UPDATE: Rutgers has confirmed the firing of head coach Chris Ash.
The first firing of a Power 5 coach in 2019 has reportedly happened before the calendar has turned to October. Rutgers has reportedly fired coach Chris Ash on Sunday.
Ash’s tenure at Rutgers did not go well. In three-plus seasons (2016-present), Ash logged an 8-32 record as head coach. The best finish for the Scarlet Knights under Ash was fifth in the Big Ten East (2017). His other two full seasons (2016, 2018), Rutgers finished seventh in the Big Ten East. Ash’s squad was 3-26 in Big Ten conference play during his tenure.
The last three weeks, Rutgers has been outscored 112-16 in losses to Iowa (30-0), Boston College (30-16) and Michigan (52-0).
Ash, 45, started his coaching career in 1997 as a grad assistant at Drake. He has multiple decades of coaching defense, as a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator. Ash’s lone SEC stop was at Arkansas in 2013 as the Razorbacks’ defensive coordinator. After leaving UA, he joined Urban Meyer’s staff at Ohio State as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the 2014 and ’15 seasons.
Rutgers signed Ash to a five-year, $11 million deal in December of 2015.
BREAKING: Chris Ash was fired Sunday as Rutgers head coach in a shakeup that also includes the dismissal of offensive coordinator John McNulty. Nunzio Campanile will take over as interim head coach for the rest of the season. The report: https://t.co/fvF2r1bVBk
— Keith Sargeant (@KSargeantNJ) September 29, 2019
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
