Ash can grow into a good head coach
- Thread starter rutgersal
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Can we please get a starting QB that is ready to win,let’s start there first. It we gat better production. From the QB position, Ash will be a much improved coach
Entering year four, I wonder if this team would be competitive in the Patriot League. Guess we'll find out vs. UMASS who moved the ball vs Georgia. I expect it to be a long day. Ash is an assistant coach. Lacks all the pizzazz and imagination needed to turn this program. Dull, straight forward isn't going to get it done here. I appreciate his considerable efforts. Winning here is hard, it's going to take a special kind of person.
with a personality and connection to the state HS programs,media and fan base,that would sell season ticks again,,kind of like this guy?
As soon as we hired Hobbs as AD and he hired Ash as HC I lowered my expectations. Blaming either of them for having the ambition to go for the job is not appropriate; blame the admin for lacking a commitment to excellence and basically setting us on a 5-7 year plan while these guys learn how to run a major football program.
Signs of evidence Ash has been learning? He cut bait on DM very quickly and was humble enough to bring in Kill. Most HC would never do that - whether it “worked” or not is almost beside the point. Everyone should respect that level of self-awareness of a new leader who is willing to seek talent/guidance regardless of age or outward appearances.
I’m skeptical the improvements to our defense from 2nd half of last yr will necessarily carry over; we lost a lot from secondary. However, we do have talent in the skill positions that was very young and I think LB spot will be greatly improved. The year of young guys playing cant hurt. Paternoster said you can write in one loss for every frosh starter and I don’t think we’ll have as many next year.
The QB spot is obviously critical to any chance we’ve got. Having an OC return for the first time in a decade brings some continuity and the grad xfer QB are additional reasons for optimism. It’s not too hard to see the chemistry problems on last yrs team, the setback of the CC8 and feel there’s the possibility of a very different culture/season this yr.
Signs of evidence Ash has been learning? He cut bait on DM very quickly and was humble enough to bring in Kill. Most HC would never do that - whether it “worked” or not is almost beside the point. Everyone should respect that level of self-awareness of a new leader who is willing to seek talent/guidance regardless of age or outward appearances.
I’m skeptical the improvements to our defense from 2nd half of last yr will necessarily carry over; we lost a lot from secondary. However, we do have talent in the skill positions that was very young and I think LB spot will be greatly improved. The year of young guys playing cant hurt. Paternoster said you can write in one loss for every frosh starter and I don’t think we’ll have as many next year.
The QB spot is obviously critical to any chance we’ve got. Having an OC return for the first time in a decade brings some continuity and the grad xfer QB are additional reasons for optimism. It’s not too hard to see the chemistry problems on last yrs team, the setback of the CC8 and feel there’s the possibility of a very different culture/season this yr.
Al - Do you realize what you just said? Stop bullshitting. You have no credibility. I am putting you on ignore.
Your perception of my credibility means nothing. While there is always room for improvement, 2.8 gpa for the football team is good enough, due to the extraordinary demands of time. Between demands of practice, film, and meetings, it’s almost like having a full time job in addition to attending class and having to worry about schoolwork, which is something I fully appreciate and many of you don’t.
It’s not a coincidence that GPAs are closer to what they were during the Schiano era.
Despite this, many of our players are excelling, with over 53 players have a gpa over 3.0, which is excellent for a school like Rutgers, where football players actually have to do work. Ash deserves a lot of credit for this because I know it’s very easy for players to give into temptation and not adequately balance their time. His system of controls for ensuring that players are being the best they can be in the classroom is working.
When you’re recruiting with honesty and integrity like Ash, it’s going to take longer to see success. Ash can’t tote the snake oil like Schiano. Dull and straightforward and get it done, as long as you produce results. Ash had the #58 class last year and the #50 class this year, which shows recruiting is going in the right direction.
At the very least, I think we’re slated for 4 wins this year and bowling next year.
