Not long after he was named Rutgers football coach last December, Chris Ash took a deep dive into the state of his team's academics.

"I did (it) right away (because) we needed to find out where we were at,'' Ash said. "When you look at the program, it's something that's been consistent for a number of years. It took a little dip here last year, but overall for the last 12 or 13 years it's been relatively high. It's a credit to the people who run the academics.''

As reported by NJ Advance Media last October, the Rutgers football team's grade-point-average went down in each of the four semesters after former coach Kyle Flood's first full academic year in 2012-13 and, for the spring 2015 semester, dipped to the lowest total (2.574) in four years.

In the final semester with Flood heading the football program, Rutgers' fall 2015 term GPA slightly improved to 2.583, according to figures obtained by NJ Advance Media after submitting an Open Public Records Act request through the University of Custodian of Records office.

But in the first semester under Ash, the Rutgers football team earned a more significant improvement, raising its GPA to 2.685 -- the team's highest collective GPA for a full semester since posting a 2.831 in Fall 2014.

"That's part of the program,'' Ash said in an interview with NJ Advance Media on Monday. "When we look at what we want to build here, we want a football team that performs well on the field, but also performs well in the classroom and also handles their business and makes the right decisions socially. That's just the types of programs that I've been around and the type of program that I want to build here. Academics is very serious, and we want to recruit student-athletes that believe getting a degree is very important.''

Ash said his football coaching staff meets with the Academic Support Service team on a weekly basis, and a staff that includes Scott Walker, Jenna Beverly and former Rutgers football players Bill Bailey and Ramel Meekins gives out "an attitude and effort grade'' for the players.

"We have conversations about it, and there is accountability for it, and discipline for the smallest of details in academics,'' Ash said. "As long as the player knows it's important to us, it's going to be important to them. The increase to where it went in the spring is still not where we want it to be. But at least we're going in the right direction.''

Current Rutgers football players who earned Academic All-Big Ten honors include: third-year sophomore offensive lineman Marcus Applefield, fourth-year junior running back Devan Carter, fourth-year junior defensive end Darnell Davis, fourth-year junior tight end Matt Flanagan, fifth-year senior punter Tim Gleeson, senior running back Justin Goodwin, third-year sophomore offensive lineman Zach Heeman, third-year sophomore defensive lineman Jimmy Hogan, fourth-year junior linebacker Andre Hunt, fourth-year junior defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph, fifth-year senior defensive end Quanzell Lambert, fifth-year senior defensive end Julian Pinnix-Odrick, fourth-year junior quarterback Hayden Rettig, third-year sophomore linebacker Brandon Russell and fourth-year junior wide receiver John Tsimis.

To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students-athletes must be letterwinners who are in at least their second academic year at their school and carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

"You definitely have to plan everything and schedule how you want to prioritize your day,'' said Heeman, a psychology major who plans to be a guidance counselor and a coach after his playing career ends. "(In your) free time, it's not a bad thing to take a 20-minute nap and gather your thoughts. I personally struggle with just sitting down for three hours on one task. So I just try to chop it up, put things in a time slot, and just try to keep it interesting for myself.''

Under Flood's watch, Rutgers posted a record-high cumulative GPA in 2012-13 (2.914), another record-high score (2.951) in 2013-14 and a near record-high 2.926 total in 2014-15.

But in the span of one year, the Rutgers football team's cumulative GPA dipped 5 percent to 2.776 at the end of the 2015-16 school year. The final year of Flood's tenure was marred by a series of off-field issues, including the arrests of seven players and the university's three-game suspension of Flood after he meddled with the academic affairs of an ineligible player.

The program's academic support received unwanted attention in the university's report that led to Flood's suspension. But Ash, standing just outside his team's academic resource center, credited the academic-support staff for "doing a great job with these student-athletes.''

"There's a lot of reasons that cause the GPA to dip,'' Ash said. "There was a lot of transition stuff going on, and it is what it is. But Scott Walker and Jenna Beverly have done an outstanding job here. It's been a focus of this program for a while. If you look at the history, you can't have GPAs like we've had without the overall athletic department making academics a priority.''

While Flood's contract included a $25,000 annual bonus if the team had a cumulative GPA of 2.6 or better for players on scholarship, Ash doesn't have any incentives tied to GPA in his contract (he does receive bonuses for players earning Academic All-American honors and if the multi-year APR is 960 or better).

Ash said he won't put a limit on "how high we want our GPA to get.''

For the fall semester, the Rutgers athletics program collectively earned a 3.034 term GPA. It went up slightly in spring 2016 to 3.06, and the cumulative GPA for 2015-16 was 3.08.

"If we could get it up to closer to 3.0 or higher, that would be great,'' Ash said. "But consistently if we're hovering over a 2.8 then I'd be happy with that.''

To that end, Ash said players earning academic accolades are honored in the team's Champions Club.

"We talk about awards and honors on the field,'' Ash said. "We give them awards and honors for classroom performance also. If you're part of the Champions Club, that means you've taken care of yourself in the classroom as well and they get rewarded with stuff (such as gourmet meals). Any time we can motivate players to do well academically, we're going to find opportunities to do that.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.