Chris Ash was lobbed a softball when he got to the podium on Monday.

For the new Rutgers coach, it was a chance to knock it out of the park. There haven’t been many softballs delivered at Rutgers the last three months. Questions about home invasions, drug arrests, coach suspensions and losing football flooded — pun intended — press conferences on a regular basis. Call it media hardball if you want. In the East Coast market, there was no avoiding the mess that was Rutgers football in 2015.

When Ash was introduced, he was asked about whether or not the goal every year was winning national championships. After all, he came from Ohio State, where every game the Buckeyes played the last two years had national title implications.

It was a softball. All he had to say was, “Sure, I believe we can turn this into a championship program if we’re willing to make the sacrifices.” He would’ve hardly been the first or the last coach to drop a line like that at an introductory press conference.

Instead, he shortened up.

“The wins will come. Hopefully championships will come. But that’s not my focus,” he said. “That’s not going to be the program’s goal, at least early on. It’s about getting better every single day.”

That sounds simple, but it was something Rutgers administration, boosters, fans and players needed to hear. In this what-have-you-done-for-me-lately era of college football, Ash is not coming into a turn-key job. It isn’t like Michigan, where Jim Harbaugh came in and maximized some previously underachieving talent. It isn’t even like Maryland, where D.J. Durkin’s focus is mainly to rebuild the product on the field.

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There’s more cleanup needed at Rutgers.

Ash knows that. He’s prepared for that. When he withdrew from consideration for the Syracuse job, he faced the reality that tough times were still ahead. Those problems are greater than losing their best player, Leonte Carroo, to the NFL draft.

The program is still working with the NCAA about problems within the athletic department under the previous regime. There was even talk that there could be NCAA sanctions if Rutgers was hiding even more misconduct within the football program.

Kyle Flood and Julie Hermann’s negligence set the program back. Even if the NCAA doesn’t find anything, you can bet opposing coaches will be quick to bring up the cloud hovering over Rutgers on recruiting visits. They’d be foolish not to. Still, all of that information was disclosed to Ash in the interview process by newly hired athletics director Patrick Hobbs.

Speaking of the interview process, Ash apparently crushed that, too.

“In 25 years in higher education, he’s the single best interview I’ve had with any individual,” Hobbs said. “And I say that not because it was a polish or like an interview technique. He is the person that came to this with the most knowledge of Rutgers and where we are, with a plan in his head for how we were going to attack this and what we were going to do; with clear thoughts about the type of staff that would have to be put together.

“I can’t tell you, I wish if I could have recorded that interview, I would play it for people just to see if you want to interview for a job and you want to know how to prepare for a job, this is what you do.”

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That was the overwhelming consensus following Ash’s Rutgers debut. The guy is prepared.

He better be because the challenge is a great one. He has to win back the state of New Jersey and not let Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer come in and nab local recruits. Even though he’s a defensive mind, Ash has to settle on an offensive identity running the spread attack he plans on using. And, perhaps above all else, he has to disassociate the program with criminals.

All of that will be easier said than done. It could take a few years before Rutgers regains relevancy, especially in the loaded B1G East.

Hobbs didn’t swing for the fences with his first hire. He didn’t try to land some big name because ultimately, that won’t get Rutgers closer to sustained success in the B1G. Only time will tell if Ash can live up to the words that he repeated on Monday.

But if his first impression was any indication of Rutgers’ future, Ash will crush it.

“I want to build a first-class program at the university and the state and the people that live here and support us, are happy and proud to say they are part of the Rutgers football program. That’s what I want at the end of the day,” he said. “If I can do that, the wins will come, a ranking will come, all of those things that everybody wants, and how I’m going to ultimately be measured here will come.

“But there’s a process to get to that.”