Chris Ash answers questions about Rutgers players involved in credit card fraud
Eight Rutgers football players, four of which have already left the program, have been charged in a credit card fraud scheme in which $11,000 was reportedly stolen.
Head coach Chris Ash recently addressed the situation regarding those players and how he plans to keep players from trotting down a similar path.
“Any time you have members of your family make poor decisions and get into trouble, it’s discouraging, it’s frustrating and it hurts,’’ Ash said, according to NJ.com.
Ash didn’t shy away from questions about the situation, or how he plans to handle them in the future. He acknowledged that it’s nearly impossible to keep tabs on the 100-plus student-athletes associated with the program.
But how does he plan to keep these sort of issues at a minimum?
“It’s always a good question,” Ash said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I never made any promises when I took this job other than the fact we are going to do everything we can to bring in the right type of player that fits our culture and understands our standards. We’re going to control the things that we can control, and that’s the level of education we give our players, the constant communication that we give our players and the motivation to make good decisions.
“When you’re dealing with over 100 players that are ages 18-22 on a college campus, issues are going to come up. We understand that; we know that. Our job is to limit those issues and hopefully not allow them to be big ones. That’s all we can control. We can control our response to issues that come up.”
Four of the players associated with the credit card fraud charges have already left the program.
Rutgers is coming off a 4-8 season and is hoping to improve again in 2018 and potentially challenge for bowl eligibility. But this wasn’t exactly the kind of start Ash and the Scarlet Knights were anticipating.
The Scarlet Knights open the season on Saturday against Texas State.