wrong about 'NUTs. He predicted 4 wins.

[Edit 2] I'm possibly wrong about my preseason prediction too, at least according to one post I made in which I said I started w/a 3-4 wins prediction, not a 2-4 wins prediction. But then I didn't expect to lose Grant which killed us, given our near total lack of other big time points scoring players.

 

[MoobyCow]

I thought a bunch of us predicted 2 or so wins. I did. @AreYouNUTS did. Others did, IIRC.

I'm also predicting 2-4 wins for this season. ...

[Edit] I'm wrong about 'NUTs. He predicted 4 wins.

I couldn't find one. I know there were a few people who thought we'd be pretty bad, but I honestly don't remember anyone saying 2 wins. Still, if you did, good for you for being on top of things.

The point remains, that most people didn't believe it, so we were below most people's expectations and that is going to color how perceive Ash is doing. It's just how things work.

Whatever people's perceptions, he has 4 years here (at min) to change them for the better. I expect he will, but I can't be at all surprised that some people are negative after what we've seen. That there aren't more negative posters actually concerns me, as I think it may be due to apathy more than anything else.

 

[JoeRU0304]

I couldn't find one. I know there were a few people who thought we'd be pretty bad, but I honestly don't remember anyone saying 2 wins. Still, if you did, good for you for being on top of things.

The point remains, that most people didn't believe it, so we were below most people's expectations and that is going to color how perceive Ash is doing. It's just how things work.

Whatever people's perceptions, he has 4 years here (at min) to change them for the better. I expect he will, but I can't be at all surprised that some people are negative after what we've seen. That there aren't more negative posters actually concerns me, as I think it may be due to apathy more than anything else.

Fair post, though I think we have plenty with your last point and most seem to fall into 3 'categories':

-Wanted Flood to get a 5th year
-Wanted Schiano back
-Wanted Golden or Mullen


Joe P.

 

[MoobyCow]

[Edit 2] I'm possibly wrong about my preseason prediction too, at least according to one post I made in which I said I started w/a 3-4 wins prediction, not a 2-4 wins prediction. But then I didn't expect to lose Grant which killed us, given our near total lack of other big time points scoring players.

To be fair to you, my season predictions always seem to inch up as I get closer to the start of the year and the rest of the board's optimism makes me think I'm missing something. I probably predict 2 wins higher than I really feel most years because of that. I think I said 5 wins last year, when, I likely didn't start out feeling like 5 wins was very likely.

 

[JoeRU0304]

To be fair to you, my season predictions always seem to inch up as I get closer to the start of the year and the rest of the board's optimism makes me think I'm missing something. I probably predict 2 wins higher than I really feel most years because of that. I think I said 5 wins last year, when, I likely didn't start out feeling like 5 wins was very likely.

In my mind I had 4 and wasn't really that far off- Iowa/Minny could've went either way and the Illinois and Indy games couldve been different had Gio been named stater/ not got hurt earlier in the year...I'd gladly give up 2 wins in a 4-8 year if it means we get better down the line.


Joe P.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Fair post, though I think we have plenty with your last point and most seem to fall into 3 'categories':

-Wanted Flood to get a 5th year
-Wanted Schiano back
-Wanted Golden or Mullen

I wanted Vince Lombardi's corpse.

 

[JoeRU0304]

I wanted Vince Lombardi's corpse.

I wanted Frank Burns with Schiano as DC and McNulty as OC, but only the McNulty from the '08 Pitt game-on.


Joe P.

 

[MoobyCow]

Fair post, though I think we have plenty with your last point and most seem to fall into 3 'categories':

-Wanted Flood to get a 5th year
-Wanted Schiano back
-Wanted Golden or Mullen


Joe P.

Mullen or Flood for a 5th year would have caused me to lose all hope for RU. Lombardi's corpse would have at least spent more time recruiting than Flood.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I thought a bunch of us predicted 2 or so wins. I did. @AreYouNUTS did. Others did, IIRC.

I'm also predicting 2-4 wins for this season. It's not until 2018 that I believe progress in the form of more wins is likely to occur. There are simply no in-conference gimme games and one of our three OOC games is going to be as tough as our toughest in-conference games. Not with our current situation in some very key positions (QB/Kicking/OL/DL/LB/WR). We need a really good kicker and punter, a couple pretty good QBs that can run, a bigger, stronger, faster OL, and more depth of experience at LB and DL. And we need to find a couple WRs who can make stuff happen.

