PISCATAWAY — Before his team's Homecoming affair Saturday against Illinois, Chris Ash said his message to his players was simple:
"We talked about our keys to victory going into this game and it's our plan to win, but we wanted to make sure we had a focused football team this week,'' the Rutgers coach said. "We wanted to have a positive mind-set and we wanted to be confident in our abilities to go out there and get the type of results that we wanted.''
After directing a 24-7 loss to Illinois, Ash said his team accomplished several positives, pointing to the yardage output (385, including 203 on the ground), better protection up front and the third-down success rate (9 of 16).