CHICAGO – Chris Ash had to learn the hard way in his first season as a head coach.
Ash’s first season at Rutgers couldn’t have gone much worse, at least from an on-field standpoint. The Scarlet Knights went 2-10 and lost all nine of their conference games. They lost to Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State by a combined score of 224-0.
There’s no way to put a positive spin on those results, so Ash isn’t trying. But he is looking forward to his second year on the job.
"Obviously, 2016 wasn’t a great season," Ash said Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days. "It wasn’t fun. It was awful. But we’ve moved on."
Ash, who served as Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, had never been a head coach until Rutgers hired him prior to last season.
His first season at Rutgers provided a harsh dose of reality – by contrast, Ohio State lost only two games and won a national championship in his two years with the Buckeyes – but it taught him some important lessons.
"As a first-year head coach, you learn so much," Ash said. "The first thing I learned, I tell people, is that I learned I can’t do everything. And to be able to trust the staff that you've hired and let them do the job that you've hired them to do."
While Rutgers didn’t win much in his first year on the job, Ash feels as though he got to know his players better and establish a new culture for the program. Now that the players have bought into that culture, Ash expects more on-field success to come.
"We're a lot better football team today because of what we went through a year ago," Ash said. "We went through a lot of adversity, a lot of tough times, a lot of challenges. It brought our football team closer together."
Rutgers defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph says Ash has created a great culture that has strengthened the team’s brotherhood.
"If your team’s not close and there’s no cohesion between all the players, it doesn’t matter how talented you are, you’re not going to win," Joseph said. "The brotherhood is strong, and I think it’s going to continue to grow and just get better thanks to him."
“We're a lot better football team today because of what we went through a year ago.”– Chris Ash
Scarlet Knights cornerback Blessuan Austin says Ash’s standards range from competing with grit and intensity on the field to having a positive attitude and treating people with respect off the field. Austin believes those standards have put Rutgers on a path toward success.
"His plan is infallible, I really feel it is," Austin said. "The standards he has set for us, you have no choice but to reach them, because it’s a team thing. The majority of the team believes in the plan."
Rutgers struggled in all three phases of the game last season, but its biggest issue was its offense. No team in the Football Bowl Subdivision had less yards per game; only Connecticut had less points per game. Ash made a couple of noteworthy moves this offseason in an effort to improve the offense, hiring former Minnesota coach Jerry Kill as offensive coordinator while bringing in former Louisville quarterback Kyle Bolin as a graduate transfer.
Ash said the Scarlet Knights also need better offensive line play and a more effective kicking game. Rutgers’ defense was statistically bad last year too, but Ash said the defense was put in many bad positions due to the offense and kicking game losing the field position battle.
Ash isn’t focusing on beating any specific teams or setting any numerical goals for the 2017 season, but he recognizes that winning more games is a must.
"At the end of the day, I want us to be the best we can be and I want us to start to win games," Ash said. "Who we beat, that doesn’t matter to me. As long as we beat people."
Although they are now competitors in the Big Ten East, Ash says he still keeps in touch with his former boss, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, "on a fairly regular basis." Ash considers himself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for Meyer, and says the lessons he learned from Meyer have been valuable to him as a head coach.
"The No. 1 thing that I’ve probably taken from my time with him at Rutgers is alignment in our building, making sure that our overall organization is working together for the common goal of winning and helping develop our players," Ash said. "It’s about complete alignment and everybody believing in the way that we do business. That’s the thing that struck me the most from him is how he’s able to get that done in his programs. And that’s what we’re trying to accomplish here."
Despite how the 2016 season went, Meyer is confident Ash will ultimately be successful at Rutgers.
"Chris is in it, he’s working and he’s recruiting his tail off," Meyer said. "I think he’s also one of the best I’ve had, and he’ll do fine."
