Hi Pat,
I'm sure you are getting many emails to make a change for RU football. My question is why would you double down on Chris Ash? What had he done to get your undivided attention? It's clear he is way over his head and is never going to get it done at RU.
This weekend’s performance against Iowa was PATHETIC. Absolutely pathetic and there is no way any logical, reasonable person can pick apart that game and arrive at the conclusion of, "Yep. Chris Ash is still the coach to get to a successful, winning Rutgers Football team." We have the same problems yet AGAIN. An offense with genuine areas of talent that's on the field for moments and unable to get anything done, and a subsequently gassed defense that, while also talented, becomes too tired to perform. This all points to Ash and also to the ever prevalent idea of the past few years that Ash is just not head coach material at this brutal level of college football. Chris Ash is 8-30. 8-30!!!!
A Rutgers Football team in a good state should give every Rutgers fan reasonable hope that we can compete with most opponents and go bowling, with solid wins over lower and mid-level B1G teams, with potential for a surprise upset opportunity most seasons. Which we have ALREADY HAD IN THIS CONFERENCE.
For some reason I now find myself reminding not just opposing fans of Rutgers' first season in the Big Ten, but Rutgers fans as well. I remember that 2014 season incredibly well. You want to know what happened? I'll list it.
Last night USC played #23 Stanford. Clay Helton and Chris Ash are high up on various oddsmakers lists for coaches in danger of being fired this season. After game two guess which coach clearly looks like he is trying to get firedt? I'll give you a hint: USC shocked ranked Stanford and Rutgers couldn't score a touchdown... AGAIN. I am sick of these blowout-shutouts that have become a staple of this program. Like, people who still support Ash, you do know that Rutgers has been shut out more times than all Big Ten teams combined and more than any FBS team since 2016, right? You know that reflects incredibly poorly on a coaching staff and is downright embarrassing to the program, right?
That UMass game meant nothing for forecasting the rest of this season—rather, it showed us a lot about where we actually are. That slow start and being behind UMass to come back for only a 48-21 win when, by the way, UMass got clobbered by Southern Illinois this past weekend already showed that Rutgers is not ready for the rest of this brutal season and that in Ash’s fourth year we are going to see more of the same and will continue to be dragged down further.
Please help me understand, why you have “full confidence in Chris Ash.”? Meanwhile, Chris Ash has put Rutgers so incredibly far behind when, as just one example, Maryland, the team we joined the conference with, is having what looks to be an outstanding season ahead with a brand new coach; and they’re currently ranked 21. When’s the last time Rutgers was ranked? If you're a Rutgers fan and you look around at other teams’ progress and don’t get envious and angry, and continue to INSIST for some reason that Ash is still the guy, you are, quite frankly, delusional or knowingly lying to yourself and others.
Four years of Ash is going to have another type of fallout. Rutgers Football is now going to have been bad for a full generation of college students. Freshmen to Seniors. That's an entire generation of students who never saw Rutgers win big, and will likely not develop a major affinity towards Rutgers Football which tends to happen with bad teams across the country. Take a look at Vanderbilt for example whose stadium was 75% Georgia fans for their season opener. Also, as a personal aside, Rutgers is about to have an entire generation of marching band members that will never experience a bowl game. This lack of winning will undoubtedly cost Rutgers donation money in the future as there is a direct correlation between athletic success and alumni support. Therefore, if you have alumni that didn't become team fans to begin with (and there are already cultural problems in Rutgers and New Jersey that make this hard) you’re effectively throwing away a huge amount of support. Also, Rutgers being awful at football is costing Rutgers money NOW. Season tickets sales were already poor this year, so imagine the season ticket sales if Ash is still around next year coming off of probably bad 2019 season. The fanbase is becoming tired, fed up, and their interest is waning, and I don’t blame them. Ash's buyout is WORTH IT. Just DO IT ALREADY. Sure, wait til after the season, so the buyout is reduced, I guess, but he cannot continue to drag Rutgers Football to new lows in 2020. I assure everyone there will be no hard feelings, his buyout is a few million thanks to, for some reason, a contract extension to 2022 made in 2017 when Ash had just come off a 4-8 season.
I want Rutgers to take these next two weeks, this bye before the Boston College game, and make amazing, out of this world adjustments and come out blazing. But when has this team under Ash ever proven to be capable of doing that? And even if they do come out and beat Boston College, then maybe Liberty (I don’t expect us to beat any conference teams this year based on a simple look around, but hey we will be 3-9 (maybe 4-8) really what we’re going for in year four of this head coach? It sure as hell shouldn’t be. The bar is a bowl game. That’s the only way I’ll be proven wrong.
Rutgers deserves an amazing football team. We don’t deserve the suffering and pain that has come with this team’s performance of the past few years.So Mr. Hobbs, please make a change, I can't understand your undying support for Coach Ash. If your not willing to make a change, than maybe you need to go with him.
I'm sure you are getting many emails to make a change for RU football. My question is why would you double down on Chris Ash? What had he done to get your undivided attention? It's clear he is way over his head and is never going to get it done at RU.
