(This is part one of a three-part series.)

PISCATAWAY -- The black SUV pulls into the parking spot marked for the head coach at 5:27 am, but already, the Rutgers football headquarters at the Hale Center is buzzing with activity.

Which is just how Chris Ash likes it.

Players, their Block R equipment bags over their shoulders, are streaming into the front entrance. Team managers are loading 45-pound weights, one after another, onto the back of a Ram 1500 pickup truck, and then a rope thick enough to tie a cruise ship to a dock is curled up behind them. The housekeeping crew has arrived to tidy up from yesterday, but is turned away. The new workday has begun, even if it feels like the old one never ended.

He uses the word "alignment" a lot. He said he wouldn't have taken the job if he weren't aligned with Hobbs, and in the early days of his new job, he has spent much of his time making sure everyone else is aligned, too. The support staff. The academic staff. The training staff. The athletic department employees.

"You've got to have full alignment by the staff and the support staff. Those are things we're trying to do," he said. "It's no secret: This place was not aligned right, with the football and the support staff and the athletic department."

All of this is a necessity, Ash believes, to elevate the football program. And everything -- and that includes nearly every waking minute of this man's life -- is now dedicated to that one mission.

(Coming Tuesday: Part 2 -- a look at Ash's driven personality, and how his childhood shaped him.)

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