The first Big Ten head coach firing of the 2019 season has officially taken place.

Chris Ash and offensive coordinator John McNulty are out at Rutgers, elevating tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile to the position of interim head coach and offensive coordinator.

It’s a bumpy time for the Scarlet Knights’ program. Rutgers holds a 1-3 record and is coming off a 52-0 drubbing at the hands of Michigan.

Campanile doesn’t have any head coaching experience at the Division-1 level, but his time has arrived, no matter how chaotic things may be.

“The truth is, I think that football is football,” Campanile said. “I’ve literally spent my entire life on a football field. I’ve been on a football team since [I was] five years old. My dad is a coach. All my brothers are coaches. Basically every positive male influence in my life was a coach in some way, shape, or form. You know, I think that I’m prepared to help these guys going forward.”

Before his termination, Ash recorded an 8-32 record as the Scarlet Knights’ head coach, including a 3-26 mark in Big Ten play.

“First, I want to say thank you to Chris Ash and his family for their unbelievable efforts here the last three and a half years,” Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs said. “Chris came in here and worked his tail off. He does everything with integrity. He does it the right way. He worked hard for these kids and I couldn’t be more appreciative of his efforts.”

Boilmakers bumped and bruised

Things are falling apart for Purdue at this point in the season, and it could not have come at a worse time for the Boilermakers.

Wide receiver Rondale Moore and quarterback Elijah Sindelar — two of Purdue’s most important D.J. [Johnson] and [Michael Ojemudia] are our two. Anyway, they’re our two starters at corner right now. That’s how we’re looking at it.”

Matt Hankins and Brady Reiff are still out this week but are also moving forward, Ferentz said.

Having players returning to the secondary will be important against a tough passing game that Michigan can put up. 

“It’s going to be fun the rest of the week to see who we can stick out there, but come game time, we’re going to be really comfortable with [who] we have out there,” Ojemudia said. 

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The Big House

Playing in an atmosphere like Michigan Stadium is something that none of these Hawkeyes have experienced before, and there are certain challenges that come with it. 

“The noise is always a problem,” quarterback Nate Stanley said. “That’s something we work on throughout the week in our communication. Just the environment, I don’t know how many people it holds, 110,000, something like that, which is probably the most that I’ve ever played in front of. We have a good idea of what the environment’s going to be like and have a mental game plan for that.”

The aspect of a road game is new to the Hawkeyes, having played three of their four games within the walls of Kinnick Stadium, surrounded by black and gold. 

Now, with the biggest game of the season so far coming on the road, Iowa’s mindset is focused on itself but also the confidence that is needed for road games. 

“We’ve already had one hostile environment—Iowa State—but mainly with practice just getting the focus there is a big part of it, and getting the reps and repetition is kind of big for away games,” Ojemudia said.