It didn't take long for Rutgers coach Chris Ash to fill a key vacancy on his coaching staff.

One week after Bill Busch relinquished his defensive back coach/co-defensive coordinator position to join the LSU staff, Ash has hired Noah Joseph -- who just completed his fifth season at Indiana -- to serve as defensive backs coach, a source familiar with the decision told NJ Advance Media on Thursday night.

Joseph, who served as safeties coach at Indiana, played for Ash at Drake in 1998 when Ash was the defensive coordinator at the Iowa-based school.

Joseph, who is regarded as a strong recruiter after serving as recruiting coordinator at his previous gigs, got his start in the coaching business by serving as a grad assistant for Ash at Drake in 2000 and at Iowa State in 2002.

Joseph coached at Eastern Illinois University from 2003-06, at Montana State from 2007-11 and at North Texas in 2012 and '13 before getting hired by then-Hoosiers coach Kevin Wilson in February 2014.

Last fall, he coached a pair of defensive backs -- Jonathan Crawford and Chase Dutra -- who earned honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition.

He earned $242,000 at Indiana in 2017, according to the USA Today assistant coaches' salary database.

Busch left as Rutgers' second-highest paid defensive assistant, drawing a salary of $300,000 in 2017 after earning a $75,000 raise following his first season on staff.

With the defensive backs coach position filled, Ash will look to fill the void left Thursday night by cornerbacks coach Henry Baker, who left to mentor the defensive backs at North Carolina.

A source familiar with Baker's decision attributed the move partly to financial reasons -- the Paterson native was the lowest-paid Rutgers assistant on staff last fall at $175,000.

Among Big Ten schools whose salary figures are publicly available, Rutgers ranked last in the conference for what it paid its' nine-man staff ($2.8 million) last season.

For perspective, consider Ohio State on Wednesday announced a $3.4 million increase combined to its assistant coaches. That means the Buckeyes' 10-man assistant coaching staff will earn slightly more than $7 million combined in 2018.

Rutgers' 10-man coaching staff is expected to draw around $3 million in 2018.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.