I'd ask you if Rutgers and I'm referring to the administration and the BOT cares about athletic success ? If they don't then RU students and fans are chasing a pipe dream.
Rutgers needs to go....
- Thread starter LMTLION
- Start date
Ok I am all on board with the "Rutgers should be at least decent" camp. There is enough talent in NJ and surrounding states for them to at least put out a .500 ball club. Here are the number of FBS kids put out in 2018 from NJ and surrounding states, I know several may be JUCO players but still they are right there next to Rutgers
2018 FBS singed by state
PA 66
NJ 57
MD 50
NY 49
DE 2
All of these states touch NJ borders and I am not even including Virginia into this mix.
2018 FBS singed by state
PA 66
NJ 57
MD 50
NY 49
DE 2
All of these states touch NJ borders and I am not even including Virginia into this mix.
Yes and no. The new AD is great and I think he does care but the administration/BOG treats football as an annoyance. Rutgers should be a good basketball school (we were from the late 60's through the early 90's) and Hobbs will get us back there. Pikiell was a tremendous hire. But it's much easier (and cheaper) to be good in basketball. And I think with his proven ability to raise funds and just get stuff done...we have lots of shovels in the ground on new facilities...we will be very good in Olympic/non-revenue sports (we are already seeing it with wrestling). That's why I'd love to see us start a varsity hockey program the way Penn State has and with Hobbs running the show I wouldn't be surprised if it happened within the next 10 years. But football is a different animal for which the administration and the state don't have the stomach to do what's necessary to win. Will that change? Maybe after a few more years of weekly beat downs, enough will be enough. Or maybe we luck out and hit on the next hire. But I wouldn't bet on it.
I agree with most of what you said in your post. I don't believe you're emphasizing the importance of institutional and financial support. At Rutgers there is none because it has been made very clear both publicly and in writing that once we become full B10 members the entire subsidy will be pulled. Once that happens we will be no better off than we are today because alumni support is dismal and donor support is carefully scrutinized. Now, if they cared about the performance of the football program they would leave the subsidy intact for at least 10 years. This will not only give the AD the revenue needed but the confidence to approach a Les Miles, Charlie Strong or a Joe Moorehead. The subsidy would allow a head coach the type of budget to hire battle tested assistants. Trust me, the President, BOT and Professors at Rutgers barely tolerate football and if they are given an ultimatum by the B10 commissioner to improve football performance they will pull out of the B10 and downgrade the program to play in the Patriot league. I'm not kidding.
Last edited:
That would be a fantastic idea. Hockey has been growing in PA and NJ so I believe the interest would be there. The hurdle for hockey is always the enormous up front cost. Hopefully someone steps up in a big way.
Yep, every conference needs a doormat and Indiana just got darned tired of fulfilling that role.
Rutgers football has always been a strange animal.
Lafayette and Lehigh are I believe still Rutgers most played football opponents from the days of the middle 3 conference. As recently as the 70’s they mostly played Ivies, L and L and schools like Colgate. They really do have a lot of history with the Patriot League.
With that being said Rutgers is a power 5 university in terms of student body, alumni and academic facilities. They need to figure out football and basketball right away however.
I noticed that (lack of personality). During a game, he stands all alone, grim-faced and NEVER interacts with his players or his assistant coaches for that matter. Why does he wear a head set? He never seems to use it. Pretty weird stuff.
That would be awesome. Unfortunately, like you said, not every school has a generous benefactor like Terry Pegula willing to pony up $100 million to kick start a hockey program.
It doesn't have to be that much from one person. We built the taj mahal of college hockey arenas for $88 million.
Not to mention a strong infrastructure in place at the club level for decades w/The Icers, and a great leader in Joe Battista out in front of everything during the transition. If some rich guy at Rutgers simply decides to throw a 100 million dollars at hockey it will fail spectacularly without a solid foundation to build it on.
If your last sentence is true, then you need to downgrade the program now and stop wasting time. That’s the simple truth.
You really don't get it, do you? Barchi has said that when Rutgers receives a full share of Big Ten revenue sharing the athletic department will achieve break even status. Translation: football and men's basketball will be making money and the surpluses will be used to fund non-revenue sports. So those subsidies you want to pull out of the pockets of Rutgers students and NJ taxpayers aren't really funding development of the football team, but the wrestling team, the golf teams, the track teams, the baseball team ad nauseum. Why should that happen because none of those sports will ever make money?
Hobbs is a moron. None of the facilities being built will return a dime to the athletic department and Rutgers is guaranteed to overpay for them.
Pernetti actually had some business sense, but Barchi ran him off.
