PISCATAWAY -- The new athletic director and the even newer football coach stood at a window here in December 2015, looked out at fields with crooked wooden light stanchions and shipping containers for equipment storage, and asked each other the same question:

"What is that?"

The answer was not something that either man, athletic director Patrick Hobbs and his coach Chris Ash, wanted to comprehend. They were looking at the practice fields for a Big Ten program, complete with lousy-to-nonexistent irrigation and lights that, they were told, "catch fire on occasion."

Those fields were more than just a place to work on tackling and blocking. They were the first thing most visitors to campus on a Saturday afternoon would see -- including, of course, the fickle high school recruits who are greeted with NFL-quality training complexes at most other top programs.

"All I really wanted was some new grass," Ash said with a laugh on Sunday afternoon, 20 months after he first laid eyes on those fields. He was about to participate in the ribbon-cutting for the Marco Battaglia Practice Complex, a place Hobbs called the "best football practice facility, pro or college, in the United States today."

No one was going to debate that boast on Sunday afternoon, not at a university where progress is too often measured in hard-fought inches. This is usually a place where no ribbon is cut without first shredding a mountain of red tape, but Rutgers managed to turn those shoddy fields into a showplace for its football program in just five months.

No feasibility studies. No groveling in Trenton. No cutting corners or construction delays that drag on for years.

That, folks, is an Ohio State-level upset.

Look: New grass isn't going make the Scarlet Knights competitive in the Big Ten. As nice as this facility is, rest assured that Michigan and Nebraska and the rest already have something just as nice, or -- like Maryland -- are throwing their own big parties to open one right now.

This is about keeping up. Ash understood that better than anyone. He had a vision for what Rutgers needed, and at long last, this program had donors capable of making that vision a reality with one big check.

That $5 million donation toward the $8.5-million project came from boosters Jeff and Amy Towers. To think: A couple with absolutely no connection to the university -- Jeff is a Nebraska guy and Amy grew up a Wisconsin fan -- provided the funds necessary for a major project in New Jersey.

Rutgers has nearly a half-million living alumni, but now the two biggest boosters of the football program grew up as diehard fans of other Big Ten schools. What are the chances?

"It almost unheard of," Ash said. "Most major gifts like this come from people who are alumni of the university or have strong connections or roots, somehow or someway, and Jeff and Amy do not. To be able to have a couple make this kind of financial commitment for this type of project to help our football team, it's just unbelievable."

The Towerses took that generosity to another level. Instead of slapping their name on the wall, they insisted that the facility be named for Battaglia, a great player during a dark period in the program history. At a place that too often forgets or ignores its history, it was a perfect gesture.

"You made me cool to my children," Battaglia told the couple as he choked back tears during the ceremony.

Battaglia is now one of the chief fundraisers at Rutgers. He'll have a major role in making sure the checks still keep rolling in, because the practice complex that bears his name is only the first step toward catching up to the well-heeled conference rivals.

Rutgers still needs a better locker room, an updated training space and more room in the Hale Center that will only come when other teams get their new facilities. The work is just beginning.

"Everything is doable now," Battaglia said. "Chris' list is enormous and he's going to get anything he wants if I have anything to do with it. He's got a vision and he knows what he needs, and we need to execute it."

Still, this was a day to celebrate, and about a thousand fans accepted the invitation, in the middle of summer, to listen to speeches and stare at the turf under their feet.

"Isn't it great that everybody in the country is now going to say, 'We want what Rutgers has,'" Hobbs said. "When was the last time that's happened? They'll come here, they'll arrive on game-day. They'll look at this and heads will snap."

Finally, the grass is greener at Rutgers.

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