For new coach, a new world

By TIM DUMAS Chronicle Sports Writer

Illinois State has turned into Texas A&M. The home crowds will nearly triple. Scholarships? That concept may have to be explained.

Rob Ash officially stepped into a new world over the weekend when he accepted the head football coaching position at Montana State.

While at his former school, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Ash was in charge of a program that was fourth on the ladder in terms of fan interest behind Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa.

At Montana State, the heat will be turned up, the spotlight magnified. Coverage wise, there will be no Big Ten schools to compete against. But with that increased attention comes increased scrutiny; fans and non-fans, naysayers and the "Nation" will be watching.

All with one question in mind. How can Ash lift the Bobcats from under the cloud of five drug arrests and another for murder - all in the past year.

"I have no thoughts at all about anything that happened yesterday," Ash said Monday at his introductory press conference. "As far as I'm concerned, the program starts today. That's all I'm thinking about now and that's where our focus needs to be."

A look back at Ash's past reveals nothing but success.

For the 2005-06 season, according to the NCAA, Drake's Academic Progress Rate was 961. For comparison, Harvard's was 988, Stanford's 984. (MSU's was 868).

In 18 seasons, his Bulldogs won at least seven games 12 times and finished at least second in their conference seven times.

Yet Ash's playoff record there was 0-0: The Pioneer Football League, which Drake won or shared four times during Ash's tenure, does not receive an automatic bid into the postseason.

And mostly because the school does not offer football scholarships. Now Ash has 63 to work with.

"That was a driving factor for me to look at this institution, no question about it," he said.

Drake played in front of 10,107 fans in its home opener against Northern Iowa last season, but never more than 5,263 the rest of the way. (A year earlier, the Bulldogs played Dayton at a high school field).

At Bobcat Stadium last fall, attendance topped 12,000 for each of MSU's six home games.

Another difference Ash will have to embrace is the schedule. In September, Montana State opens the season at Texas A&M. In 2008, the Bobcats play at Minnesota.

"There is a distinction in the level of competition, no doubt, and Rob Ash has acknowledged that by accepting this job," said Tom White, who was a member of MSU's search committee. "He sees this as a bigger and better challenge for him."

And the Bobcats.

Said Ash: "My goal is to coach football at a level where we can be successful and win championships in the conference and try to move on to the playoffs and try to win championships in the playoffs. All that can be done here."

Ash didn't decide to become a coach until he was 27, when he took an assistant's job at Cornell (Iowa) College, his alma mater, in 1976.

More than 30 years later, he has compiled 176 wins as a head coach and a brilliant academic record.

"As I said in my interview, you're going to find that my football teams work as hard on the field as they do on the classroom," Ash said. "You'll see that the guys will have a worth ethic in both areas that will show the discipline and committment to have success in both areas.

"That's how I coach the game."

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