Only way I see Rutgers ever becoming relevant (which means middle of the pack Big Ten program, they will never be a Top 20 program) is they somehow convince a huge money donor to agree to sink $50+ million into RU football and with that money they lure a top younger coach to get on board and build from the ground up with that money going into a combination of upgraded football facilities and general program expenses and assistant coaching salaries.
A. Rugers doesn't have that kind of donor. They didn't raise squat for the redo of the football stadium and that was when Schiano was there and the program had at least a pulse.
B. Rutgers's facilities aren't bad, not great, but not bad. Just finished a new outdoor practice facility and the Hale Center (think Lasch) is in the process of getting a makeover, and it's not that old to begin with.
C. The only coach in recent memory to leave a top program for another one was Jimbo Fisher and there were extenuating circumstances. Any coach brought on is going to be a calculated risk. Given the people making the decisions at Rutgers, its far more risk than it is calculated. Money isn't a huge issue. Add another couple of mil to the existing pot and they have enough, if they know what they're doing
exactly...they spent all the money they had to upgrade their facilities to average at best. they have no money left to upgrade them to better than average. While everybody else that is putting in money to their programs (See NW and Purdue) are just leaving RU in the dust. they have no money to entice in a better coach and staff with the promise of upgrades. and thinking a coach of Jimbo Fisher stature is going to jump ship to Rutgers is crazy. Fisher was unique in that he wore out his welcome at FSU and was at odds with a signficant fraction of the fanbase and Texas A&M grossly overvalued him. But comparing A&M to Rutgers is ludicrous. A&M has elite facilities, a rabid fanbase, and huge money...and is in Texas. all of which RU doesn't have. That was the whole point. The only way they could ever get that program from where they are now which is horrible to respectable is only one of two ways...(1) sheer luck, or (2) $$$$$ in the form of a huge money donor. I know they don't have any so that leads to RU being a doormat of the Big Ten and probably Bottom 3 teams in all of P5 football.
Whatever. At the end of the day, they don't have the money and bleeding NJ taxpayers and Rutgers students, who already pay among the highest in-state tuitions in the country, will go over like a lead balloon. I'd start by: a) finding the right coach who will work for the money available, and there are plenty who'd jump at $2.5mm-$3mm; and b) cutting some other sports, which shouldn't be necessary. But when you've got an AD who is in way over his head and a president who could care less about his university, let alone the athletic department, odds are agin' ya.
I like Ash. Fairly long term contact, doesn’t recruit very well leaving lots of room for Franklin to recruit New Jersey without much competition from in state Rutgers. Not a very creative game day coach. And game time expressions are priceless.
And I don’t mind Rutgers being bad. B1G East has plenty of good teams. If Rutgers was good they would be recruiting better. How is that good for Penn State? I see a very real possibility of hanging 60+ on them this year. Considering how some of their fan behaved a few years ago, I look forward to it.
And I don’t mind Rutgers being bad. B1G East has plenty of good teams. If Rutgers was good they would be recruiting better. How is that good for Penn State? I see a very real possibility of hanging 60+ on them this year. Considering how some of their fan behaved a few years ago, I look forward to it.
So, let me get this straight...you guys were upset when the players, coaches and students who had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal wrongfully suffered penalties and national embarrassment for something they had no control over. So now you are rooting for the current Rutgers players, coaches and students to suffer embarrassment for the comments and behavior of some a##hole fans at a game four years ago by running up the score on them?
There is a difference. In the Penn State case, the kids didn’t have a say. It wasn’t something they could control by coaching better and playing better. And the case had nothing to do with football. The football team was wrongly cast as a villain.
In the Rutgers case, we are only talking about the results of a football game. Coach better. Play better. Most importantly, be better (more classy) fans. And nobody will wish such evil results upon you.
Let me clarify something - Rutgres does NOT matter to the NYC TV market. It’s a fly on the elephant’s ass. Only the Big10 idiocratic leadership thought that and midwestern yahoos that don’t know that market. The NYC population has A LOT grads/fans from virtually every other Big10 school, waaay outpacing what Rutgres brings in viewership. Sure, the crappy Rutgers campus is fairly close to the NYC market (and that’s what Rutgres “pitches”), but it is NOT driving eyeballs to TV screens. TV execs know this.
Yeah, I guess that sums it up pretty well. That’s how a great many of us feel.
It's not about people watching Rutgres. It's about now having a BIG team in the NYC metro footprint.
Well, Franklin had the chance in 2016 and took his foot off the gas. Score was 39-0 but could have been a lot worse. Perhaps your coach doesn’t feel the same way.
If it doesn't translate to actual dollars, what's the point?
I hope Tom Allen takes his foot off the gas. My daughter and her friends feel really bad for the players after a small group of fans started booing at the sidelines at the half. I believe things are beginning to spiral out of control on multiple levels. What a mess!