This is spot on, and pretty much mirrors my thoughts. Lack of alumni giving is the biggest reason we had to take a chance on a first time head coach. There were only 4,109 givers to our $100 Million Dollar campaign. So we hired a guy whom Hobbs thought could develop into a good head coach, rather than just hiring a good head coach to begin with. And that’s why we took our lumps the past three years, and should be better for it this year.
So Al let’s say you are right and we win 4 games this year and win 6 in 2020 and go bowling....
Now tell me if you think that would be an acceptable resume for a coach after 5 seasons as HC... in other words 3 years ago after flood was fired if you had foresight into ash and would know we would be awful for 4 seasons (not just awful, arguably the worst P5 team in the country) then get to some pointless menial bowl game after 5 years is that really good enough to hire him?
I’m not signing up for that, it’s not good enough for me. Why are you making excuses for a guy (Ash) who very honestly has been worse than even Kyle flood as HC
Liked Al more when he was correctly questioning CA's lack of vision:
https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/what-is-chris-ashs-vision.140251/
https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/what-is-chris-ashs-vision.140251/
I'm open to possibly having this wrong, four wins and a bowl the following year would far surpass my estimation of what's going to happen. Here's to hoping that you're right.
It could be argued he's the worst Coach in all power 5 right now,today.
Agree with everything you said, except maybe for the secondary. IMHO, I actually think the secondary is the strongest unit on the team.
I can't blame anyone if they have zero confidence in Ash and the team doing anything this year. However, I wish people would objectively look at all the factors that led to the disastrous season last year. It was a perfect storm of issues. Most of those issues have been corrected now, so I think this year will be very different. I am cautiously optimistic that the defense will be very good, as in top half of the conference good. As far as wins, it's all about the QB. Average to Good QB play and this team gets 4 wins. Very good to Excellent QB play and it's 6 wins and above. Just my worthless two cents.
I would not have chosen this path for the program, and have stated that many times. But here we are, and the question should be, are we better today, than we were four years ago? The answer is unequivocally is yes, as I scan the roster. Menial bowl games is probably the best we can do for now. Things are tough operating in America’s toughest college football division.
Who even cares if Ash could grow into a good head coach? Right now he is, and has been the whole time at Rutgers, the worst coach in college football, and we are stuck with him for another year. I could give a monkey's ass if one day he becomes a good head coach - I would still not want him then either
We all should care because Rutgers doesn’t hire good head coaches, we try to develop them, thx to the limited size of our purse. Our staff is one of the lowest paid in the big ten. The assistants we develop into good coaches, leave for better opportunities. The assistants that don't work out, have to be fired, and we have to pay out the duration of their contracts. we’re trying to compete with the best of the Big Ten, spending at least half as much. Lastly, Hale Center has to be refurbished. Penn States Lasch Building was already superior to Hale Center, and yet they are pouring $67 M into the facility to make it even better.
That’s why Our value proposition is weak, compared to other Big Ten Schools, which is why we mostly lose out to them in recruiting. It’s difficult for Rutgers to be successful, when it can’t recruit the best players in our home state. Very few of the best recruits instate, chose to stay home.
But Ash has made significant progress in getting much needed capital improvements privately funded. The locker room was a disgrace till we replaced it. The outdoor practice fields were also a disgrace till they were replaced. We are making slow but steady progress in this area, though more needs to be done.
And I think the coaching staff is his strongest yet, though that remains to be seen.
This should help us perform better on the field and recruit better players. And that will help Ash become a good head coach.
Or we could just cut our losses mid season and go all in on Mike Houston next year while there still a chance to get him... I can dream
Agree 100%. Sitkowski has to improve greatly in order for the team to be competitive. If he doesn't, not benching him early will be another huge Ash mistake.
Not true, James Kratch says it’s a 50/50 race with tie going to the incumbent.
It's an opinion Al ,Kratch said: "I think it’s a 50-50 race".
Right now Ash isn't going to tell James Kratch who he thinks is ahead in the Battle for the starting QB position. So Kratch has to make an educated guess.
Just the fact that Kratch feels Sit , as the incumbent, isn't in the lead makes me think Kratch is giving Artur the benefit of doubt in this fight for the starting QB spot because Sit is
the incumbent and his main competition never played a down for RU.
