Rutgers Athletics made a major change on Sunday by letting go of head football coach Chris Ash and offensive coordinator John McNulty.

It also appointed Nunzio Campanile as the interim head coach.

Campanile, who is in his second season with the Scarlet Knights, was coaching the tight ends up until the end of the weekend. He coached the running backs a year ago.

Aside from overseeing the program, he will also serve as the offensive coordinator and call the plays.

“Look, Nunzio has a skill-set. He brings an energy and enthusiasm to everything that he does. He did it at the high school level. I'm a big believer that a lot of those skills translate very, very well and we've seen that happen around this country where we have football coaches that have been relatively new to the college coaching ranks and they have had great success. He's an innovative offensive mind, but he's going to have great help in that room,” Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs said on Monday. There's a great group of coaches in that room and so this is not going to be anything that's going to be, you know, dictated on high. This is going to be very much a collaboration in that room, and I think that's one of his great skills.

“He's going to bring some innovation. I think we're going to see some fun things on offense here because we've got to raise -- we have to score points. I mean, you can't win football games if you don't score points. So I have great confidence in him, and I know he'll do a great job. And you look at what he's done with quarterbacks in the past, right. He's the guy who brought Mike Teel along, Gary Nova. He has a reputation for working very well with quarterbacks and we want to get more production out of that position here. So I think he's very much up to the task, and he has 100 percent of my confidence.”

A graduate of Paramus Catholic in high school and Montclair State, Campanile, a Fair Lawn, N.J. native, led Bergen Catholic from 2010-17 and had a 60-28 record including a state title in 2017, the program’s first since 2004.

Before that, he was the offensive coordinator at Don Bosco Prep from 2000-09 where coached Rutgers quarterback greats Mike Teel and Gary Nova.

Like what Hobbs said, Campanile has a lot on his plate all of a sudden, but the acting head coach is up for the task. He will lead on help from the rest of the offensive staff.

“I know it's not the same level, but I did it for eight years. I also think that we have a great offensive staff. We have a lot of like-minded people that see things the same way, so while I'm here talking to you, those guys are working really hard at putting things together,” Campanile said.

“Pete Rossomando, was a head coach for a long time, great offensive mind. Lester Erb does a great job with our receivers, but he's been a running back coach. He has tremendous experience. Kolby Smith has tremendous experience. Drew Lascari ran the same offense I ran at Don Bosco; so he understands the way I think and a lot of the things that we are going to do. I think there is a lot of continuity and we are going to count on those guys to really help do a lot of the work.”

With ample time to get ready for the Scarlet Knights’ next game on Saturday at home against Maryland, Campanile isn’t going to reinvent the wheel when it comes to change the offense.

“I don't think you can make major overhauls,” Campanile said. “We have basically five days to get ready for a game. It's kind of a lot of it, just streamlining what we do. Making sure that the players understand what we do. Maybe some minor tweaks in the way that I see things and communication with our entire offensive staff. We have a bunch of guys that are really close in there that work really well together. I don't think there will be any major changes. I just think that we'll do the things that we think give our kids the best chance to win and give our players a chance to be successful.

“...Basically my thought process has always been that we are a multiple-i team that adds the elements that come with the spread offense, whether that's the RPO stuff or it's the quarterback reads or whatever. Really, the biggest thing is what can our kids handle and what can we get to. I think that we have all the things built in to do what I would like to do, but you know, it's really going to come down to what can our players execute because we have to put them in a position to be successful. That's the most important thing because they have to feel confident in what we're doing.”

Also, sophomore, Artur Sitkowski, who has played decently the last two weeks, will remain the starting quarterback, though from the sounds of it, fans could see Johnny Langan as well in some capacity. Campanile coached Langan with the Crusaders.

“I've already told him, Art's going to start the game, and you know, we'll see some of the stuff that Johnny does well, obviously I have a tremendous amount of familiarity with him,” Campanile said. “I've told the quarterbacks already, if there's a role that he could play, that helps us win games, then we are absolutely going to do that, too. I think Art has played really well the last couple weeks. He's shown improvement and worked really hard. I think the biggest thing is those guys are great friends and leaders and they are going to work hard to help each other.”

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind for everyone in the program including the players. Campanile hopes to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“It's been pretty crazy. I guess almost a little less than 24 hours ago, I found out, and you know, I guess you just kind of have to hit the ground running. We made plans pretty much on the fly. The coaching staff has been awesome,” Campanile said. Obviously a tough day for all those guys, but they are real true pros and they have been incredibly helpful in every way. So really that's been the big thing is communicating with the players, trying to keep them on task and making sure we are communicating with the staff and see what things we are going to keep the same and what minor changes we are going to make that we think will help the team.

“The biggest thing is making sure that we take care of our players, that we give them a chance to be successful; that we keep them together. “Obviously it's a tough time for them and our leaders are doing a great job of keeping everybody on task, and I guess for me, probably one of the biggest things, it's a tremendous honor as a guy that's from New Jersey and loves New Jersey to have the opportunity to represent Rutgers and represent New Jersey is really special for me and it's an unbelievable opportunity to represent our players.”

Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisWasky.