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Rutgers hires Chris Ash as next head football coach
As soon as Chris Ash took the podium, it was easy to see why University President Robert L. Barchi and Athletic Director Patrick Hobbs hired the energetic 41-year-old co-defensive coordinator from Ohio State as the next head football coach at Rutgers.
With a jam-packed team room at the Hale Center flooded with journalists, cameras and other onlookers waiting for the Scarlet Knights' next head coach to speak, Ash might have very well won his opening press conference from the moment he took the podium.
"I'm gonna try to lighten this room up a little bit," he said after thanking Hobbs for introducing him. "There's a lot of serious looks in here and we've gotta get some smiles going here at Rutgers right now."
If his first impression was any indication, Ash could be the one to turn the Rutgers football community's frowns upside-down.
After his Memorandum of Agreement was signed in an approval meeting with the Board of Governors on Old Queens Campus in New Brunswick, Ash arrived at the football program's training facility at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway and made a splash in his introductory press conference.
His contract will pay him a base salary of $2 million annually over the next five years, with a $100,000 increase in each year starting March 1, 2017, to headline other incentives of the deal.
He takes over after Kyle Flood's four-year tenure where he went 27-24 with three bowl appearances, but with hopes of getting the Knights back on track after a tumultuous 2015 season where they regressed in a 4-8 season with a 1-7 record in their second year in the Big Ten Conference.
Even more so, Rutgers aims for Ash to straighten up a program that saw seven players arrested over the course of the season with two investigations — one where the head coach, Flood, was suspended for three games with a $50,000 fine for impermissible contact with a faculty member.
But Barchi, who placed his trust in his newly-appointed athletic director to make the best decision for the future of the football program, knew all along that Ash was the perfect fit.
"Over the course of the last week, I've had the chance to spend a fair amount of time with Chris (Ash) and I have to say that I have come to the firm belief that he is the right person for this job," Barchi said.Dec 7 2015