Tyshon Fogg and the rest of the Rutgers football team finished up a lift in the weight room just before they were informed that head coach Chris Ash was being let go four games into his fourth season at the helm of the Scarlet Knights.
“It was definitely surprising when he came in and gave us the news,” Fogg said after practice on Wednesday evening.
Fogg, a junior, is one of four captains on the team. He knows he has a responsibility to keep the guys together and make them stronger as a unit. So far, it’s been working. The mood around the Hale Center and on the practice field has been good.
“I just knew that we had to bring the team together with news like that. When you lose your head coach in the middle of the season, it could do a lot of damage to the team. But I feel like a lot of guys bought in and came into practice Tuesday and practiced well and came out again today and practiced well,” Fogg said. “The defense flew to the ball and the offense is doing different things and making plays and just being competitive. The leadership definitely stepped up and I feel like guys are working past it and just getting ready for the rest of the season.”
Just because their previous head coach was fired doesn’t mean the rest of the Scarlet Knights’ season is cancelled. There’s still eight games to go and Fogg is helping everyone move past the craziness and prepare for a home matchup with Maryland at noon on Saturday.
“Definitely, it's still business (as usual),” Fogg said. “At the end of the day, coaches leave, people leave all the time. We have to continue to get better each and every day and get ready for the game that we have this week,” Fogg said. “The biggest thing (we did was) talk to the guys and tell them situations like this happen all the time and coaches leave all the time.”
And speaking of Maryland, Fogg said he sees an explosive offense from the Terrapins.
“They have great running backs and their quarterback is pretty good,” Fogg said. “They have a dynamic offense. They've put points up on the board.”
Fogg, the starting middle linebacker, leads Rutgers with 40 tackles on the season. He should get plenty of more opportunities coming up to pad the stats.
“The biggest thing is I do my job,” Fogg said of the tackles. “At the end of the day I do my job and stay in my gaps.”
Rutgers, as of this writing, is a 14.5 underdog to Maryland. It has plenty of things working against it.
But a win would surely help put the whirlwind of a week for the coaches and the players behind them and give them a chance to celebrate and move forward.
“It's huge motivation going forward,” Fogg said. “I mean, we're playing against Maryland, a team in our conference and a team that's kind of at the same level as us as far as recruiting goes. We just got to continue to get better and keep pushing forward. So this victory would mean everything for us and it would show how we're able to bounce back and how resilient we are.”
Fogg was a four-star recruit coming out of a Calvert Hall in Baltimore, Md. and he shared his thoughts about Ash one last time.
“Me and coach Ash were tight. He recruited me as a senior in high school and I had been here for three years with him. We went to Chicago for Big Ten Media Day and everything. He's a defensive-minded head coach and we always talk about different things and we’re always joking around so it definitely was a lot when I found out, but at the end of the day, we have to move on,” Fogg said.
“He's a great guy. He did a great job at developing us as young men on and off the field. He was on us. He was always preaching things like go hard as you can, always put good things on tape, and always prepare the right way to watch film. He got on me constantly and I know he wants me to remember that. The biggest thing he always wanted was for you to do good on and off the field. I appreciate him.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.
