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Ron (far right) and Joanna Garutti, with new Rutgers strength and conditioning coach Kenny Parker. The Garuttis have donated $1.25 million to completely revamp the strength and conditioning center at Rutgers.

(Courtesy of Ron Garutti)

Ron Garutti wants to make this clear first. He and his wife are not giving $1.25 million to Rutgers just to revamp the football program's old weight room. They are making the gift to create a strength and conditioning center that will rival the best in the Big Ten.

Garutti, a 1967 graduate of Rutgers College, and his wife Joanna made the pledge after meeting with new Rutgers coach Chris Ash and his strength and conditioning coach Kenny Parker and hearing how they planned to change how Rutgers football players trained.

"When (athletic director) Pat Hobbs and Chris Ash were appointed, we knew we were going to do something, and the only question was, 'Where can we make the greatest impact?'" said Garutti, a member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees and Board of Overseers. "We imagined that the new football coach would have immediate needs so we inquired where we could help."

The priority was clear: Rutgers had to upgrade its weight room. Garutti redirected a previous $250,000 donation to the project, but then on National Signing Day, he and Joanna saw the plans for the new strength and conditioning center and decided to do more.

Their additional $1 million gift will not only create the Ron and Joanna Garutti Strength and Conditioning Center at Rutgers, but will be a boost to Hobbs' $100 million fundraising campaign to improve facilities in Piscataway.

"Anyone who listens to Pat will see he has a vision for athletics," Garutti said. "There is a strong alignment now between the president of the university, the athletic director and the football coach. That comes across to potential donors."

Ash, in an extensive interview with NJ Advance Media, explained that several improvements already have been made since he arrived three months ago but wholesale changes were coming soon.

"The space is fine, but they were lacking equipment in the weight room," Ash said. "A lot of the equipment was outdated. The floor was unsafe. So we attacked a lot of that. We got new equipment in in a short amount of time to help us train the players. We repainted the weight room to help us make it more presentable in recruiting. We've got new motivational signs up.

"We went out and raised the money to completely wipe it out when the semester is over. We need a new floor. We need new racks. We need a whole bunch of stuff so when a recruit comes in here they can go, 'Wow, this is big time, I can get developed and reach my full potential here.' Players that walk in there, they've got every equipment need they need to develop to reach their full potential to compete on Saturday."

Ash said the weight room wasn't comparable to what Big Ten rivals Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State had, and that's a necessity when trying to recruit against those schools.

"At the start of summer workouts, it'll be a completely different room," he said. "It won't be the biggest and the best, but it's going to be in the neighborhood of what other Big Ten schools have."

Garutti hopes their gift will inspire others to give to the $100-million initiative that Hobbs launched last month to bring Rutgers facilities to a Big Ten standard. Hobbs recently met with 100 major donors at the Montclair home of longtime Rutgers athletics supporters Steve Plofker and Bobbi Brown.

"We recognize that everyone can't give a million dollars," Garutti said. "But I feel that everyone can do something. It's time for everyone to get off the sidelines."

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.