CHICAGO, ILL. -- Since Rutgers head football coach Chris Ash came on board in December of 2015, he’s always talked about the multi-year plan he has to rebuild the program back up from the ground and into a Big Ten contender.

Ash is now in Year 3 at the helm of the Scarlet Knights, and after winning only two times in 2016, he doubled that with four victories in 2017 -- including three coming in conference play. Now, in 2018, it is all about a chance at reaching a bowl game for the first time since 2014 when Rutgers beat North Carolina in the Quick Lane Bowl.

“It is year three, and it's amazing how fast time flies. After we got to Rutgers in year one, kind of got the lay of the land, developed a three-year plan,” Ash said at Big Ten Football Media Day on Monday.

“In year one we just wanted to be able to make the changes that we need to implement the things we wanted to do in the program to get it going and to build it the way we wanted to build it. Year two was about being more competitive, winning more games, which we did. We went from two wins to four wins, zero wins in the Big Ten to three wins in the Big Ten. Had opportunities to get some others. It didn't happen. But we made progress. And in year three, it's about trying to build your team and have an opportunity to go to postseason play, and right now I feel like we're right on track to get that done. A lot of things we have to still do to get to that point and reach that goal. But right now, going into year three, some of the things that I'm excited about.”

Rutgers went 4-8 last year and had a chance to reach six wins with three games left. While obviously that didn't come to fruition, Ash was happy with the progress that was made.

"We stayed together," the coach said. "We had an up and down season. We had some really good moments and some disappointing ones. There were some games where we thought we had an opportunity to win and we just didn't capitalize. We had a chance for a really good season and a potential bowl berth. But our team stayed together really did what we wanted them to do in Year 2 which was to compete and win more games. ...Now the challenge is different. We want to continue to grow, improve, and win more games."

Ash mentioned he can't wait for fall camp to get started and one of the reasons is because of the senior class, which isn’t big, but have been vital to the rebuild.

“You need to have a great senior class. We don't have a big senior class. We have 13 seniors, but the quality is outstanding. We have three of them with us today -- Tariq Cole, Deonte Roberts, and Blessuan Austin, great representatives of our program,” Ash said. “But we have an outstanding senior class. We've had the best offseason and the best summer that we've had. Our leadership on our football team, the standards that we have with our behavior and our performance and just overall work ethic has been outstanding, and I’m excited about that.”

Every offseason, assistant coaches come and go from every team across the country and that was no different over the last few months at Rutgers. Ash added offensive coordinator John McNulty, defensive line coach Corey Crown, running backs coach Nunzio Campanile, cornerbacks coach Cory Robinson, and safeties coach Noah Joseph to the fold, and he believes this staff is the best one he’s put together thus far in Piscataway. The coaching additions is another plus and is another reason why Ash is pumped for this upcoming grind.

“We've had some changes in our staff,” Ash said. “I feel like we have the best staff we've had at Rutgers in my time there. We've got great coaches, great teachers, guys that really care about our players and do a great job of developing those guys.”

Rutgers improved from Year 1 to Year 2 under Ash, but now it needs to take the next step. So what does Ash, his staff, and his players need to do to keep climbing the stairs?

“It started with just teaching the guys how to compete more, compete a little harder, a little bit longer, fight for each other a little bit more. And that's really what allowed us to win some games and be close in some other games to move forward to continue to even improve on that and get the number of victories that we all want to go to a bowl game,” Ash said.

“We're going to have to keep improving that process. We have to compete. Stay healthy. We've got to make some plays and stop doing things that make you lose games -- errors, poor effort, penalties. Especially in critical situations we have to stop doing those things because those things killed us in critical games last year. But there's no magic formula. We just have to continue to compete and learn how to win. And that's really at the core of our program, is competition. Everything that we do, whether it's a meeting, practice, in the weight room, it's compete. Our players have embraced that. They expect that. And I think right now they're learning how to win, and they've got a lot of confidence as we go into this season that we can win and compete in this league.”

The Big Ten and the East Division is arguably the best and most competitive in college football with top notch team from top to bottom, and realignment doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. While that could be bad for Rutgers as the win total might not be there having to face the likes of Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, and Michigan every year, improvements can still be seen with the naked eye.

"I think the gap has already closed, Rutgers senior cornerback Blessuan Austin said. "Coach Ash has done everything he can to improve the program. It's about to time that we improve and reward him with the wins he deserves for the amount of time that he invests in us."

Success for the higher-ups in college is to win a National Championship, a conference title, and to go undefeated. For Rutgers, those goals aren't realistic right now, so what would a successful 2018 campaign look like?

"I feel like, if we're improving each and every week and changing the results and at the end of the season when we look back it'll speak for itself," senior linebacker Deonte Roberts said.

"I definitely think as long as we improve from the year before and we're making steps in the right direction (then it is a success," added Austin. "As for as every program goes, we want to win a bowl game and of course get to the big games like the Big Ten Championship Game. But, if you can make those strides as a program and tally up your wins each year I think you're taking the steps in the right direction."

Rutgers has a favorable schedule in the early going, but the Scarlet Knights won't be looking ahead.

"We got to win one game at a time," senior offensive tackle Tariq Cole said.

Training camp is on the horizon for the Scarlet Knights and there is optimism heading into the 2018 campaign for Rutgers with expectations a little higher.

“I can't be more excited about the start of training camp. And the opening game, where the foot hits the ball and we kick it off, it's an opportunity for us measure the progress that we've made against the teams in our league that we're going to play,” Ash said “I'm very excited about the players, the culture and the direction that we're going in our program, and 2018 is going to be a very fun season.”

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