Isn't it in the Big Ten's best interests for Rutgers to be good in football?

[RUfinal4]

The B10 wants Rutgers to be competitive but may not necessarily want us to compete for championships. They want Rutgers to be a 5-7 win team most years with a once in a while upset of a top 25 team.

A competitive Rutgers keeps the NYC area interested and will also bring out the alums from the other B10 schools playing RU. While many Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn St fans go to Rutgers home games against their team many others may just watch on tv since they know it won't be competitive. If it is 28-3 at halftime the tv may get turned off as they go about their day. But.... if it is 28-17 in the 4th qtr they may stay tuned in since the outcome is not pre-determined.

 

[pafootballguy]

If a conferences biggest brands (UM, OSU, and PSU) are good nothing else matters.

 

[Debtbubble]

It’s good if we are at least competitive for sure. .500 type team.

The current catastrophe isn’t good for anyone. Empty stadiums and zero interest from alumni and locals is bad.

 

[e5fdny]

It matters even with the subsidy and it also matters more that RU actually hires competent people to run it's best programs. We are behind the 8 ball now because a change isn't an automatic while other schools in other leagues like the Big 12, Pac 12 change coaches immediately when necessary.

I would like to think that the Oakland A's and Kansas City Royals can compete with the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers, but it wasn't until revenue sharing kicked in, where the playing field was leveled a little bit....suddenly teams like Houston, Kansas City and others are able to field teams that can compete.

The reality is Northwestern will win the Western Division and that can only happen if you have revenue sharing and somewhat of an equal amount of wealth. Having the same amount of wealth allows you to correct the mistakes made. To say it doesn't matter, makes no sense. If it didn't matter, RU would never get a full share ever.

Although Northwestern has a new football facility, generally speaking the Wildcats are probably close to the bottom in the division wrt money spent on football. I would put Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa at the top, then Minny, Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue at the very bottom.

Northwestern got good when they hired Gary Barnett and then one of his former players in Pat Fitzgerald.

So I agree with @NewJerseyHawk about having the right people in charge. This was evident for us with Bob hiring Greg. Right guy(s), right time.

Though I also agree with @ivan brunetti here. It not how much you spend, it’s how you do it. Even with revenue sharing if you don’t allocate the correctly you’re still rolling the dice.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Northwestern got good when they hired Gary Barnett and then one of his former players in Pat Fitzgerald.

So I agree with @NewJerseyHawk about having the right people in charge. This was evident for us with Bob hiring Greg. Right guy(s), right time.

Though I also agree with @ivan brunetti here. It not how much you spend, it’s how you do it. Even with revenue sharing if you don’t allocate the correctly you’re still rolling the dice.

Well said by all. Spending big dollars on a big name coach could easily make things worse. We could be back to "coaches graveyard" status (if we are not already there) if we hire a big name coach and he fails.

Flood and Ash failing.. people can think just bad hires. But if we hire a guy who is really just looking for one more payday.. who has a name as a winner.. and he won't put in the same effort here as he did elsewhere.. and he fails.. then people can say.. "well, if XXX can't win there.. it is hopeless". Heck, story was that GS called JoePA asking for advice about taking the Rutgers job and JoePA said NO, don't do it. He probably just was thinking of himself.. of not wanting to compete with GS for recruits...

Bottom line.. as you say.. It is not how much you spend, it’s how you do it.

We need to line up people who know how to put together a football program before we plunk down big money on a coach. Clearly our process to select JH, retain Flood, hire Hobbs (as far as football is concerned) and his contract for Ash did not result in smart handling of available funds.

 

[RUich]

No conference wants all of its teams to be tough. Nobody would ever be in
the race for the NC.

 

[e5fdny]

Well said by all. Spending big dollars on a big name coach could easily make things worse. We could be back to "coaches graveyard" status (if we are not already there) if we hire a big name coach and he fails.

