Say what you want about Hobbs, but the dude deserves credit. This has to be the best year RU athletics has ever seen. We truly compete for championships now.
Thank you Pat Hobbs
- Thread starter ouchmyknee
- Start date
RU weekend- Women and Men’s in championship games in lax vs Maryland and 1st place RU baseball vs Maryland The two newbies in B1G.
Go RU
Go RU
I've been thinking the same to myself of late. What does the spring sports landscape in the B1G look like without the addition of Rutgers and Maryland? We are the leaders in baseball, men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse.
I doubt other Big Ten teams are happy that Maryland and Rutgers have joined the league and the same rationale applies to Penn State in football and wrestling.
People forget what Rutgers athletics was like when Pat took over. Rutgers athletics was at a very low point and a laughing stock. Awful facilities, multiple embarrassing gaffes by the previous AD, and programs that could hardly compete and were failing. That was 7 short years ago.
I remember in 2014 meeting an older Ohio State fan in Arizona after the announcement that RU was joining the B1G. He was not being snarky when he politely asked me if this was a joke and was it for real.
I’ve told the story before but when an advance team of administrators for the B1G came to visit Rutgers for the first time they left very unimpressed.
Not just with the facilities but with the answers they got from Rutgers folks on certain questions they asked.
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anon_ivydyf0amkzay
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We weren’t picked to join the conference because of our athletic pedigree. MD at least had some success to their history…we are only in the b1g, at least to start, because of our geography. Sometimes it really is better to be lucky than good.
Still, it would have been nice if Athletics studied for the test.
How old is Pat? What does his contract look like? How long does he stay here? Does he have political aspirations? Just curious...
Win and they will come. These sports are all littered with NJ's and the surrounding areas best and brightest. You get our areas best and you will win this Conference in every sport.
A time where participation was merely good enough. Barchi simply continued that ball rolling when we entered the B1G. I get it, they didn't have much money. But when that revelation was revealed, I couldn't help it my heart just sunk.
Special thanks more so to the coaches and the student athletes who are directly responsible for the success !
Im not trying to minimize the Hobbs factor ( emphasis on all programs / fundraising / practice facilities etc ) but it takes great coaching / loyalty and dedication of the programs student athletes in baseball and lacrosse and their families first and foremost that breeds success and then hopefully sustains success !
Outside of his initial hire, the guy has fired on all cylinders. We are becoming what the rest of the B1G feared. Football will always be the challenge, but it’s great to see the entire athletic department doing well.
The men's lacrosse teams might be happy that the conference then qualified for an AQ for the tournament.
Rutgers was really bad when they first joined the B1G. I was happy with any win and close losses. I was always waiting for RU to lose at the end. Or come up just short during a comeback, Still not use to the comebacks and holding on to win at the end when momentum is against RU. A great time to be an RU fan!
Hobbs made some very good hires, so he gets some of the credit. The coaches and of course the student athletes. Excellent trainers, support staff, and everyone working in the athletic department,
Kudos for continuing to turn the ship around. We can now have goals like competing for championships instead of finishing out of the basement, or at best in the top half.
Awesome to see so many teams ranked these days and the improvement has truly been remarkable!
Instead of anywhere but RU, it’s now why not?
Hobbs made some very good hires, so he gets some of the credit. The coaches and of course the student athletes. Excellent trainers, support staff, and everyone working in the athletic department,
Kudos for continuing to turn the ship around. We can now have goals like competing for championships instead of finishing out of the basement, or at best in the top half.
Awesome to see so many teams ranked these days and the improvement has truly been remarkable!
Instead of anywhere but RU, it’s now why not?
First thing written on the black/white board for a team’s season goals:
Win B1G championship
Not pie in the sky anymore, it’s really real.
And as @koleszar said, for many of the other sports the bulk of your talent, not just roster spots, is within a car ride to school.
You overlook that without the emphasis on all programs/fundraising/practice facilities etc, we would not be where we are. You know, build it and they will come. When Pat started, there was not much of anything.
Who hired the coaches of the successful programs? Those coaches would not be here but for Hobbs. And who was AD when athletics spearheaded the fundraising to bring in the Barnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, the Rodkin Center and the numerous other improvements to facilities? Do you think student athletes would choose to come here if RU was still flailing around like it was in 2014-15 with the crappy facilities?
Rutgers football went 8-5 in it’s first year in the B1G…and crushed UNC in a Bowl.
Winning is also attracting the best and brightest academically as well. RU's incoming class has the highest GPA/SAT scores in school history. No doubt winning in sports has helped contribute to NJ students finally staying over paying double to go to a weaker school academically like Delaware or Temple.
I beg to differ because this is like thanking the Hospital CEO for saving your life. CEO did things like fundraising etc to improve infrastructure / equipment but it’s the doctors and nurses that make all the difference - a la the coaches and student athletes of the teams.
Hobbs has a done an admirable job as AD but I’m not going to go overboard with him - like many now do - considering the Ash hire setting back football for a decade and the demise of Womens BB under his watch.
Hobbs has hired most of these coaches. You can’t not give him credit for that.
I do credit Hobbs for hiring the right coaches and putting us in position to win. I also credit Hobbs immensely for hiring Pikiell- with Mens BB being my #1 passion.
But it’s the coaches and student athletes who deserve the credit for the success of Baseball and Lacrosse- and in every sport.
I also do not thank Hobbs for the disaster with FB with the Ash hire and whether we ll ever be able to rebound and the current disaster with Women BB which used to be our crown jewel!
Just being fair and balanced and objective!
I guess we are on opposite sides, but sorry you seem like a glass half full kind of fan, among plenty on this board. Focus on the negative, ignore the positive, and don't give credit where it is due, or at least denigrate the credit.
Set back football a decades--really? You do realize that Ash was effectively hired and foisted upon him as the leading candidate the moment he walked in the door, don't you? And you blame him for retaining a Hall of Fame coach, widely regarded as one of the best collegiate coaches in any sport for "the demise of women's BB"? --that's just the strangest take I've seen on this board in a long time. Rutgers women's BB went 20-12 (7-9), 22-10 (13-5), 22-9 (11-7), and 14-5 (10-3) in her last 4 seasons (finishing 3rd in the conference twice and making the NCAA tournament twice) on the sidelines. If that is a demise, I want to see more of my sports teams in demise.
Was Pat supposed to have a crystal ball and predict she would not coach this past season?
If there was a grading system for athletic directors Hobbs would be a B+ at this point. Not even a question.
Was it the D grade in Dance Appreciation that hurt his GPA? 😁
I’m fair / balanced and objective.
I gave Hobbs compliments per my posts above and criticism because it’s warranted
Where we differ is that you rarely will ever criticize as the world and Rutgers and the Mets are always 1 lovely oyster - though mostly true with the Mets now. 🤞
Rutgers is recovering from the Ash hiring fiasco.
Many times hiring a coordinator for his first HC position isn't a good move for a P-5 Conference AD
So Hobbs did make a mistake there, but success is never guaranteed and mistakes are made when hiring HCs
Seems like Hobbs did make some good hires and wound up hiring someone who seems like he can make RU FB a winner like it was 10 or so years ago. ( but hope a bigger winner than that, because the lack of top bowl games and BE Championships caused some fans to complain)
As for Women's Basketball, a disaster last year but RU stll has a decent reputation in the college basketball world and the right HC hire should be able to put that program on track to greatness again .All is not lost there, only looks a litte cloudy at the moment. .
Hobbs deserves praise for some of the things he has accomplished , considering the years of neglect he had to overcome.
But on other issues we must take a wait and see attitude before acting like he's the greatest or complaining about his hires like that can't be fixed .
And saying "it's time" to a historic pioneer is very tricky to handle.
Again, to saddle Hobbs with the Ash hire is kind of ludicrous when the deal was essentially done when he walked in the door. More ludicrous is to assail him for the "extension" which was mandatory under the contract if there were NCAA sanctions.
But there isn’t . And football needs to get respectable for the athletic department to be considered a success under hobbs leadership . I.believe Greg is on the way to doing it .
That’s right…in real estate and P5 sports, it’s location, location, location.
That was the impact of Greg’s final recruiting classes.
