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Chris Ash happy with direction of Rutgers football program.

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) - Six months into his job as Rutgers' football coach, Chris Ash is satisfied with the direction of the program.

Ash met with reporters on Monday at a charity golf classic he has taken over to benefit four charities. It was his last availability before heading on vacation.

Ash, who did not golf at the event at Fiddler's Elbow Country Club that raised $100,000, was on campus Monday to handle other jobs. He went to the club to for a meet and greet with some of the 336 participants at the outing.

Ash said that the next few weeks will be the first time that he and his staff will have a chance to get some time off since being hired in December to replace Kyle Flood.

"June has become one of the more challenging months for college football coaches," said Ash, the former defensive coordinator at Ohio State. "You have your team to train. You have recruiting going on, you have camps going on. There is a lot of stuff you have to take care of before you hit vacation.

Ash is not planning on going anywhere for his vacation, saying he just moved into a new home and this is a chance to hang out and get some work done.

When asked about the state of the program, Ash joked that he has not won any games yet.

"We have done a lot of what, six months?" the 42-year-old said. "We have been swinging really hard to get the program foundation set the way we wanted it, establish a culture the way we wanted it and recruit the way we wanted. I get asked all the time: 'How is it going?' It is going according to plan we had coming into Rutgers. So far that plan is working, but we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Ash said the Scarlet Knights' new weight room hopefully will open in a week or two. He said the last of his new players arrived on campus on Sunday.

The Reeve Foundation Team LeGrand, Embrace Kids Foundation, Together 4 Kids and Rutgers Athletics each received $25,000 from the outing, said Pat Morris of Somerset, who runs the event.

"I decided it was a great cause and I was all in," Ash said of the event that has been named after Rutgers' football coaches. "I see what it is doing for the charities and I am very excited to be a part of it."

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