Flood and Ash failing.. people can think just bad hires. But if we hire a guy who is really just looking for one more payday.. who has a name as a winner.. and he won't put in the same effort here as he did elsewhere.. and he fails.. then people can say.. "well, if XXX can't win there.. it is hopeless". Heck, story was that GS called JoePA asking for advice about taking the Rutgers job and JoePA said NO, don't do it. He probably just was thinking of himself.. of not wanting to compete with GS for recruits...

Bottom line.. as you say.. It is not how much you spend, it’s how you do it.

We need to line up people who know how to put together a football program before we plunk down big money on a coach. Clearly our process to select JH, retain Flood, hire Hobbs (as far as football is concerned) and his contract for Ash did not result in smart handling of available funds.

It’s probably not a popular opinion around here but I think Julie and to some extent Chris Ash do know what it takes. But by either being hamstrung by a lack of cash (and confidence by those giving the money) in Julie’s case and the inability to implement/get done what he wants in Ash’s case shows they maybe weren’t up to the task HERE. Maybe somewhere else, but not Rutgers.

The right fit...

 

[LotusAggressor]

Remember the TV ratings we got in 2006? I'm sure the Big Ten is aware of it and it might be the main reason they took us. So with that said, wouldn't it be in the best interests of the Big Ten to step up the full share of money we get from them so we can afford to fire this clown and hire a top notch coach?

It's in the best interest of the B1G to make sure Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State are good. Adding Rutgers expands the recruiting footprint for those programs so that they can add even more players from a talent rich area. Road games at RU are essentially recruiting trips now. Many of the people in NY & NJ are fans whatever B1G program is currently winning.

What would this administration do with a full share? In 3 years, they haven't even managed to wipe off the clown makeup. What will more money in their hands change?

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

It’s probably not a popular opinion around here but I think Julie and to some extent Chris Ash do know what it takes. But by either being hamstrung by a lack of cash (and confidence by those giving the money) in Julie’s case and the inability to implement/get done what he wants in Ash’s case shows they maybe weren’t up to the task HERE. Maybe somewhere else, but not Rutgers.

The right fit...

Barchi was never President of an FBS football-playing university.
Julie never had any football program responsibilities.
Flood was never a head coach before.
Hobbs never had any football program responsibilities nor was he an AD of a FBS school.
Ash has never been a head coach before.

Is it that simple? Yes, I think so.

Then again, BM was never an AD before.. he selected GS.. GS, basically, selected Pernetti and Pernetti had been a schollie football player here and had been involved in football in different ways.. College Sports Channel for example.

Lets get Mulcahy to make the next football hire.

 

[e5fdny]

Barchi was never President of an FBS football-playing university.
Julie never had any football program responsibilities.
Flood was never a head coach before.
Hobbs never had any football program responsibilities nor was he an AD of a FBS school.
Ash has never been a head coach before.

Is it that simple? Yes, I think so.

Then again, BM was never an AD before.. he selected GS.. GS, basically, selected Pernetti and Pernetti had been a schollie football player here and had been involved in football in different ways.. College Sports Channel for example.

Lets get Mulcahy to make the next football hire.

Julie learned at the side of (from what many on here called) the best AD in the country with a FBS/P5 program. She wanted to get rid of Flood but as I mentioned before couldn’t get it done. That’s on her.

She might have been the right people at some point, just not the right time or place.

Bob and Greg worked because they were both right people, right time for Rutgers.

Need to stop treating everything as an internship/learn on the job thing and get people who have actually been there/done that.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Julie learned at the side of (from what many on here called) the best AD in the country with a FBS/P5 program. She wanted to get rid of Flood but as I mentioned before couldn’t get it done. That’s on her.

She might have been the right people at some point, just not the right time or place.

Bob and Greg worked because they were both right people, right time for Rutgers.

Need to stop treating everything as an internship/learn on the job thing and get people who have actually been there/done that.

The way I read Julie's resume was that Jurich just wanted to deal with the money sports.. football and mens basketball and left everything else to Julie. He could not be bothered with it. She had MORE control of all the non-revenue sports than most assistant ADs.. but was less involved in football and mens basketball.

 

[ZMR512]

I don't think the B1G's bottom line is impacted much whether Rutgers goes 0-12 or 12-0. The same amount of TV money rolls in. The same amount of teams earn postseason money.

