Rutgers football: Urban Meyer scandal a teachable moment for Chris Ash

Josh Newman | Asbury Park Press

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PISCATAWAY -- What Urban Meyer knew and when the Ohio State head coach knew it in regards to domestic abuse allegations made against longtime assistant Zach Smith is currently the biggest story in sports.

Rutgers head coach Chris Ash spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons as Meyer's co-defensive coordinator in Columbus. Ash's feelings about Meyer as a person and what he did to help his career are well-documented.

On Friday afternoon, two days after Meyer was put on paid administrative leave as the school investigates, Ash addressed the saga publicly.

"I've followed it, obviously," Ash said. "I'll start by saying that we take any type of abuse, whether it be female or male, domestic abuse or not, very seriously. We have a lot of sympathy for victims in those situations. I can't tell you who knew what, who knew what when, any of that type of stuff. I know I was there, but that's about all I can tell you. They'll go through an investigation.

"Obviously, you guys know how I feel about Coach Meyer and his family, but it's a very serious situation, and one that I'm sure all parties there will take very seriously."

Whether or not Ash has been, or will be contacted as part of Ohio State's investigation is unclear, as is when there will be a resolution. Ohio State opens Sept. 1 against Oregon State, with Rutgers visiting on Sept. 8.

On Wednesday night, Buckeyes offensive coordinator Ryan Day was named acting head coach, not former Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, who is Ohio State's associate head coach. That means, by title, Schiano is second-in-command.

For now, the Ohio State situation can be used as a lesson for Ash, who is dealing with own disciplinary situation at Rutgers. On Thursday, the names of six players involved in an ongoing credit card probe were revealed. In total, eight players could either be suspended or dismissed as a result.

"Every opportunity you get to use it as a teachable moment for your players or staff, regardless of where the situation happened, I think we try to get a great job of being out in front," Ash said. "When you’re dealing with so many people in an organization, problems are going to come up. Players, support staff, but you hope you’ve hired the right type of people to make the right type of decisions, be great role models for the players, the university, but issues are going to come up. We talk about them in anticipation of something like that.

“What are the accepted behaviors, what are the non-accepted behaviors, what are the standards you have to do your job with, in the building, with the players. We talk about that a lot, and there have been a lot of teachable moments around the country with other coaches."

QB competition begins, sans timetable

At Big Ten Media Days last month, Ash promised a three-way open quarterback competition between Gio Rescigno, Art Sitkowski and Johnathan Lewis.

Friday marked 29 days until the season-opener, and has as been the case going back to spring practice, Ash is in no rush to make a decision.

"There's no date, there's no set timeline, it's whenever we feel comfortable that our team has rallied around somebody and somebody has command of the offense, the rest of the team and is consistently going out there doing what we want them to do," Ash said. "When is that? I don't know. I'm hoping sooner than later, but it's day one. We've got a lot of work to do, and there's no set date."

In theory, Ash could wait all the way up until game week begins to decide on a starter, but he has indicated in years past that he prefers to have his starter in place about two weeks before the opener. Based on that, it seems unlikely Ash would wait beyond Aug. 18 or so to name a starter.

After showing flashes during spring ball, Sitkowski, an Old Bridge native, is thought to be the favorite.

"The thing I can see from the quarterback position is they have a much better understanding of our offense after spring practice and summer workouts," Ash said. "When we started in spring, it was all new, and there was a lot of time that had to be put in just to learn to call the play, call formations, get everybody lined up, go through the read. Much smoother here in training camp after day one."

Staff writer Josh Newman: jnewman@app.com; @Joshua_Newman