What's up Scarlet Nights. Buckeye fan here. I know I know - get lost right. I won't take long...just wanted to share a few thoughts with you all due to some sentiments and things I've read around here the past 1-2 weeks. Of course I fully realize many of you are frustrated and upset over the recent play on the field, etc. I don't blame you. I know C Ash is a hot topic as he should be. What I'm about to say I'm sure has been discussed before, to one degree or another, but here's what I see as the keys for your program moving forward:
I don't know if Chris Ash is or isn't the solution for your program. I do know the man can coach X's and O's and from everything I've seen and experienced with him here at Ohio State, he's the type of guy who will do things the right way, won't cut corners, and will overall represent your University and the State of New Jersey well. But that alone won't get you necessarily to the next 1-2 steps your program needs to go to.
Before I make my main points here I first want to harken back to 1989 and Wisconsin football. Some may be familiar with this situation, but since you weren't on the B1G radar in those days, I'm guessing many of you aren't acutely aware. In 1989 Wisconsin had a horrible football team, and that had been the case for much of the 1980's. They finished at or close to dead last in the conference and many of their games weren't close. It was bad. So they fired their coach Don Morton and brought in a guy named Barry Alvarez. And so as you know Barry began to build the program, had a NJ guy there named Ron Dayne, and they won 3 Rosebowls in the 90's. Beyond Barry upgrading the talent, he formed a lasting "IDENTITY" of physical hard nosed football with teams that ran the ball well....which still eminates to this day. As Barry and the years rolled along and their success continued to be more and more consistent, a program was borne and because of that success they have continued to recruit at a good level and field very good teams year in and year out.
This all coming in Wisconsin, a state which produces far less High School talent than NJ. This is year 3 for C Ash. I don't follow your recruiting that closely, but I think I know that he's not getting really any 4 stars in your state, some 3 stars and some 2 stars. I'm not suggesting someone necessarily is going to come in and just start nabbing all of NJ's 4 stars. That takes time and it takes success. But Rutgers has been to several bowls the past 10 years and so it's not like you haven't had any success. But your head coach has to be able to generate enough buzz to be able to start getting 2-3-4 four stars EACH year. Then the majority of your recruiting classes need to be 3 stars. You can sprinkle in a couple 2 stars here and there for there are 2 stars out there who are diamonds in the rough and good.
So this is year 3 for CA....where is your recruiting???? If you're not seeing him start to pull in an occasional star player from NJ by now, I would be concerned. And where is your identity?? You could see what Wisconsin's identity was very early on. This is very important. To me he had to be able to do this in his first 1-2 years when the buzz about him was fresh. TO me the longer time goes on and your recruiting stays as it's been, then the harder it will be for your program to get to the next phase under CA.
CA can coach, but can he recruit to the level needed to take RU to the middle of the B1G pack. It's all a process. You have to first be in the middle of the pack for a few/several years....with 7-8-9 win seasons consistently. You do that for awhile....then with that success you recruit even better and then the next phase is 9-10-11 win seasons - which is where Wisconsin is right now.
- 10 Point Buck
I don't know if Chris Ash is or isn't the solution for your program. I do know the man can coach X's and O's and from everything I've seen and experienced with him here at Ohio State, he's the type of guy who will do things the right way, won't cut corners, and will overall represent your University and the State of New Jersey well. But that alone won't get you necessarily to the next 1-2 steps your program needs to go to.
Before I make my main points here I first want to harken back to 1989 and Wisconsin football. Some may be familiar with this situation, but since you weren't on the B1G radar in those days, I'm guessing many of you aren't acutely aware. In 1989 Wisconsin had a horrible football team, and that had been the case for much of the 1980's. They finished at or close to dead last in the conference and many of their games weren't close. It was bad. So they fired their coach Don Morton and brought in a guy named Barry Alvarez. And so as you know Barry began to build the program, had a NJ guy there named Ron Dayne, and they won 3 Rosebowls in the 90's. Beyond Barry upgrading the talent, he formed a lasting "IDENTITY" of physical hard nosed football with teams that ran the ball well....which still eminates to this day. As Barry and the years rolled along and their success continued to be more and more consistent, a program was borne and because of that success they have continued to recruit at a good level and field very good teams year in and year out.
This all coming in Wisconsin, a state which produces far less High School talent than NJ. This is year 3 for C Ash. I don't follow your recruiting that closely, but I think I know that he's not getting really any 4 stars in your state, some 3 stars and some 2 stars. I'm not suggesting someone necessarily is going to come in and just start nabbing all of NJ's 4 stars. That takes time and it takes success. But Rutgers has been to several bowls the past 10 years and so it's not like you haven't had any success. But your head coach has to be able to generate enough buzz to be able to start getting 2-3-4 four stars EACH year. Then the majority of your recruiting classes need to be 3 stars. You can sprinkle in a couple 2 stars here and there for there are 2 stars out there who are diamonds in the rough and good.
So this is year 3 for CA....where is your recruiting???? If you're not seeing him start to pull in an occasional star player from NJ by now, I would be concerned. And where is your identity?? You could see what Wisconsin's identity was very early on. This is very important. To me he had to be able to do this in his first 1-2 years when the buzz about him was fresh. TO me the longer time goes on and your recruiting stays as it's been, then the harder it will be for your program to get to the next phase under CA.
CA can coach, but can he recruit to the level needed to take RU to the middle of the B1G pack. It's all a process. You have to first be in the middle of the pack for a few/several years....with 7-8-9 win seasons consistently. You do that for awhile....then with that success you recruit even better and then the next phase is 9-10-11 win seasons - which is where Wisconsin is right now.
- 10 Point Buck
