ADVERTISEMENT

Confirmed: Ash is back next year

Status
Not open for further replies.
I hate to say this, but if in fact he is coming back
it is the right move. If we keep making head coach changes every three years we will turn into the Cleveland Browns — an organization always rebuilding. Believe me, I can’t stand Ash, but there is at least some logic in riding it out with this ahole.
Pro football doesn’t have recruiting, Ash sucks at it, and there is no logic in keeping him.
 
If their belief is that it doesn’t matter how they treat their customers now, because they will just come back when things get better, they are even dumber than we thought. Once people change their entertainment habits it is tough as hell to get them to revert back.

Did Rutgers hire their management away from a cable company?
Agree. I used to have Mets and Devs season tix in addition to RU. Will watch on TV but have not been back to either stadium since I gave the tix up. If I give the RU tix up will not be back there either. I think for me it was harder giving the tix up mentally then purchasing them in the first place. Once I gave them up I never looked back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: buffalochicken21
I hate to say this, but if in fact he is coming back
it is the right move. If we keep making head coach changes every three years we will turn into the Cleveland Browns — an organization always rebuilding. Believe me, I can’t stand Ash, but there is at least some logic in riding it out with this ahole.

That would only be true if there were some semblance of a recruiting class that will be competitive or some reasonable thought that the 2020 class will improve. There's no basis for either.

IMO recruiting class rankings are more subjective than not. At least too much for a guy to lose his livelihood over. He will be evaluated for results on the field over 4 years like the majority of coaches are. Sucks but it’s just the way it is. Now if he can’t fill a recruiting class with the max amount of players, that’s a different story.
 
Actually, this year’s tax reform bill got rid of several itemized deductions in return for a higher standard deduction, theoretically reducing the number of itemizers and making more people’s seat gift donations non-deductible (another reason for people to not get season tickets).
Truth
 
IMO recruiting class rankings are more subjective than not. At least too much for a guy to lose his livelihood over. He will be evaluated for results on the field over 4 years like the majority of coaches are. Sucks but it’s just the way it is. Now if he can’t fill a recruiting class with the max amount of players, that’s a different story.

Not so subjective when you consider that the team’s with the best recruiting classes are also the best teams in college football.

Don’t need four years. What is going to change from this year to next? Nothing

Don’t feel sorry for Ash’s livelihood, thanks to the stupidity of Hobbs and Rutgers, Ash is set for life.
 
IMO recruiting class rankings are more subjective than not. At least too much for a guy to lose his livelihood over. He will be evaluated for results on the field over 4 years like the majority of coaches are. Sucks but it’s just the way it is. Now if he can’t fill a recruiting class with the max amount of players, that’s a different story.

Not so subjective when you consider that the team’s with the best recruiting classes are also the best teams in college football.

Don’t need four years. What is going to change from this year to next? Nothing

Don’t feel sorry for Ash’s livelihood, thanks to the stupidity of Hobbs and Rutgers, Ash is set for life.

I agree. But we’ve recruited a top 25 class exactly once in our history. It’s not like it’s something we e done for years which only stopped under Flood/Ash.

Maybe factory schools use it as a metric for retaining/firing coaches. Rutgers will not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JoeRU0304
Again, spot-on.

There was simply no way to win the coaching carousel this year.

Bear in mind that last year the athletic department needed more than $20 million in university funding to close its budget deficit. And that's not counting the "loan". That's $20 mil straight out of the operating budget.

There was NO WAY that Barchi was going to let Hobbs spend a single dime of Rutgers money on a coaching change this year. The only way it could have happened was if private money was available to cover the whole thing and we just don't have that kind of donor base.
We don’t need to win the coaching carousel, we needed to hire a guy with prior HC experience. Let’s be honest, we will never win the coaching carousel. If RU can’t come up with a few million bucks then they deserve to Tb the laughing stock of college football.
 
I agree. But we’ve recruited a top 25 class exactly once in our history. It’s not like it’s something we e done for years which only stopped under Flood/Ash.