My opinion is with his putting the race as a 50-50 chance for Sit to win the starting position, Kratch is implying Artur hasn't done enough to prove he deserves to start and he's not looking back to see if the competition is catching up, they already are even with him.
Grades have inflated since the Schiano era. So scoring at the Schiano era level is not good. Moreover, a reduction that great could not be caused by just a few outliers. Remember, we're talking about a group of over 100 here, as you said earlier.
It starts on both lines to rebuild a team.RU best Olineman left and there are no incomming 4 star Olineman to suddenly improve the line play.Blazak got fired for poor recruiting, and these are still his recruits.
Short of Mike Vick or Russell Wilson scrambling behind this line to survive and produce yardage,it will not matter who is the QB.
Now about those wide recievers..
Short of Mike Vick or Russell Wilson scrambling behind this line to survive and produce yardage,it will not matter who is the QB.
Now about those wide recievers..
Keep desperately clinging on to that boulder as it slips further down the hill. You don't bring a grad transfer in with one year left to ride the pine.
a couple of quotes from an article on the impact of facilities on recruiting:
"When athletic departments plan or open new facilities, they often speak of these facilities as being necessary for “keeping up with the times” or “keeping up with the competition” as they attempt to erect facilities similar to their conference brethren. But what does this mean? And how can a new athletic facility be measured for success?"
"While a large number of athletic programs have been building or completing facilities projects, our study found little to no impact from new athletic facilities on the recruitment of potential football or men’s basketball recruits. The direct impact football projects represented the largest amount of facility projects during the time period of the study, yet their returns in recruiting were mostly non-significant. There were no recruiting improvements for direct football projects during the year before facility completion, nor the first and second year after the facility was completed. Only in the year right before a project was completed was there a marginally significant effect which showed that team recruiting rankings slightly improved before a facility project was completed."
https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/do-facilities-matter-recruiting/
Your posts always inspire various reactions; my usual reaction is "where to start?"
I know! I'll start with one of everybody's favorites, the myth of the drastically improving players.
Here's a fact-every team in the Big Ten has a lot of returning players. Every other Big Ten team's returning players are returning from teams that had better records than Rutgers. We're counting on Rutgers players to all improve drastically while the other schools barely improve at all?
I hate to do it, but I have to cannibalize a quote from another thread because it's such a good Al antidote:
A long time ago ( so I'm not quoting exactly ) I was watching an NCAA game between a ranked team and a heavy underdog. Trying to drum up interest in a dog of a game, Dick Enberg said " The underdog is really excited this year-they have 9 returning players!" To which Al McGuire instantly answered, "Yeah, returning from an 8-16 season. Believe me, the other team is excited too!"
And Al, you did a little cherry picking with the recruiting ratings. Rutgers was ranked 63 by 247/Scout and 66 by ESPN. And if you look at the recruits offer sheets ( which nobody ever seems to want to do ), it's not an greatly impressive class, even with your generational WR Stanley King.
I'm pretty certain that Rutgers will improve upon last year, but it won't be because the players have been here a year longer or because of flood of impact freshmen.
You realize that season ticket sales have collapsed? You are looking at easily 5 million a year in lost revenue they may never get back in the next 5 years at least. Probably more. Any giving you we’re hoping for is tough to get with the bad product. So going cheap on a coach twice didn’t save anything. It will end up costing the morons at Rutgers many tens of millions.
McClane Carter isn’t healthy yet. He’s coming off ankle surgery which caused him to miss all of spring camp. And Kratch provides a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why it’s a 50/50 race:
https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/...ll-be-no-2-tight-end-this-season-mailbag.html
I think it’s a 50-50 race, and the tie should go to the incumbent on May 23. I understand why fans are excited about the addition of McLane Carterand want to immediately jump him over Artur Sitkowski and into the starting job. But we’re just not there yet, and I think there is a lot of wishful thinking going on as well.