 

[zeek55]

The conference won't step in to help schools lift themselves off the mat.


As an alum of Northwestern, I can tell you we had 23 years of misery, and nobody at the Big Ten really cared as long as we were fielding a team.

We had a President and Board of Trustees full of academic types that were extremely skeptical of the need to even field varsity athletic teams at the Big Ten level for most of that period. They thought that the varsity student-athletes were simply lesser students in terms of academic achievement and couldn't see the point to having the teams.


It wasn't until Pat Ryan and others that were huge sports backers (themselves having been varsity players) became trustees and challenged that point of view that we began to see changes.


And the ultimate reality is that it comes down to coaches: we were extremely fortunate that Gary Barnett was willing to come and believed that he could take a program that had 23 years of 0-4 win seasons and completely turn it around and take it to the Rose Bowl.


Even then we still had administrators who couldn't fathom paying a coach big money or giving big raises, and Gary Barnett left on pretty unhappy terms but also because he wanted to go to Colorado. Plenty of administrators couldn't understand why we needed to spend on sports facilities or higher salaries.


We ended up extremely fortunate to grab Randy Walker and he hired Fitz as an assistant and was grooming him to be HC. His widow often said that he would have retired in 2011 and put Fitz in charge. And now we hope Fitz coaches for the next 30 years and can be the modern day father of a good program.


Obviously, it's going to be hard to duplicate that anywhere else, but finding somebody who's young and really believes in Rutgers is the best way.

At first, you might need somebody who views Rutgers as a stepping stone to turn the program around immediately, but finding someone who can be here for 20+ years should be the ultimate goal. The stability that programs like Wisconsin (Alvarez and now possibly Chryst), Michigan State (Dantonio), and Iowa (Fry and Ferentz) have is a huge key to long-term success. Find somebody who can get Rutgers to 6-8 win seasons regularly and may shoot higher to 10 wins on occasion.

 

[e5fdny]

The conference won't step in to help schools lift themselves off the mat.


As an alum of Northwestern, I can tell you we had 23 years of misery, and nobody at the Big Ten really cared as long as we were fielding a team.

We had a President and Board of Trustees full of academic types that were extremely skeptical of the need to even field varsity athletic teams at the Big Ten level for most of that period. They thought that the varsity student-athletes were simply lesser students in terms of academic achievement and couldn't see the point to having the teams.


It wasn't until Pat Ryan and others that were huge sports backers (themselves having been varsity players) became trustees and challenged that point of view that we began to see changes.


And the ultimate reality is that it comes down to coaches: we were extremely fortunate that Gary Barnett was willing to come and believed that he could take a program that had 23 years of 0-4 win seasons and completely turn it around and take it to the Rose Bowl.


Even then we still had administrators who couldn't fathom paying a coach big money or giving big raises, and Gary Barnett left on pretty unhappy terms but also because he wanted to go to Colorado. Plenty of administrators couldn't understand why we needed to spend on sports facilities or higher salaries.


We ended up extremely fortunate to grab Randy Walker and he hired Fitz as an assistant and was grooming him to be HC. His widow often said that he would have retired in 2011 and put Fitz in charge. And now we hope Fitz coaches for the next 30 years and can be the modern day father of a good program.


Obviously, it's going to be hard to duplicate that anywhere else, but finding somebody who's young and really believes in Rutgers is the best way.

At first, you might need somebody who views Rutgers as a stepping stone to turn the program around immediately, but finding someone who can be here for 20+ years should be the ultimate goal. The stability that programs like Wisconsin (Alvarez and now possibly Chryst), Michigan State (Dantonio), and Iowa (Fry and Ferentz) have is a huge key to long-term success. Find somebody who can get Rutgers to 6-8 win seasons regularly and may shoot higher to 10 wins on occasion.

I have been preaching the Rutgers version of what our Northwestern friend is saying here for years.

We still aren’t all pointing in the same direction.

 

[Hondo77]

Under the current economic model why should they care?