Chris Ash isn't spending much time with his wife lately.
"I get here early in the morning, I return phone calls, emails, take notes on some things that I need to try to get done in the next day or two," Ohio State's co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach said Thursday. "When we take a break from game planning over the noon hour, I again make calls, return emails, I do things that I need to get done. And then when we're done, at the end of the day, I'm here late and I go home and I just continue to do work."
Sounds like someone with a pair of high-profile jobs, which is exactly what Ash is trying to equally weigh as the 2015 calendar winds down.
The man mainly responsible for the two-year turnaround of Ohio State's defensive backfield, Ash accepted the head coaching position at Rutgers University nearly three weeks ago. The school officially announced his hire Dec. 7, but before he fully sets his sights on rebooting the dumpster fire in Piscataway, New Jersey, he has one more game to coach under Urban Meyer.
"The one thing I always ask, just be extremely professional about your job, do what you've got to do," Meyer said Thursday. "Because here's the most important person in all of this — people in all of this are the players ... We have a chance to win our 50th game in four years.
"So be very much a professional, and he's done that. Chris has been great."
Ash, though, admits it is quite a bit to handle considering he knows how much work needs to be done to revitalize a Scarlet Knight program run aground by his predecessor, Kyle Flood.
"The balance of time management of getting stuff done here for game planning and the preparation for the bowl game and doing the things I need to do, both talking to coaches that I'm trying to hire, talking to recruits that we're trying to recruit, commits that we're trying to keep committed, all of that stuff is managed throughout the day," Ash said. "And it's a challenge, but it's fun. I've really enjoyed it."
“I've been here for two years. If I sat back and reflected on the time that I came to Ohio State and I listed the things that I would hope to accomplish during my time here, I can tell you I've hit every one of them.”– Chris Ash
The No. 7 Buckeyes play No. 8 Notre Dame New Year's Day in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, looking to win their 12th and final game of the 2015 season. Ohio State's starters at safety, Tyvis Powell and Vonn Bell, along with a few other Buckeyes, are doing their best to make sure Ash remembers that.
"Tyvis does that," Bell said. "He makes sure that he’s in the film room still and not recruiting."
Ash said he doesn't intend to contact any recruits that are committed to Ohio State—"That is just not professional and I'm not going to do that"—something that isn't permitted by his contract. But, it's the principle of the matter, a way of going about things that Ash instilled upon his hire in January 2014.
"I've been here for two years," Ash said. "If I sat back and reflected on the time that I came to Ohio State and I listed the things that I would hope to accomplish during my time here, I can tell you I've hit every one of them."
He wanted to lead a program, and is now the latest in Meyer's extensive coaching tree to earn a top job. Only at Ohio State for two seasons, Ash's impact was felt immensely and he's ready to graduate from the Meyer School of Head Coach Training. Oddly enough, he heads to a competing Big Ten East school.
"Thanks for reminding me," Ash joked when prompted with that information by a reporter.
It's the second time in as many years Meyer is set to lose a dynamite coordinator, after Tom Herman left to become the head coach at Houston. Herman often spoke of needing a mass amount of Red Bull to do what he needed to get done and help Ohio State win the national championship.
Ash didn't mention anything that drastic Thursday, but realizes what he's been a part of in Columbus. Just like Herman did.
"All of the things that I hoped to accomplish by coming here I've been able to do it," Ash said. "I've been surrounded by some really good people and some really good players that have allowed that to happen."
Rutgers isn't going anywhere, anxious for Ash to arrive full-time when he is finished at Ohio State. For now, though, he is juggling the pressure of having two job titles in major college football to prepare for the next step in his and his family's lives.
"It's been a very seamless transition right now. It's been great, Coach Meyer has been great, even though that we are going to be competitors on the field down the road, right now we're still a staff together trying to make sure we finish this thing out the right way," Ash said. "Again, it doesn't feel really any different right now because this week I've been here.
"When I leave here it might feel different, but right now it's been pretty easy to manage."