Sitkowski got thrown to the wolves as a true freshman and how much progress he showed in spring practice this year is a fierce debate amongst many fans. But giving Carter the job simply because he’s committed to come here is silly. While he has much more college experience than the rest of the quarterbacks room excluding Sitkowski, he has still only started three games and appeared in nine. This is also his fourth school, and he was surpassed by two freshmen last year on Texas Tech’s depth chart.
Could Carter win the job? Certainly. But I don’t think it will be as easy as him just showing up on campus. Sitkowski won’t go down without a fight, and perhaps this is the push he needs to take the next step in his career. Moreover, as I’ve written before, if Chris Ash and McNulty go with Carter, they need to go to a bowl game this season and be competitive in almost every, if not every, conference game this year.
If Carter is the starter and Rutgers finishes under .500 again, then what was the point?
https://expo.nj.com/sports/g66l-201...big-ten-and-you-wont-believe-the-numbers.html
The losses were offset by the increase in millions of Big Ten payments, which increased by about $14 Million (payments went up to 23.8 Million, up from 9.8 Million)
As long as Barchi is here, we’ll be going cheap.
Here’s a direct quote from the Big Ten report via nj.com
https://expo.nj.com/sports/g66l-201...big-ten-and-you-wont-believe-the-numbers.html
The report doesn’t shy away from Rutgers’ Big Ten on-field or financial struggles, with CSS reporting: “Rutgers’ first four years in the Conference have demonstrated a strong correlation between the university’s budget and facility deficit and its lack of competitive success. Its 4-year winning percentage in all sports is 26 percent, last in the Conference.''
Here’s the full report.
https://scarletknights.com/documents/2019/1/31/CSS_Rutgers_Final_Report.pdf
Im pretty certain that between returning players and incoming freshman, Rutgers will be much better this year.
Rutgers returns a significant amount of players that:
- played competitively against West Division Champion Northwestern, falling 18-15
- played competitively against Wisconsin, falling 31-17
- played competitively against Penn State, falling 20-7
- played competitively against MSU, falling 14-10
Michigan was one team we did not play competitively against, but they’re Michigan, and their talent base is much better than ours. But it’s important to note that Michigan didn’t blow us out because they simply ran over us, they blew us out because Shea Patterson made terrific plays in the passing game as the line could not get adequate pressure.
Teams could not run as effectively as they did in previous years, in the second half of the season, with nose guard Julius Turner demonstrating an ability to hold his ground. This allowed our linebackers to be more effective. Michigan’s power play, where they pull the backside guard, was particularly effective against Rutgers in 2017. It wasn’t as effective in 2018.
Another important point is that our running game improved drastically once Zach Venesky was inserted into the starting lineup. We ran for 186 yards vs Michigan and 193 yards vs Penn State, and 121 yards against Michigan State in wet conditions.
That we played much better in the 2nd half of the season, against better competition, shows that we are much improved in the strength and conditioning department.
So based on our returning players that played competitively in the second half last season, we have a good base of Big Ten competitive players.
Add to that, a tremendous class of freshman, and you have an improved Rutgers team that has drastically improved relative to its competition.
Don’t care about offers. I care about that our incoming freshman can flat out play:
- UnderArmour All American Stanley King is a once in a generation receiver that NJ produces, and had 79 catches for 1,413 yards from a school that has produced players that have had successful NFL careers. He will instantly bolster a passing game which has struggled in recent years
- Aaron Young is a soon to be superstar who is going to flourish in our offense
- Mohamed Toure is the best LB Rutgers has recruited since Khaseem Greene
- Donald Williams has the ball skills to play right away, and as long as he gets better every year, he’ll be in the NFL someday. This kid reminds me of Devin McCourty
Like I said, Michigan and Ohio State are on another level. But schools like Penn State, Iowa, Boston College, and Maryland are our opportunity.
so instead of actually trying to move into the black,we have to try and 'subsidize' the loss of millions in ticket revenue with an increase share of B10(which is still light years behind rest of B10)?
This is why Hobbs/Barchi (whomever is making this asinine call to keep Ash) may need to go along with Ash at seasons end.
this is beyond a mess and NOT how you run a athletic dept at Power Five level.