This weekend’s performance against Iowa was PATHETIC. Absolutely pathetic and there is no way any logical, reasonable person can pick apart that game and arrive at the conclusion of, "Yep. Chris Ash is still the coach to get to a successful, winning Rutgers Football team." We have the same problems yet AGAIN. An offense with genuine areas of talent that's on the field for moments and unable to get anything done, and a subsequently gassed defense that, while also talented, becomes too tired to perform. This all points to Ash and also to the ever prevalent idea of the past few years that Ash is just not head coach material at this brutal level of college football. Chris Ash is 8-30. 8-30!!!!
A Rutgers Football team in a good state should give every Rutgers fan reasonable hope that we can compete with most opponents and go bowling, with solid wins over lower and mid-level B1G teams, with potential for a surprise upset opportunity most seasons. Which we have ALREADY HAD IN THIS CONFERENCE.
For some reason I now find myself reminding not just opposing fans of Rutgers' first season in the Big Ten, but Rutgers fans as well. I remember that 2014 season incredibly well. You want to know what happened? I'll list it.
- 7-5 main season.
- 8-5 overall with a dominating bowl WIN over ACC opponent North Carolina
- Went TOE-TO-TOE with Penn State in a heartbreaker loss that in spite of the pain I would take a million times over the performance we had Saturday
- Beat Michigan
- Beat a Mike Leach coached Washington State at an away opener
- We established ourselves as not at the bottom of the B1G East with huge comeback wins over Indiana and Maryland.
Last night USC played #23 Stanford. Clay Helton and Chris Ash are high up on various oddsmakers lists for coaches in danger of being fired this season. After game two guess which coach clearly looks like he is trying to get firedt? I'll give you a hint: USC shocked ranked Stanford and Rutgers couldn't score a touchdown... AGAIN. I am sick of these blowout-shutouts that have become a staple of this program. Like, people who still support Ash, you do know that Rutgers has been shut out more times than all Big Ten teams combined and more than any FBS team since 2016, right? You know that reflects incredibly poorly on a coaching staff and is downright embarrassing to the program, right?
That UMass game meant nothing for forecasting the rest of this season—rather, it showed us a lot about where we actually are. That slow start and being behind UMass to come back for only a 48-21 win when, by the way, UMass got clobbered by Southern Illinois this past weekend already showed that Rutgers is not ready for the rest of this brutal season and that in Ash’s fourth year we are going to see more of the same and will continue to be dragged down further.
Please help me understand, why you have “full confidence in Chris Ash.”? Meanwhile, Chris Ash has put Rutgers so incredibly far behind when, as just one example, Maryland, the team we joined the conference with, is having what looks to be an outstanding season ahead with a brand new coach; and they’re currently ranked 21. When’s the last time Rutgers was ranked? If you're a Rutgers fan and you look around at other teams’ progress and don’t get envious and angry, and continue to INSIST for some reason that Ash is still the guy, you are, quite frankly, delusional or knowingly lying to yourself and others.
Four years of Ash is going to have another type of fallout. Rutgers Football is now going to have been bad for a full generation of college students. Freshmen to Seniors. That's an entire generation of students who never saw Rutgers win big, and will likely not develop a major affinity towards Rutgers Football which tends to happen with bad teams across the country. Take a look at Vanderbilt for example whose stadium was 75% Georgia fans for their season opener. Also, as a personal aside, Rutgers is about to have an entire generation of marching band members that will never experience a bowl game. This lack of winning will undoubtedly cost Rutgers donation money in the future as there is a direct correlation between athletic success and alumni support. Therefore, if you have alumni that didn't become team fans to begin with (and there are already cultural problems in Rutgers and New Jersey that make this hard) you’re effectively throwing away a huge amount of support. Also, Rutgers being awful at football is costing Rutgers money NOW. Season tickets sales were already poor this year, so imagine the season ticket sales if Ash is still around next year coming off of probably bad 2019 season. The fanbase is becoming tired, fed up, and their interest is waning, and I don’t blame them. Ash's buyout is WORTH IT. Just DO IT ALREADY. Sure, wait til after the season, so the buyout is reduced, I guess, but he cannot continue to drag Rutgers Football to new lows in 2020. I assure everyone there will be no hard feelings, his buyout is a few million thanks to, for some reason, a contract extension to 2022 made in 2017 when Ash had just come off a 4-8 season.
I want Rutgers to take these next two weeks, this bye before the Boston College game, and make amazing, out of this world adjustments and come out blazing. But when has this team under Ash ever proven to be capable of doing that? And even if they do come out and beat Boston College, then maybe Liberty (I don’t expect us to beat any conference teams this year based on a simple look around, but hey we will be 3-9 (maybe 4-8) really what we’re going for in year four of this head coach? It sure as hell shouldn’t be. The bar is a bowl game. That’s the only way I’ll be proven wrong.
Rutgers deserves an amazing football team. We don’t deserve the suffering and pain that has come with this team’s performance of the past few years.So Mr. Hobbs, please make a change, I can't understand your undying support for Coach Ash. If your not willing to make a change, than maybe you need to go with him.
