Rutgers football: What we learned from Chris Ash’s presser 8/26/19

Monday afternoon Rutgers football head coach Chris Ash held the first of his weekly press conferences for the 2019 season ahead of the Friday’s season opener against UMass. This is what we learned.

The 2019 season is just days away. In advance of Friday night’s season opener at home against the University of Massachusetts, Rutgers football coach Chris Ash held the first of his weekly press conferences. He, like all college football fans, is excited for the 2019 season to begin.

Ash looked very confident at the podium for a coach whose seat is so hot right now it needs its own cooling system. He spoke in general about this week’s opponent, Massachusetts and the difficulty of game planning against their new head coach.

Tickets sales for the Scarlet Knights this season are sluggish. While Ash didn’t acknowledge that directly, he did make an indirect appeal. He wants fans to know that 2019 is a new season. They should give the team a chance and come out to support them.

There were some additional interesting nuggets that came from this week’s presser.

Good Camp

In his opening remarks, Ash was very complimentary of his team. He told the assembled media how proud he was of the way his players worked this summer.

"“I love the team, I love being around them, I love watching them work, I love watching them interact with each other… I would say this is the best training camp we’ve had.”"

The Rutgers football team is relatively healthy. Only a few players will miss the opener, but there are no serious long-term injuries. Ash went on to say how depth is the key to how successful the team will be this season, and that this year’s squad is the deepest he’s had at RU.