Last season sucked, no argument. But as you said, it wasn't unprecedented for us or even other programs. And, at least for many of us, it wasn't even unexpected. And yes, the youth and inexperience of two of our three coaches definitely was a factor.

Nonetheless, we cannot succeed by having a revolving door w/respect to coaches. We need some stability. Barring any off-field scandals, I wouldn't even consider firing Ash for at least five years. At which time, we can look at overall progress and make a decision with a full share of the Big Ten income in hand to ensure a true upgrade and not a lateral hire.

Also, what reasonably good coach with the name-recognition to recruit well instantly is going to come here if we shuffle a coach w/Ash's pedigree out the door after a couple/few years in a situation like ours? My guess is not too many D1 college coaches, analysts or fans from outside RU were even remotely surprised by our struggles last season.

[Edit] I'm wrong about 'NUTs. He predicted 4 wins.

[Edit 2] I'm possibly wrong about my preseason prediction too, at least according to one post I made in which I said I started w/a 3-4 wins prediction, not a 2-4 wins prediction. But then I didn't expect to lose Grant which killed us, given our near total lack of other big time points scoring players.

Yup. I was saying 2, 3 wins max, all along. Told everyone to "take the under" on W's.

 

[RUsojo]

Yup. I was saying 2, 3 wins max, all along. Told everyone to "take the under" on W's.

And you only had a day or two to do it before Vegas took plot off the board!

 

[DJ Spanky]

Mullen or Flood for a 5th year would have caused me to lose all hope for RU. Lombardi's corpse would have at least spent more time recruiting than Flood.

Yeah, but how was his clipboard writing?

 

[JoeRU0304]

Mullen or Flood for a 5th year would have caused me to lose all hope for RU. Lombardi's corpse would have at least spent more time recruiting than Flood.

In all honesty I wanted Narduzzi, though I was/ still am intrigued by Ash. Mullen's a solid coach but I didn't get the love affair with the guy. Golden is Schiano-Lite IMO; I'd rather have just had Schiano back than him. If Flood came back after everything that happened in 2015 I would have had serious reservations renewing my season tickets.


Joe P.

 

[MoobyCow]

In all honesty I wanted Narduzzi, though I was/ still am intrigued by Ash. Mullen's a solid coach but I didn't get the love affair with the guy. Golden is Schiano-Lite IMO; I'd rather have just had Schiano back than him. If Flood came back after everything that happened in 2015 I would have had serious reservations renewing my season tickets.


Joe P.

Huh, that highlighted that I typed Mullen, when I meant Golden. Mullen would have been fine by me.

 

[MYHATINTHERING]

Its apathy or disbelief mooby

I wanted graber back

 

[DJ Spanky]

Its apathy or disbelief mooby

I wanted graber back

C'mon, be bold and go for the "Shock and Awe"!!!

 

[SkilletHead2]

All I was trying to say is if we struggled in the Big East we will struggle even more in the B10. Dreams of a Rose Bowl appearance may never come to fruition and a National Championship will never happen. We can all talk till we turn blue in the face but as long as our destiny is dictated by Rutgers Brass we're not going anywhere and Chris Ash will figure that out for himself in a couple of years.

The Miami Hurricanes were a joke in 1982 and in 1983 H. Schnellenberger won a NC. You know why, because their University President, Deans and boosters bought into big time sports. I bet Penn State plays in a NC game before we go 8-4 and they built their team on 65 scholarships for 6 years.

Miami is a private school. They can pretty much do what they want. Yes, they have some national championships, but they also have one of the worst reputations as a sports school in the nation. Rutgers can't go down that road. I don't mean that by way of saying "Oh, we're too good for that," I'm saying the hires that go with that approach would never be approved at RU. It's a state school.

I've been an RU fan for over 40 years, especially once they stopped playing the team I played for. We have always aspired to levels beyond our means. And now we are in arguably the toughest division in football, playing with less than half the money that all the other teams get. It is as close to having one hand tied behind your back as it gets. And we don't have the rabid fan base that PSU has to overcome that deficit.

