Chris Ash
Chris Ash went 8–32 as a head coach, 2016–2019, at Rutgers. Share
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Rutgers | 2–10 | 7th (East) | |||
| 2017 | Rutgers | 4–8 | 5th (East) | |||
| 2018 | Rutgers | 1–11 | 7th (East) | |||
| 2019 | Rutgers coached four of 12 games | 1–3 |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 13 | 0–13 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 6 | 0–6 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 3 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Conference games | 29 | 3–26 | 10% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 9 | 2–7 | 22% |
| At home | 22 | 6–16 | 27% |
| On the road | 17 | 1–16 | 6% |
| At neutral sites | 1 | 1–0 | 100% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 8 | 5–3 | 63% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 32 | 3–29 | 9% |
His own 40 games on file, 2016–2019, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Harbaugh 2016–2019 | 0–4 | Michigan | 4 | |
| Lovie Smith 2016–2018 | 1–2 | Illinois | 3 | |
| James Franklin 2016–2018 | 0–3 | Penn State | 3 | |
| Mark Dantonio 2016–2018 | 0–3 | Michigan State | 3 | |
| Urban Meyer 2016–2018 | 0–3 | Ohio State | 3 |
Chris Ash’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Michiganseries | 4 | 0–4 |
| Marylandseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Illinoisseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Indianaseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Michigan Stateseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Ohio Stateseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Penn Stateseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Washingtonseries | 2 | 0–2 |
National title staffs
Every title staff- Won a national title on Ohio State’s 2014 staff (co-defensive coordinator, safeties coach) · the staff · source
The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.
How he was hired
- Hired by Rutgers for the 2016 season from Ohio State, where he was defensive coordinator.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Drake | Graduate assistant | |
| 1998–99 | Drake | Defensive coordinator | |
| 2000–01 | Iowa State | Graduate assistant | |
| 2002–05 | Iowa State | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2006 | Iowa State | Defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2007–08 | San Diego State | Defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2009 | Iowa State | Defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2010 | Wisconsin | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2011–12 | Wisconsin | Defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| 2013 | Arkansas | Defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| 2014–15 | Ohio State | Co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2016–19 | Rutgers | Head coach | |
| 2019 | Texas | Analyst | |
| 2020 | Texas | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2021 | Jacksonville Jaguars NFL | Safeties coach | |
| 2022–23 | Las Vegas Raiders NFL | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2025–present | Notre Dame | Defensive coordinator |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Dan McCarneyIowa State
- Chuck LongSan Diego State
- Paul RhoadsIowa State
- Bret BielemaWisconsin, Arkansas
- Barry AlvarezWisconsin
- Urban MeyerOhio State, Jacksonville Jaguars
- Tom HermanTexas
- Marcus FreemanNotre Dame
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jay NiemannSimpson (IA)
- Jerry KillNorthern Illinois, Minnesota, TCU, New Mexico State, Saginaw Valley State, Emporia State, Southern Illinois
- Nunzio CampanileRutgers, Syracuse
- Peter RossomandoCharlotte, New Haven, Central Connecticut, Lamar
Worked under (8)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan McCarney | Iowa State | 2000–06 | 2000–01: graduate assistant; 2002–05: defensive backs coach; 2006: defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Chuck Long | San Diego State | 2007–08 | Defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Paul Rhoads | Iowa State | 2009 | Defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Bret Bielema | Wisconsin | 2010–12 | 2010: defensive backs coach; 2011–12: defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| Barry Alvarez | Wisconsin | 2012 | Defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| Bret Bielema | Arkansas | 2013 | Defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| Urban Meyer | Ohio State | 2014–15 | Co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Tom Herman | Texas | 2019–20 | 2019: analyst; 2020: defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Urban Meyer | Jacksonville Jaguars NFL | 2021 | Safeties coach | |
| Marcus Freeman | Notre Dame | 2025–26 | Defensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (4)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jay Niemann | Rutgers, 2016–18: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | Simpson (IA) | |
| Jerry Kill | Rutgers, 2017: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Northern Illinois, Minnesota, TCU, New Mexico State, Saginaw Valley State, Emporia State, Southern Illinois | |
| Nunzio Campanile | Rutgers, 2018: running backs coach; 2019: offensive coordinator | Rutgers, Syracuse | |
| Peter Rossomando | Rutgers, 2019: offensive line coach | Charlotte, New Haven, Central Connecticut, Lamar |
Other assistants under him (7)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Aaron Henry | Rutgers, 2016: defensive backs coach | |
| Bill Busch | Rutgers, 2016: defensive backs coach; 2017: co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| Drew Mehringer | Rutgers, 2016: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| John McNulty | Rutgers, 2018–19: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Andy Buh | Rutgers, 2019: defensive coordinator | |
| Kolby Smith | Rutgers, 2019: running backs coach | |
| Noah Joseph | Rutgers, 2019: co-defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Ohio State | co-defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $221,850 | $580,000 USA Today | |
| 2014 | Ohio State | co-defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $195,000 | $590,000 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Ash’s teams went for it on 15% of fourth downs and on 24% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 44% of plays and took 26.0 seconds a play, 2016–2018.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 12 g | 16 of 125 13% | 21% | 44% | 23.3 | −0.18 | |
| 2017 12 g | 14 of 103 14% | 24% | 41% | 28.2 | −0.15 | |
| 2018 12 g | 19 of 107 18% | 28% | 47% | 26.4 | −0.18 | |
| All 36 g | 49 of 335 15% | 24% | 44% | 26.0 | −0.17 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.