Chicago — Chris Ash understands college football is a results-based business. He also knows that a 1-11 record isn’t the type of season that keeps head coaches around for too long.

But since he took the job in 2016, Ash has preached about rebuilding the Rutgers program, and changing the culture in Piscataway. Perhaps signs of progress aren’t showing up in the win-loss column just yet, but Ash likes the progress he’s seen within the program.

“On the inside, in our program, the infrastructure, the culture, the player development is going in the right direction,” Ash said during B1G Media Days. “The results that we want will come, hopefully, sooner than later.”

Ash enters his fourth season with the Scarlet Knights. In the previous three years, Rutgers is just 7-29 with only three B1G wins, all of which came in 2017. To say there have been some growing pains would be a major understatement, but Ash knew what he faced when he took the job.

Just because the wins haven’t come yet, Ash still thinks the program is continuing to grow in ways that aren’t always visible to the public.

“You can grow on the inside without necessarily getting the external results that you want,” Ash said. “Now, I get it. Eventually, you’ve got to start to get the results, and you’ve got to do it sooner than later. That’s just the business that we’re in.

“But, if you want to build a program, you’ve got to do it the right way. You’ve got to have long vision, you’ve got to be patient — urgent with what you do daily but patient with the process to get there. But I understand you’ve got to get there, too.”

For the first time in awhile, Rutgers seems to be entering the season with a little bit of confidence — an odd things to write after a 1-11 season. But the Scarlet Knights return several offensive linemen with game experience, two talented running backs in Raheem Blackshear and Isaih Pacheco and have a quarterback battle between Artur Sitkowski and former Texas Tech starter McLane Carter.

Most importantly, though, Rutgers has the same offensive coordinator returning for the first time this decade, John McNulty. It may be the most momentum the Scarlet Knights have had from one season to the next in the Ash era.

There was no talk of a bowl game or beating one of the blueblood programs this year. While Ash would love to lead Rutgers back to the postseason, the big concern is “are you getting better,” he said.

So far, Ash believes his team is making the kind of progress that will start to deliver results on the field.