Effort has gone a long way for Rutgers this season. It’s the reason why, despite a lack of talent on the roster, the Scarlet Knights were still fighting for bowl eligibility with two weeks left in the season.

But the effort from Rutgers wasn’t there on Saturday, as the Scarlet Knights were blown out 41-0 by Indiana. At least, head coach Chris Ash doesn’t think it was.

Following the lopsided loss, Ash met with the media to discuss the outcome of the game. He wasn’t too happy with his team’s performance in Bloomington.

“They play hard,” Ash said according to NJ.com. “That’s it — they play hard. They play with good fundamentals and that’s what we try to do and we didn’t do today.”

He was then asked if that statement implied that Rutgers didn’t give full effort on Saturday.

“Until I watch the film, I can’t tell for sure,” Ash said. “But it didn’t feel like we did.

“If I watch the film and we didn’t play hard, that’s on the coaches. We didn’t motivate them right and didn’t get them prepared the right way. If our guys don’t play hard, that’s on me and the coaching staff.”

If Ash determines that his team didn’t play hard on Saturday, it would have to be a frustrating realization. A win would’ve put Rutgers on the verge of bowl eligibility, an incredible leap from where the program was just a season ago. Considering what was at stake, you wouldn’t think motivating players would be a tough thing to do.

We’ll have to wait a few days to see what Ash determines about his team’s effort against Indiana.