So, we hire a really clean guy to follow the guy who made a bit of a mess, and he seems to be working his tail off to get it done. So I'm willing to wait a couple years before thinking he should be run out of town, even though he wasn't my first choice for the job, or even the approach I would take. In a few years, we'll be much closer to parity in terms of resources with the rest of the B1G East, and we can take the natural advantages we have to make the leap upwards. Whether that is with Ash or his successor is a lot up to Ash and a lot up to the decisions that 18 year olds make.

An RU coach once told me that he got out of coaching because he couldn't stand having his career so greatly influenced by whether a 19 year old had a fight with his girlfriend the night before. I can appreciate that.

 

[LETSGORU91_]

Mullen or Flood for a 5th year would have caused me to lose all hope for RU. Lombardi's corpse would have at least spent more time recruiting than Flood.

Lombardi's corpse would attract more recruits than Flood's, but Flood's live body would attract more flies than Lombardi's due to the stench he created.

 

[Knight Shift]

Read the first post, naysayers.

 

[nikoru09]

​

look how many years,.. it took northwestern to shed there door mat standing in the big.....many decades of blow outs, and embarrassment ...they stayed the course.....so, we better have lots, and, lots of patience....i know i'm preaching to the choir.

 

[RUforlife]

All hail the great Ash. Bow down to our savior. Let the cult of Ash take birth and thrive.

 

[beaced_rivals]

For the naysayers. You know who you are.

December 7, 2015:
"I have a message for fans, supporters, administrators, players, basically anybody that loves this program: We need to create some positive energy around this program. It's going to take an extreme amount of work. It's going to take a lot of the right people going in the same direction."

“We're not going to make a lot of goals that talk about results with winning games and championships. We're going to worry about making goals that make us better tomorrow than we were today. That's all it's going to be about.

“The wins will come. Hopefully championships will come. But that's not my focus. That's not going to be the program's goal, at least early on. It's about getting better every single day.’’

"I want to build a first-class program that the university and the state and the people that live here and support us are happy and proud to say they are part of the Rutgers football program," Ash said.

"That's what I want at the end of the day. If I can do that, the wins will come, a ranking will come, all of those things that everybody wants, and how I'm going to ultimately be measured here will come. But there's a process to get to that."

"I think it's about being yourself, being honest, being straightforward, building a connection and really selling what you're trying to do, what your vision of the program is and what you want to try to accomplish. But it's about the people more so than anything, and the way that we take care of our players."


Nov. 20, 2016:
"I came here with a plan, came here with a vision," Ash said. "You go back to the opening press conference that I had standing right here in this room, I never told anybody it was going to be easy. It's going to be difficult; we've got a lot of challenges that lay ahead, but we'll get there. And I'm not going to make any predictions on when, but we'll be there; I can promise you that."

 

[beaced_rivals]

For the naysayers. You know who you are.

December 7, 2015:
"I have a message for fans, supporters, administrators, players, basically anybody that loves this program: We need to create some positive energy around this program. It's going to take an extreme amount of work. It's going to take a lot of the right people going in the same direction."

“We're not going to make a lot of goals that talk about results with winning games and championships. We're going to worry about making goals that make us better tomorrow than we were today. That's all it's going to be about.

“The wins will come. Hopefully championships will come. But that's not my focus. That's not going to be the program's goal, at least early on. It's about getting better every single day.’’

"I want to build a first-class program that the university and the state and the people that live here and support us are happy and proud to say they are part of the Rutgers football program," Ash said.

"That's what I want at the end of the day. If I can do that, the wins will come, a ranking will come, all of those things that everybody wants, and how I'm going to ultimately be measured here will come. But there's a process to get to that."

"I think it's about being yourself, being honest, being straightforward, building a connection and really selling what you're trying to do, what your vision of the program is and what you want to try to accomplish. But it's about the people more so than anything, and the way that we take care of our players."


Nov. 20, 2016:
"I came here with a plan, came here with a vision," Ash said. "You go back to the opening press conference that I had standing right here in this room, I never told anybody it was going to be easy. It's going to be difficult; we've got a lot of challenges that lay ahead, but we'll get there. And I'm not going to make any predictions on when, but we'll be there; I can promise you that."

Note the Date . Dec. 7th. It was from that day forward,in 1941,that the USA recovered from that dismal beginning and built the Greatest Military on the Planet.I would like to believe that from a similar date in 2015,Chris Ash has begun the recovery of the Program and will build a Mighty Force , AKA RUTGERS FOOTBALL.:boom::boom::boom::football::boom::boom::boom: