What if he's not the right coach?

[RUSK97]

He's obviously a solid DC and I've liked how he conducts himself to date, even through UW and OSU. Though I've questioned his selection of OC since game one and ST coordinator since game two, last night was the first time I started to question whether CA can get the job done. A whole half a season has passed and it's hard to see any progress. In the offseason, many talked about not caring about wins and losses, but accepting progress on the field and seeing fewer blowouts. Still have half a season to go against more manageable competition, but what if he can't get the job done? What if he stubbornly sticks by his assistants who can't get the job done? What if recruiting falls apart? I believe the results will be worse next year before they get better. What if 2018 is more of the same? Or if 2018 is just an upward blip in the third year like Shea had? Will RU look at the big check in 2021 and say, we don't have the stomach for this anymore?

Those with faith far stronger than my own say just trust him and things will get better. I'm starting to have trouble believing that.

 

[RU Mike73]

See ya then.

 

[shields]

He has coached 6 games against a brutal schedule.

 

[brgRC90]

Try herbal tea for relaxation.

 

[ScarletCrimson]

C'mon. Way too early for this.

 

[Blitz Pakage]

Our Offensive Coordinator is working with a bare cupboard. He may or may not be the guy, but you don't fire someone during the season, if that's what you are wishing to do. Ash will reassess the Coaches at the end of the season. Hang in there man. Things will get better.

 

[RUSK97]

Our Offensive Coordinator is working with a bare cupboard. He may or may not be the guy, but you don't fire someone during the season, if that's what you are wishing to do. Ash will reassess the Coaches at the end of the season. Hang in there man. Things will get better.

No, not what I expect at all. I think there's no reason to terminate mid-season ever, except for off the field stuff.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Ahhh geeze come on man. SMH

 

[REDRICH65]

There is no excuse for the performance thru 6 games this year.

 

[RUSK97]

Ok, guess I'm the only one having these doubts - good!

Just saying at this stage in 2012, many, many of you were saying good riddence to Schiano 'cause Flood's the man and undefeated. Not that any of you would admit it now.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

There is no excuse for the performance thru 6 games this year.

Anybody Who was paying attention, or had their sanity, had us at 2-4 after our first six games. Some people actually had us at 1-5. If not for horrible execution on a few plays, by our offense I guess Iowa, we would be 3-3 with all three losses coming to top 5 teams.. Yeah, the last two weeks sucked, but I'm not really sure what you expected.

Or were you one of the guys, pre-season, who thought we would win 6 to 8 games with the talent on this roster?

 

[Rokodesh]

There is no excuse for the performance thru 6 games this year.

As bad as we've been, we've played 3 of the top 5 teams in the country, with a horrible QB, new offense (which doesn't help QB skillset), new defense (including losing 1A and 1B at SLB), losing a senior DE, and our best player. You could not have many more perfect storms that what we are growing through. Nobody is happy, but wait till Ash has a roster full of big ten talent and the QB and receivers who can run his offense. What we're putting out there now would get shutout in the patriot league

 

[KevH]

He's obviously a solid DC and I've liked how he conducts himself to date, even through UW and OSU. Though I've questioned his selection of OC since game one and ST coordinator since game two, last night was the first time I started to question whether CA can get the job done. A whole half a season has passed and it's hard to see any progress. In the offseason, many talked about not caring about wins and losses, but accepting progress on the field and seeing fewer blowouts. Still have half a season to go against more manageable competition, but what if he can't get the job done? What if he stubbornly sticks by his assistants who can't get the job done? What if recruiting falls apart? I believe the results will be worse next year before they get better. What if 2018 is more of the same? Or if 2018 is just an upward blip in the third year like Shea had? Will RU look at the big check in 2021 and say, we don't have the stomach for this anymore?

Those with faith far stronger than my own say just trust him and things will get better. I'm starting to have trouble believing that.

Here's a what if. What if our players and especially our recruits were so easily discouraged? Or... What if Ash IS the right coach?

Look, this RU thing is not for the faint of heart. We need "ride or die" fans with just a fraction of the faith and commitment the players have. The same players who put on that jersey and put their bodies on the line day in and day out. They may have gotten smacked down the past couple of weeks, but they are not alone in that. I think we'll see what's what by season's end, but anybody who doesn't think this is, at minimum a several year road back to respectability is just kidding themselves. Stop panicking... please.

 

[Blitz Pakage]

Of coarse there are always doubts on a new hire! Ash and company have to prove themselves for sure, but after 6 games how can anybody assess anything? I said 2-4 and possibly 3-3 out of the 1st 6. But my upset special did not come through in Iowa. We are at where I thought. The beat downs are tough to swallow, but I knew they were coming. I don't understand why fans are surprised.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Are these the type of chicken sheet threads we are going to see whenever we play a top 5 team? Good grief

 

[shields]

Herbal tea.

 

[RU#1fan]

See ya then.

Him and thousands of others will give up and leave too.
One thing for sure we should have a new OC and Special Teams Coach next year.

 

[bac2therac]

He might not be, anyone saying with certainty that he is the right guy is blowing smoke BUT we will not know the answer to that question probably until his 4th year so either check back then or take a pill

 

[RUaMoose]

This is what happens when you hire a guy with no HCing experience. You waste 2 years getting him up to speed. Been there done that. Al Golden should have been the choice but I guess Ash can put together a mean power point presentation. Can't coach a lick but knows how to interview. Harbaugh saw through his BS at Stanford that's why Harbaugh is where he is.

 

[anon_ivydyf0amkzay]

And us gays are called the drama queens!

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

Would any other D1 teams lose 136 to zip to these two teams or any other two teams? The events of these past two weeks may never be repeated by any other D1 program ever again
I truly hope I am right.

 

[Plum Street]

If he's not the right coach he will get at least 3 years , maybe 4 , and then be fired . Knowing Rutgers we will go on the cheap for the next hire and probably then promote mehringer

 

[Ole Cabbagehead]

This is what happens when you hire a guy with no HCing experience. You waste 2 years getting him up to speed. Been there done that. Al Golden should have been the choice but I guess Ash can put together a mean power point presentation. Can't coach a lick but knows how to interview. Harbaugh saw through his BS at Stanford that's why Harbaugh is where he is.

AL Golden? You realize Al Golden is known as a recruiter, not so much as an X's and O's guy, right? What makes you think an Al Golden led staff would have the current on roster talent in a different place right now? Al Golden won 1 game his first year at Temple (4-8 Bowling Green), 4 games the 2nd year (2-10 NIU, 3-9 Kent State, 4-8 Akron, 6-7 Miami OH), and 5 games in his third year.

People on this board are crazy lately. Everyone in their right mind knew UM would be a blow out since last February. But now people are freaking out because it was a 78-0 blowout and not a 56-14 blowout. The difference between those two scores is pure chance. It has nothing to do with skill.

The coaches rightly will be evaluated at the end of the season, once we can see with some clarity how good we were, how good our opponents were, and how strong the recruiting class is when they sign in February.

 

[BlockR]

Its obviously early but you have to wonder IF Rutgers,again on the cheap, hired a first time head coach,a staff full of first timers and expected Houston like sucess in two years in B10.This rebuild job would be tough on an experienced head coach like a Narduzzi,or Schiano. These are record setting losses,national attention, and its tough to see any direction,improvement that you can point to at all to this today and say this part of team its going in right direction ,on the field.
We shall see,but I have my doubts also at this point,..sorry,being honest.

 

[drewbagel423]

Ash may or may not be the guy, but anybody who thought (thinks?) Al Golden, Greg Roman, or some of the others thrown around on here would be the savior is out of their mind.

 

[bac2therac]

AL Golden? You realize Al Golden is known as a recruiter, not so much as an X's and O's guy, right? What makes you think an Al Golden led staff would have the current on roster talent in a different place right now? Al Golden won 1 game his first year at Temple (4-8 Bowling Green), 4 games the 2nd year (2-10 NIU, 3-9 Kent State, 4-8 Akron, 6-7 Miami OH), and 5 games in his third year.

People on this board are crazy lately. Everyone in their right mind knew UM would be a blow out since last February. But now people are freaking out because it was a 78-0 blowout and not a 56-14 blowout. The difference between those two scores is pure chance. It has nothing to do with skill.

The coaches rightly will be evaluated at the end of the season, once we can see with some clarity how good we were, how good our opponents were, and how strong the recruiting class is when they sign in February.

to be fair there is a big perception difference between 56-14 and 78-0 RUs worst loss in modern times, that wasnt pure chance last night, it was a humiliation of historic proportion

 

[MADHAT1]

He might not be, anyone saying with certainty that he is the right guy is blowing smoke BUT we will not know the answer to that question probably until his 4th year so either check back then or take a pill

I don't agree with waiting till Ash's 4th year or giving Mehringer 4 years before deciding if they are any good , but feel that by the end of their 2nd year they can be judged by the way RU competes against the bottom feeders and middle of pack B1G teams.
Rutgers has a ways to go before the coaching staff should be judged by the way RU plays the best of the B1G.
If that's what you mean by waiting 4 years, I can agree with that point of view.

 

[MADHAT1]

to be fair there is a big perception difference between 56-14 and 78-0 RUs worst loss in modern times, that wasnt pure chance last night, it was a humiliation of historic proportion

I look at it as Harbaugh wanting to outdo Meyer and beating OSU's score against RU.
Rutgers is bad enough that he easily accomplished his mission and didn't need just his starters to do that.

I'm not one who blames a HC for piling it on . I much rather blame the team that wasn't good enough to stop it from happening .
But it does hurt me as a RU FB fan to see Rutgers play bad enough to lose 78-0
and display the type of ineptness that caused a loss like that.

 

[koleszar]

If not for horrible execution on a few plays, by our offense I guess Iowa, we would be 3-3 with all three losses coming to top 5 teams..

Or were you one of the guys, pre-season, who thought we would win 6 to 8 games with the talent on this roster?

I was one of those who thought we would win 6 games this year. If noodle arm completes a simple pitch, a simple crossing pattern, a deep ball to a man who has 3 yds.on his DB or hell just throws the ball away instead of taking a bonehead sack I'm right on schedule at 3-3. But alas he couldn't handle any combination of those simple aspects of the game. Not even one.

Now the injuries have mounted from taking on a schedule the Devil himself wouldn't have wished on his worst adversary. So 6-6 seems like a pipe dream now. But it definitely was within our reach had noodle arm been competent at his job for one game. And the schedule makers been a little more kind at the beginning of the season, instead of sticking it to us with the schedule straight from hell itself in the 1st 6 games.

 

[shields]

The QB play is just horrible. Teams just stack the box.

 

[rufeelinit]

I think its reasonable to have some questions but he deserves a fair shot and we will not know for 2-3 years whether he will get this going in the right direction. There is clearly some OJT going on with this coaching staff. The limited amount of experience particularly on the offensive side is striking. CA decided to go very young with Williams being the guy with the most D-1 experience. On the defensive side he has more balance and I might have thought he would have done just the opposite since he is clearly a defensive guy who does not seem very engaged on the offensive side.

I thought this team primarily on the back of the seniors could win 6 games this year. I did not expect us to beat OSU or Michigan but I certainly did not expect to lose by a combined score of 136-0 and show so little on offense at this point. They are going to need to play much better to beat anyone on their schedule. If they don't develop at least two viable options catching the ball its not gonna happen.

 

[LC-88]

I have no problem with 78-0. I do have a problem with 39 yards of offense. I think Ash will get us there. Not so sure about the OC. As many others have said, next week will tell us alot. Must score points.

 

[mildone]

A whole half a season has passed and it's hard to see any progress.

I rewatch all our games (deleted this past one w/out watching though). And until we played OSU, we showed improvement on offense and defense in each game (specials teams was all Grant and has not improved, IMO). First quarter against OSU we looked improved, somewhat, on D. Michigan obviously didn't show anything positive at all.

FWIW, I don't trust ANY coaches ever. Trust, in the macro sense, doesn't enter the picture for me when it comes to coaches. Coaches get paid to do a job and either do it or not. Me trusting or not trusting them doesn't change anything about that at all.

When it comes to details, I do actually trust the coaches to make better decisions than the fan-base about things like who to put in the two-deep. I trusted Flood that way, despite never once thinking he was any kind of great coach or the guy for the future of RU football. I trust Ash that way now. I would trust any new coach that way without even knowing who it would be. Because the fan-base only has a fraction of the evidence the staff has, and the fan-base clouds its judgement with emotion in ways a coaching staff generally does not.

I went into this season with my eyes open as the difficulties faced by this new, young staff. I figured 2-4 wins and, despite some key injuries, I still think 4 doable, but won't be easy given our lack of depth. A lot depends on how good a job the coaching staff can do at recovering after the past couple weeks.

Basically, I wrote this year off before we played a single game. I will not start forming any hard opinions about this staff until sometime next season. Maybe not even then.

 

[mildone]

Al Golden should have been the choice

[roll]

 

[motorb54]

The QB play is just horrible. Teams just stack the box.

I saw two open receivers last night. Two. For the entire game.
We could of had Peyton Manning back there last night and the results would not have changed.
No time to throw and receivers who don't get separation....it is not all on the QB

 

[mdh2003]

I will not start forming any hard opinions about this staff...

There's a blow and pro joke in there somewhere.

 

[BlockR]

maybe just maybe the staff. Ash and Merhinger should tailor some of the offense sets to the talent thats on the team this year?
is it a law that they have to run the power spread,every damn set of downs?

 

[brgRC90]

What plays can you tailor to receivers that can't get open and a qb who can't even complete passes behind the los?

 

[RU31trap]

I'll say the following. Pay very close attention to the offense during the Illinois game, a team that may be marginally better than us but still very beatable. Initially I thought our fans discontent with Ash was because he stayed at OSU for their playoff game when he should have been here getting acclimated with his new employer. Let's be clear, he did that because he didn't want to burn bridges. On Saturday you will know by the end of the game if Chris Ash is ready to move forward with this program or if we pulled a classic Rutgers and hired a kid who is in over his head.

Let's be clear, you cannot compare Ash to Golden. During Golden's last year at Miami they went 8-4 and two of those loses we're under 6 pts. He recruited top shelf talent every year he was in Miami which is why Richt is having some success. I believe we would have been better off with Golden but your Governor, University President and BOG refused to respect the program by opening up the wallet and hiring a proven commodity. JMHO

 

[OC Knight]

Why is it some are,ready to run this coach out of town after 6 games but we're willing to give that incompetent previous coach as much leeway for years?