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By Steve Politi | NJ Advance Media

Let's pretend that workers dig up a chest full of gold coins while building the new athletic training facility in Piscataway. The chest was put in the ground by Henry Rutgers himself, with a note intended for the university's future leadership.

"Kind sirs: I implore ye to use these funds to assure that thy good name is not dragged through the mud with poor play in athletic endeavors that have yet to be invented! Yours, Colonel R."

Now let's pretend -- and I promise I'm going to get to the point here soon -- that these gold coins are worth $10 million. Which, lo and behold, just happens to be the exact sum of money needed to buy out the remainder of head coach Chris Ash's contract.

So now what?

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media f

This is the biggest question I have for fans who want Ash gone yesterday. That $10 million price tag is prohibitive, to say the least, at a place like Rutgers. But that number isn't going down significantly next year, and if the season continues to spiral out of control over the last five games, you could argue that there is a huge cost to not making a leadership change in season ticket sales, lost donations, etc.

The $10 million isn't the biggest obstacle. This is: What program-changing head coach is going to take this job? And how much do you have to pay that coach to convince him to risk his own career in the process?

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media f

Remember: Several of the biggest names on the coaching carrousel when Ash was hired -- Dino Babers (Syracuse) and Jeff Brohm (Purdue), for starters -- didn't even want to interview for this job. And that was before the NCAA probation and utter lack of talent has led to the current dumpster fire.

If you're a coach with any kind of options, you're probably going to take a hard pass. I threw out a question on Twitter to Rutgers fans recently: Which coach do they think is going to be the program's savior? Most of the names that fans commonly mentioned seem to fall in four general categories -- pure folly, utter disasters, unqualified reaches and you-know-who.

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The breakdown:

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Pure folly: Lane Kiffin. Les Miles. Matt Ruhle. Mike MacIntyre. Bill O'Brien.

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Jim Rassol | AP

I get the allure of Kiffin, who makes $1.4 million at Florida Atlantic. But he will have far better opportunities if he stays put and builds a winner. So will the others mentioned, especially since three of them -- Ruhle (Baylor), MacIntyre (Colorado) and O'Brien (Houston Texans) have better jobs right now.

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Utter disasters: Rex Ryan. Mike Leach.

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Bill Wippert | AP

I love the fans convinced that the former Jets coach is the answer. Ryan would never work hard enough to get the job done, and even if he did, he would break 25 NCAA rules within a first month and a half of walking into the building. The press conferences, though ... he'd win them. Leach, the controversial Washington State coach, falls under this category, too.

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Unqualified reaches: Chris Partridge.

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NJ Advance Media file photo

So let me see if I have this right: Rutgers is going to go from Ash, who had no head coaching experience when he arrived in Piscataway, to a guy four years removed from coaching at Paramus Catholic that hasn't even been a coordinator at the college level? If Rutgers doesn't hire someone with head coaching experience next time around, something is seriously wrong.

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Rutgers coach Mike Francesa? Funny old photos

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You-know-who: Greg Schiano.

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Jamie Sabau | AP

I get at least one email a day longing for Schiano's return, and yes, the disastrous episode with Tennessee will give other big programs pause before hiring the current Ohio State defensive coordinator. He wasn't a candidate when Ash was hired, when neither side thought a reunion was a good fit. Yes, things have changed.

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Still: Schiano isn't coming at a discount. Is Rutgers ready to back up the money truck for its former coach and top-level staff after already dropping that $10 million payout to Ash? Is athletic director Patrick Hobbs really going to hire a man who would effectively be his boss?

And why would Schiano come back? He knows the challenge. He has seen the talent, or lack of it, in the program up close. Some fans would be expecting him to pick up where he left off in 2012, when in reality, he would be closer to the program he took over as a little known assistant from Miami.

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Don Petersen | AP

It would be far more likely that Rutgers would have to recruit a coach like Lance Leipold, whose Buffalo team blew the doors off the Scarlet Knights last month. He built a Division 3 power at Wisconsin-Whitewater and, at $455,000, is underpaid in upstate New York.

Leipold would check many of the boxes. But, like many other low-profile potential hires, he wouldn't exactly generate the kind of buzz needed to provide a much-needed recruiting jolt to this program. Rutgers would, essentially, be restarting a long rebuild with a new staff -- only with patience at rock bottom.

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Rutgers has five games left against top-level Big Ten competition, and given the team's performance so far this season, it could reach the point where Ash simply can't recover. Heck, it might already have -- the troubling trend of de-commitments has already begun with four defections from a 2019 recruiting class that wasn't nearly at a Big Ten level before that happened.

The next few weeks will be fascinating given that the fanbase is already in full revolt. But before even considering a change, Rutgers better be prepared to answer the biggest question: Who wants this job? Even if $10 million magically appears in Piscataway, that's going to be the hard part.

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John Munson | NJ Advance Media

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