PISCATAWAY -- Today marks the one-year anniversary of a time the Rutgers football program would rather forget.

Last April 25 was the beginning of a three-day crime spree involving multiple football players that gave the program a black eye and played a major role in former coach Kyle Flood's firing.

New coach Chris Ash has made changing the culture of a program that went off the rails last season his top priority. Ash constantly preaches the importance of making the right decisions and that was his message to players after Saturday's spring game.

"We talk about discipline," Ash said. "A lot of it is anticipation. It's a Saturday night after a spring football game, there's a lot of things going on on campus, there's a lot of opportunity to find bad spots. We educate the guys constantly on making good decisions and hanging out with the right people and representing the football team and the university the way we want them to represent it."

Last April 25 -- a Saturday one day after the spring game -- four then-Rutgers players and two former players were allegedly involved in a fight that left a student with a broken jaw.

The next night, cornerback Andre Boggs, fullback Lloyd Terry and former player Tejay Johnson allegedly participated in a home invasion in New Brunswick, taking money and marijuana in an armed robbery.

Finally, on April 27, Boggs and Johnson allegedly participated in another home invasion in New Brunswick, again taking money and marijuana in an armed robbery.

The crimes came to light last September when the players were arrested two days before the season opener. All six of the players involved were kicked off the team. Their court cases are still pending.

Ironically, former Rutgers star Ray Rice delivered a message to the team about avoiding off-field issues before last year's spring game. Rice, who has been out of the NFL since video of him punching his wife surfaced in September 2014, told the players to "not make the mistakes that I made."

Obviously Rice's message didn't connect with a handful of players last April. Ash is hoping his players heed the message he has been imparting over the past four months as they head into the offseason.

"The message is daily," Ash said. "How we're going to behave, the decisions that we have to make, the people that you're going to hang with, the areas that you're going to go hang out in -- that message is every single day. It's like being a parent. When do you stop being a parent and trying to educate your kids? You don't. When you do stop educating these guys on making the right decisions? You don't. It's got to be constant."

Dan Duggan may be reached at dduggan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DDuggan21. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.