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Chris Ash after loss to Kansas: ‘Sometimes these things take four, five, even six years’

Kevin Cunningham

By Kevin Cunningham

Published:

Week 3 proved to be a tough one for a lot of Big Ten teams.

Wisconsin was shocked by BYU, while Maryland, Nebraska and Northwestern each lost games they were favored to win. Rutgers was supposed to keep it close at Kansas, too, but the Jayhawks dismantled the Scarlet Knights 55-14.

Kansas, who was thought to possibly be the worst team of any Power 5 school, proved that Rutgers wasn’t even on its level. Perhaps the worst loss for any Big Ten team this past weekend was the one Rutgers suffered.

After the 41-point blowout, Scarlet Knights coach Chris Ash — who is in his third season at Rutgers — talked to the media about the game and rebuilding the program altogether.

“We came here. We had a plan,” Ash said. “There are a lot of things that go into turning around a program, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

“Sometimes these things take four, five, even six years. I’ve seen it when I was at Iowa State — it was our sixth year when we went to a bowl game. We’re not trying to wait that long. We want to win as fast as we can. But we want to do it the right way.

“Nobody said it was going to happen overnight. We’ve got a lot of young players that are playing right now. We’ve got to get those as good as we can as fast as we can. We’ve got to evaluate everything we’re doing and who we’re doing it with.

“We’ve got to get better. Again, I’m sitting here telling you, nobody said this was going to be easy. This is a tough turnaround. For anybody that’s frustrated more than me, I’d like to see it. I’m frustrated. But I also know we’re going to keep working.”

More of what Ash said can be read here.

Of course Ash, Rutgers and the Scarlet Knights fans aren’t trying to wait six years. That’s the real question, though: Does Ash have six years to try and prove that his rebuild will eventually work? Or will he lose his job in the process?

Time will only tell, but Saturday’s trip to Kansas didn’t satisfy anybody — except the Jayhawks.

Kevin Cunningham

Kevin covers Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.