Maybe factory schools use it as a metric for retaining/firing coaches. Rutgers will not.
Who brought up top 25? We are one of 65 Power 5 schools and Ash’s recruiting ranking is in the 70’s and dropping,
 
I plan to email Pat Hobbs with my thoughts on Coach Ash. As a small donor, I won't move the needle but hopefully everyone who is disgusted with the current state of the program clearly articulates their position to Pat this week. It's our only hope.
Some actually want Ash to stay. Remember what everyone said about Schiano after his first 3 years.
 
I agree. But we’ve recruited a top 25 class exactly once in our history. It’s not like it’s something we e done for years which only stopped under Flood/Ash.

Maybe factory schools use it as a metric for retaining/firing coaches. Rutgers will not.
Who brought up top 25? We are one of 65 Power 5 schools and Ash’s recruiting ranking is in the 70’s and dropping,

Once you get out of the top 25 the difference between say the # 50 class and #70 is negligible at best.
 
I agree. But we’ve recruited a top 25 class exactly once in our history. It’s not like it’s something we e done for years which only stopped under Flood/Ash.

Maybe factory schools use it as a metric for retaining/firing coaches. Rutgers will not.
Who brought up top 25? We are one of 65 Power 5 schools and Ash’s recruiting ranking is in the 70’s and dropping,

Once you get out of the top 25 the difference between say the # 50 class and #70 is negligible at best.

Cuse has had lower ranked classes than us and would destroy us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JoeRU0304
I plan to email Pat Hobbs with my thoughts on Coach Ash. As a small donor, I won't move the needle but hopefully everyone who is disgusted with the current state of the program clearly articulates their position to Pat this week. It's our only hope.

Good luck with that.
I donate mid 4 figures and didn’t even get a response from Hobbs.
im serious what has Hobbs or Barchi done to show they give a sh@t about Football?
Hire Ash?
 
  • Like
Reactions: cicero grimes
I plan to email Pat Hobbs with my thoughts on Coach Ash. As a small donor, I won't move the needle but hopefully everyone who is disgusted with the current state of the program clearly articulates their position to Pat this week. It's our only hope.

What's his email?
 
This may be true, but it really sucks if you happen to be a current student. 2 more years would mean more than 1 class of RU students would have graduated with the football team as a bottom feeder in the B1G throughout their whole time at RU.
I hear you. I'd be happy to see us make a significant coaching upgrade after the next game, and who knows, it could still happen.

But I think the numbers don't work in our favor at the moment.
 
He couldn't possibly have special data on how many are renewing next year -- the big question mark -- as they haven't asked yet.

What he does know is that Rutgers has been losing STHs like crazy since Ash was hired, that he is the guy that picked Ash, he is the guy that negotiated his contract, and he would have to admit an expensive mistake by firing him.
I bet plenty of people said similar things about Schiano in his first few years.

In any event, Hobbs has all the budget numbers. He has access to all the current and prior season actual ticket numbers. He has access to consultants who can model best and worst case revenue projections. He has access to various other data involving areas of athletic department spending that aren't strictly related to football. There may be all kinds of variables we don't know about, including various existing financial plans for which it pays to stay on track and not incur additional debt.

You guys want this to be a simple problem revolving around your happiness as football fans. I get it. I wish it was that simple too. But wishing doesn't make it so.

Maybe the numbers say to fire Ash now and that will happen. Let's wait and see what happens.
 
Show your work please.
We sold 31,000+ season tickets 4 years ago upon B1G entrance, so that is the baseline. We have sold about 16000 less tickets total in the three years since then. If we drop to 18,000 next year we are down 13,000 each additional year.

If the losing continues for three years then we have a miraculous turnaround, we will have lost 55,000 in ticket sales since we entered the B1G and started losing.

That means that when we do win, we need to sell 36,500 in season tickets (31,000 plus 5500 in “makeup” sales) for TEN years just break even on our seven years of ineptitude.
 
There was only going to be 10,000,000 reasons why he was always coming back in 2019. Nothing happen to change that.

Now once we get the full Big Ten payout, all bets are off.
 
But I think the numbers don't work in our favor at the moment.
And the only reason for that is we have an AD who has exactly 0 experience in any type of organized football. An AD appointed personally by a President who has exactly 0 interest in sports in general. Nothing but self inflicted wounds for four decades running. This school makes it impossible to be a fan.
 
