PISCATAWAY -- The double doors swung open and just like that Rutgers created a sense of trying to seize a window of opportunity.

In a private ribbon-cutting ceremony Sunday afternoon attended by boosters, VIPs, school officials, football players and coaches, Rutgers unveiled the new Ron and Joanna Garutti Strength and Conditioning Center at the Hale Center.

"This is the foundation of your football team," coach Chris Ash said.

"Not only physical development, but mental development and brotherhood on the football team. It all gets built in here. It's really important that we have a first-class facility and our players feel like they are part of a top-notch program."

The final price tag on the strength and conditioning center will be about $1.65 million and nearly all of it will be covered by the Garuttis, according to Rutgers officials. Ron is a 1967 Rutgers graduate and a member of the Board of Trustees.

"This coaching staff instills such confidence that they know what they are doing and that makes us feel good," Garutti said. "The athletic department is doing great now and we feel like the investment we make now is going well-stewarded and not frittered around. It's going to pay off. That's part of why we're doing it."

The new weight room -- the office for much-praised strength and conditioning coordinator Kenny Parker, who followed Ash from Ohio State -- takes up the same square footage as its predecessor but features all new exercise and weight-lifting equipment and a new floor that cost about $400,000, according to a school official.

"One of the most important assets for any football team is its weight room," athletics director Pat Hobbs said. "When you walk into that room, you are going to see the level of commitment we have to excellence at Rutgers."

A turf carpet runs down the middle of the room to simulate field conditions.

"It's like a gumbo pot, I guess you could say," Parker said. "You have a lot of different pieces that fit. Like a team, different states, different cities molded together. It's a whole bunch of different pieces that fit the room to make us maximize their God-given ability."

Rutgers football conducted most of its offseason strength and conditioning workouts in a makeshift weight room in the bowels of High Point Solutions Stadium. The end result is worth the wait, according to players who spoke at the ceremony.

"All the new equipment, everything in that weight room, we never had before and having that has helped us developed our bodies in ways we've never even seen," senior wide receiver Andre Patton said. "I think that's definitely going to take this program to places we've never been."

Considering how demanding the strength and conditioning program has been thus far, Ash considered it imperative to give something back to the players. Originally scheduled to be finished in May, the project took longer than anticipated.

"It's easy to say 'We're going to do this, do that,'" Ash said. "This isn't a theory of what we're trying to do. This is a testimony that we're going to get stuff done."

As much as it should be a benefit to current players, Ash is not naive to the idea that college football recruiting today is about selling every aspect of a program.

Rutgers' 2017 recruiting class is unanimously ranked among the Top 30 in the nation.

"When you walk into a weight room in recruiting, it needs to pop," Ash said. "It needs to wow. It needs to be a first-class facility that recruits say, 'I can have an unbelievable experience here. I can get developed and reach my full potential here.' With this new weight room, they can do that."

A new Rutgers Football podcast launching Aug. 30

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.