We now take you live to a meeting of some of the other B1G Coaches when they heard the news:

tenor.gif
 
There was only going to be 10,000,000 reasons why he was always coming back in 2019. Nothing happen to change that.

Now once we get the full Big Ten payout, all bets are off.
By my figuring we are down 4-5 million in ticket/seat gift revenue annually since our first B1G year. Another loss of 5000 tickets will be another 2 million lost.

Only Rutgers would forego 6 million in additional revenue to save 2 million in costs.
 
Spending money you don't have to get a similar profile coach to be back in the same position, with even less money, is an even worse decision. I get it, it sucks. There simply was no great decision. And sometimes, making no move is better than making an even worse move.

Regroup, grow the war chest, make a real hire after Ash fails again next year.
Absolutely agree. But I’m convinced Hobbs should not be the one to make the next hire.
 
We sold 31,000+ season tickets 4 years ago upon B1G entrance, so that is the baseline. We have sold about 16000 less tickets total in the three years since then. If we drop to 18,000 next year we are down 13,000 each additional year.

If the losing continues for three years then we have a miraculous turnaround, we will have lost 55,000 in ticket sales since we entered the B1G and started losing.

That means that when we do win, we need to sell 36,500 in season tickets (31,000 plus 5500 in “makeup” sales) for TEN years just break even on our seven years of ineptitude.
The decision facing Hobbs and the admin isn't about what happened 4 years ago. It's about the right decision to make today, based on the numbers today and the plans and projections going forward. They can (and should) consider history insofar as they can learn from it. But that's about it.

And you said "the next five" years. Which is what the decision should be based on; not the past.

If we hired a big name coach, that would immediately create a reversal of ticket losses. If a bunch of 4 star recruits came to play for that coach, that would speed the reversal. That would all happen before we even play the first game of the new coach's tenure.

The realities of the situation, for example the fact that those new players wouldn't necessarily be contributing right away, will not diminish the impact of the big time hire and big time recruits. Because fan bases are not logical. They are emotional. They will come back in droves filled with excitement.

They'll be let down a bit when we keep loosing at first. But they'll mostly hang around because they will want to be part of the resurgence and will want good seats to view it all.
 
OK, MSU no longer has a reason now to keep the score close. Perhaps, this week will be the true test if the defense under Ash has improved since the historically embarrassing losses to Kansas and Buffalo. Way to go, Hobbs! Way to go Barchi! There will be no flights from LAX to EWR for a football game in the near future and I will now start donating more to my kids' schools because Rutgers will no longer get a dime from me.
 
Just to keep it simple- this is what happens when you hire a guy to lead the athletic program at a Big Ten school whose only experience (besides kissing politicians asses - mainly Christie) was an interim AD at a small basketball school.

Of course all the insiders feel differently - they hang around at RU events where they get to see him in person - what a thrill.
 
And the only reason for that is we have an AD who has exactly 0 experience in any type of organized football. An AD appointed personally by a President who has exactly 0 interest in sports in general. Nothing but self inflicted wounds for four decades running. This school makes it impossible to be a fan.
Perhaps. I can't speak authoritatively to Barchi's interest in having a winning football program at RU. For sure he has bigger, more important fish to fry as the president of a large state university.

But I have to think that, regardless of his interest in winning at football, the financial case that can be made for winning would be compelling to Barchi, if made at the right time. The problem is any move we make carries risk. If Hobbs, Barchi and the BOG weigh potential risks vs. potential ROI, the numbers might favor waiting another year or two before incurring a risky expenditure.

Or it might not. Let's wait until this time next week and see what we see.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RUSK97
Now I don’t have to waste money on season tickets anymore. What a loser program we are.

So ridiculously stupid. Now we’ll have no recruits, no fans, no wins, and we’ll have to fire him next season.

Barchi and Hobbs truly are buffoons.
 
Grow the war chest by making millions less in revenue from tickets, parking, seat gifts, etc. Makes sense.
In 2019, B1G payout goes from 12MM to 21MM or something like that IIRC. That goes a long way to offset the lost revenue.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT