Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs Resigns and Scrimmage No. 2 Recap!-- #Rutgers Scarlet Knights Football

welcome back to another edition of the night Report podcast I'm your host Mike Broadbent joining me once again is my co-host Richie oir couple big stories uh to go over first is longtime Ruckers athletic director Pat Hobbs resigned yesterday abruptly we're gonna have uh we're gonna go into that a bit um and then we're going to discuss the second and final scrimmage recap from fall camp for Ruckers football that was earlier today Richie was there so we'll go over everything Greg said and what Richie saw but first this podcast is once again presented to you by Night and Day apparel beat the Heat this summer with our hot One of a Kind products with temperatures Rising there's no better time to refresh your wardrobe with cool and stylish Summer Essentials whether you're planning a beach getaway a picnic in the park or simply lounging in the yard we've got you covered visit their website today to explore a full range of Summer essentials from pool floats and spatulas to bathing suits and tank tops if you use our promo code Ruckers Rivals you get 10% off your purchase shop now and keep chopping again you want to be the most obnoxious tailgator in the lock get the loud cup because this thing is basically like the the cannon or the train whistle inside the stadium but only outside and uh all you need is a cool beverage in there or you could do it empty and you just Blast Away um we're also still running that giveaway we'll have more information about that at the end but in order to qualify you have to be following night and day apparel uh on Instagram and you also have to either comment below in this video uh mentioning the night and day giveway or in an apple review uh for an extra entry all right bad that I want you to like test it out real quick or is it gonna be too loud I mean do you want to hear it I kind of want to hear it I want to hear what it sounds like I saw the Instagram video but I want to hear what it like actually sounds like all right everybody so if you do not want to hear this train whistle loud cup uh please mute or skip ahead because I about to just honk away on this thing all right ready count of three one two three okay that was louder than thought yeah this thing's loud um and I was only going about half uh half volume on that so jeez if you can imagine uh what it actually sounds like if you're just you know going deep breath and actually blown away yeah all right fair enough all right let's get into the the pat Hobs resignation um Pat Hobs was I believe about to enter his ninth season as the Rucker's athletic director and abruptly resigned citing health reasons yesterday um in a very strange five o'clock or Friday afternoon news dump heading into the weekend um I don't think anybody really saw this coming um there's been a lot of nj.com articles kind of going deeper into this um about how the timing doesn't really make sense that you know typically with a state employee you kind of have sick time or you take a leave of absence and he just flat out resigned um so I think there's still probably a lot of unanswered questions and there probably will be more revealed but what is it that you're hearing about Pat hobb's resignation yesterday I mean that's pretty spot-on like the nj.com article um and and I agreed with it yesterday when people were saying on our boards you don't just if you have a medical thing and I'm not saying he doesn't have a medical thing he probably he might have a medical thing but if you have something like that you have sick time you take a leave of absence you say hey I might need like a couple months to figure out my health situation and kind of see where I'm at from there um and then kind of just go from go from there actually um you don't just straight up resign and immediately turn like done I'm out like I'm see you gone season starting in two weeks like for football and football drives a bus As We Know uh among most if not all schools at least the high major schools um so for the the timing just doesn't make sense it it the resignation the way it's word it doesn't make sense it's very vague in the letter that was put out uh if I had to guess there's probably more coming um I'm not going to go like in detail of rumors I'm hearing just because it's rumors at the end of the day but there's probably more than that coming um and we'll just kind of wait and see for that waiting for stuff like that to come out if if it does ever come out um who knows but right now it's just kind of a wait and see mode they're in they're in a national search right now for a new ad we listed listed some names these aren't just random names that I put together but rather names that I've been told from several sources within the athletic department so and uh just people around Ruckers University in general some notable people that know what they're talking about and are people in the nose so um definitely check out that list but yeah it it is uh poor timing it does suck because I thought Pat was a pretty good ad uh if you look at the records of some of the programs during his tenure he was working with the bare minimum for most of this stuff um they've turned around a lot if you look at the basketball facility they were one of like three programs in college Bas division one college basketball that didn't have their own practice facility they had to use the rack and they had to share the rack with wrestling they had to share the rack with gymnastics they had to share the rack with volleyball they had to share the rack with everyone like baseball and softball were sharing the rack at one point yeah they had the batting cages in the corners yeah yeah it was it was miserable um so he has done a lot I mean just look at the buildings before or where they were before Pat and where they were after pat um the rocking Center gorgeous um the soccer fields next to it are gorgeous um and it's an academic success center it's not just for soccer I know everyone points towards facilities like that being solely for soccer or for a single sport but it's also for the students and student athletes to go go somewhere to for their academic tutoring um it also allowed the football facility to open up the hail Center to allow the hail Center to now have a podcasting room which every sport uses right now they allowed the hail Center to have a game room where the guys can just hang out and chill for a few they most of these guys don't even have to leave the hail Center anymore they got a new locker room now because they have more space uh to put other stuff uh just do all kinds of things um so it allowed football to get uh a couple more like amenities and stuff like that and then like the the last but not least the RWJ Barnabas Center like that place is phenomenal like every time you walk in there you're still shock and it's been what like six years five years something like that yep so I mean he's done a lot of good for Ruckers uh it is uh a little upsetting the way it's ended but he did a lot in his uh eight and a half years so I mean you got to commend him for that and it's arguably one of the hardest jobs if not the hardest job in a high major Athletics College athletics it's it's tough it's tough to to please Ruckers fans at the end of the day uh I think we do a pretty good job of it it was arguably the hardest job I think because of some of the things he did it is now a much more desirable job yeah than it was now that's not to say that it's not a difficult job because when you're going against the likes even in Conference of some of the schools that we're going against regularly it is a tougher job than most big 10 schools but because of now the facilities that are actually built on campus the coaches that are in place the The Prestige bump that a lot of those programs have had due to suain success that were brought on in part part due to good coaching hires good support that was built around those programs and those facilities it is a much more desirable job but it is not by any means the most desirable job in conference or even in high major sports but it is squarely in the middle now which is Lighty your is better than where you could say Ruckers was 10 years ago yeah and you hear people and moan about the nil stuff and how Pat wasn't on board at first which he probably wasn't um I shouldn't say probably wasn't he wasn't like on board and he was being very cautious because as a lawyer that's that's what you do you basically you wait until there's rules in place and laws in place um but they did turn it around quite a bit with nil you think they're getting Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper without nil you think they're putting together these recruiting classes without nil for football like nil has turned around quite a bit for Ruckers I'm not saying it's great all of a sudden it's like top 10 in the country top 15 hell it's probably not even the top half but it's again back to the same thing same argument they're solely like in the middle of the pack now in college Athletics and you're seeing differences now but he did do a lot for Ruckers so I I am impressed with what he's done um the records might not speak too greatly for him if you look at like some of the the programs records but these are programs like softball had a season with eight wins like basketball was U was struggling like under Eddie Jordan they didn't even know how to rebound according to Eddie they didn't have to teach him how to rebound now they're rebounding but uh yeah now I it is uh it does suck the way to end it but we'll just wait and see where they go for the next athletic director kind of going to wait and see so they're going to do an exhaustive National search um so the names that you put together are names from people who are connected but I think it's it's safe to say there that will be a rapidly evolving list but yeah early on who were some of the names that you heard to keep an eye out for in this vacant athletic director role now I know she's on the list I know everyone wants her if you go on our tweets I'm reading all the replies the quote tweets it's like Sarah bring back Sarah Sarah bomgardner she's great she's good at her job she's a great fundraiser but from what I'm hearing it doesn't sound like she's super interested in coming back either she's second in line at Texas she probably makes a nice chunk of change down there I know it's been reported around like 300,000 range um and I know I think Ruckers is paying Pat over a little over 1 mil if I recall but uh it just doesn't sound like she's really interested in this job um she might take over Texas eventually at some point uh looking down the rest of the names on the list uh there's some connections to Ruckers here and there like uh who was the other one Martin jarmin uh has some big 10 ties he was at Ohio State when Greg was there uh he has he's from uh North Carolina he's was Boston College's ad Boston College mind you um be pretty grateful you had Pat for eight and a half years because Boston College has been recycling ads like every other year they lost their ad to Penn State two years ago they lost jarmin three or four years ago to UCLA now UCLA's nil is an issue um they don't really have much donor support there uh but he's a former college basketball player he's young up in con he's on a bunch of 40 under 40 list I think he just turned 40 technically so I don't know if he's still eligible for this year's list or not um because I think it's under 40 but whatever uh Bernard Mir is a guy that uh a lot of people have mentioned to me from Stanford he's been there for quite some time Stanford is in a weird pickle where they're on the outside looking in in conference realignment and that's huge because you're just not going to be gaining as much money as everyone else in the world um so there's some talk that he might have like one one eye looking out the door just trying to see what else is out there uh although I was told he's making over 2 million year so it's going to be very hard to match that um so money might be an issue with that one Blake James from Boston College currently like I said they recycle ads like every other year he did get Leto at Miami a couple years ago before taking the BC job but he was pretty good at fundraising at Miami now Miami also kind of sells itself a little bit uh and then out of the names that I put out the last but not least the one I want to keep a close eye on is Diana and I'm going to pronounce this wrong Sabu Sab sabahu or something like that she's highly respected at Ohio State spent uh like 20 something years there uh between working in the ticketing Department working in the fundraising Department she was also uh head of media for the football team uh before getting Deputy athletic director of Ohio State she just got her first athletic director job in 2023 of Utah State and yeah they had a little bit of a thing going on there with uh one of their coaches and Blake Anderson that was before her time there um so I wouldn't look too much into that uh but she was the one that had to make the decision at the end of the day when the investigation was over to fire him uh but she is highly regarded among not just the Ohio State people but among the Big 10 she was the co I think it was um in the Big 10 working with Tony petiti and he's raved about her a lot I think that one just makes a lot of sense personally just because her connections she's big on football she knows what it takes to get a winning football program she was there when Greg was there um so it's not like they might have they might have crossed passed they might not have but who knows um but yeah just those are just a couple names off the top of uh top of the list um but like you said it's going to be an everchanging list too so there this list could be probably thrown in the garbage by tomorrow who knows yeah as these things tend to do um again this is all still new news as well for the you know the the athletic department in general they're going to hire a search firm I'm sure like they always do they're going to have different people from you know the Board of Governors get involved and you know as we've seen in the past certain people can have more or less influence based on certain things I don't don't think I think they understand the gravity of making a really good higher here and I think they're like like Greg was talking about in his presser today there is some pretty good vertical alignment throughout the university now that we didn't always necessarily have so I do think uh I do I I do trust that they'll end up making a really good hire it's just it might not be uh on the timeline that any of us are hoping for because again these athletic calendars just kicked off so imag imine how hard it must be to to hire somebody literally at the beginning of a you know right before football season right as basketball season is creeping up right before the school year starts it's not the best time by any means to hire uh in a position like athletic director so yeah it's gonna it's going to be tough um I don't think they're going to make a rash decision and it sounds like he want Holloway is going to have heavy input here Phil Murphy's going to have a lot of input here um sounds like howwe wants someone that has a little bit of an academic background as well and some of these guys on that list do uh so keep an eye on that um it's it's going to be interesting it's just going to be kind of wait and see but that now that being said I know people have asked me if like pasari who's taking over to interm ad if uh they'll wait give him the year and then choose after the year I'm like hell no like you know can't afford that like you got to get someone in there that's going to be able to the fundraise like fundraising is going to be a little bit tough now um because you don't have a permanent ad and you don't know what to the new ad's uh vision would be for for anything really yeah it's really important to fill that role but uh timeline TBD but we will keep you guys up to date um I'm sure it won't be a question that you have to answer questions on uh every single day until some insired in the board no just uh once a week and the ask the experts every Wednesday that's it um so let's transition now to the practice of the scrimmage from today like I said the second and final scrimmage of fall Camp Ruckers is now in game pret mode starting next week um just talk a little bit about uh the scrimmage today and we'll get into some of the things Greg said after uh we just talk generally what happened today at the scrimmage yeah uh Greg said basically in the beginning if you listen to his press conference which if you're on YouTube just click below you'll you'll find it very easily um that had a lot of young guys played um a lot of the guys with multiple years of big 10 reps were just just not going to be risked at all um he did talk about uh a Johnny Shephard is qb2 that's official um there shouldn't be too much of a shock considering uh we broke the news on the AJ SAS thing right before Camp started about um an upper extremity issue um so he's still limited a Johnny is qb2 I thought a johnni showed some some good things today uh the wide receiver room still developing he went out of his way to mention some of the young I asked him about some of the young guys who uh specifically stood out he said Cory Duff he said um Benjamin black he said Fama Tay uh that room is just completely stacked like it's kind of crazy um it's it's so stacked that they switched a guy to wide receiver and Tommy ammana and he switched back to defensive back so it's like uh it goes to tell you where um where things kind of stand there it's just it's hard to break in there uh it's very hard to break in that room um there's just so many bodies I mean if you look at it they added five new bodies this offseason if you include transfers um they got guys healthy again and they got guys eligible again like they just have a lot of dudes in that room uh I'm trying to think what else he said nothing crazy today it was just very kind of a basic press conference um most of the questions were obviously in regards the pat Hobs which I get the first couple but after that I'm kind of like all right come on guys let's move on like let let's get back to the scrimmage talk um yeah just just a very normal basic day um just taking it easy on a scrimmage which is a little interesting for uh for Greg considering in the past this is uh this is a guy who used to have like the world's worst like scrimmages guys were were breathing heavy coming off the field it was kind of just s nice relaxed situation today and uh that's their final scrimmage ahead of training camp or ahead of uh game day yeah it sounded like Greg he said specifically like he just didn't want to risk anybody getting hurt he's kind of had a different approach uh in terms of playing guys and scrimmages and like you said you wanted to give guys who have had a lot of big 10 reps some rest let some young guys have an opportunity to to make plays and show off what they can do um I thought there was a few interesting questions a lot of questions about Pat Hobbs um in the presser you know Greg talked about how they've gotten a lot of things done together in his four years with their four years together how they had a good relationship and how he's you know thinking about him and his family and praying for him uh for his health issues that he's going through um but I thought some of the the actual like you know football related questions were interesting Craig actually had a really good one when he asked Greg uh if the his approach to this training camp has been any different given how the schedule is structured early on in the season with that early byy and Greg was really excited to talk about that because he said yeah it did you know it changed how he approached things knowing he's going to have that early by you know trying to kind of uh balance some of the the rest that these guys were getting um overall he he did say he had a much different approach to camp this year knowing he had that early buy than he did in the past so thought that was a good question uh what were some of the questions that St out for you rich that were asking the presser um trying to think trying to remember to be honest uh it was just there was so many Pat hops questions it was hard to differentiate the uh the questions but I think someone asked about um jab and him stepping up a little bit um try there really wasn't many questions about the about the football team today uh and it's a shame because they did have a pretty good practice uh well scrimmage um yeah I mean like I said it was just a very boring day in terms of uh the scrimmage I shouldn't say boring in a bad way it's just very like relaxed very calm very everyone was kind know just doing their thing uh Team looked good um can't I'm not really sure what I'm what I'm allowed to say and what I'm not allowed to say either so that's the that's the other problem yeah that's totally fair um so obviously we haven't heard of any significant injuries the main you know first team really didn't play a whole lot today so it sounds like they I think there's two things to think about with that one is they probably feel really good about where this team is right now because if you didn't you'd probably want to have the opportunity to get as many reps as you possibly could in while it's still you know doesn't count uh two is that they know how important it is to stay healthy throughout the year um and cultivating that depth that we haven't really had in the past is super important so getting those extra reps in for young players um so by the end of the season that these guys who kind of were pretty green and hadn't had much experience are actually pretty grizzled and know what they're doing because you're going to encounter injuries it happens every year and you're gonna have points in games where guys are starting to wear down like we saw at that last stretch last year after the Ohio State game it seemed like we just kind of wilted especially on defense uh because you know they were playing well it's just that you could only make so many stops without the offense scoring any points to really kind of before you start to wilt and I think that's part you know you just break down physically part you break down mentally um when you're just doing your job doing your job and the offense isn't um you know if you think to that Iowa game you know the score is what six nothing heading into the fourth quarter Ruckers ends up losing like 20 something to zero um the Maryland game was like kind of when the levies broke for lack of a better term um where they're just kind of the defense totally fell apart but uh yeah it'll be interesting I I think they have some really good depth and getting them that young guys the opportunities to to play in game like situations uh is really important and I think they'll have a lot of those opportunities with the first two games as well when you look at uh Howard you look at akan like those aren't those are the two easiest games on the schedule by far so you gota hope they round into form as a full team by the time that that buy rolls around I mean looking back to last year um they suffered some injuries along the trenches especi specifically defensive tackle times last year uh and you look at it this year you're able to get these young guys so many reps as many reps as possible for the sole fact like you said like Craig said too the bye in week three you're not I don't want to say it's like a bye three weeks in a row but like Howard is very simple um akan should be very simple and you get a byee to get like you said to get these guys ready to go for later in the season not even just next year or the year after but just God forbid something happens because injuries do happen at the end of the day especially football um that you have these guys to have playing experience early on uh whether it be weeks one week two even week three in the bi-week like you're going to get these guys all ready to go for later in the season God forbid they they they need need them for injury-wise reasons or maybe they just stepping up and maybe these guys are just starting to stand out more and more um there's several like young guys that you'll probably see um week one and you'll probably be shocked and be like oh I I forgot all about him and then all of a sudden you're like oh there you go this guy just stood out um so yeah I mean it's very important to get these young guys reps um it was just a good scrimmage overall today like nothing really else uh to be said there so we covered a lot um is there anything we haven't talked about any additional topics you wanted to hit on before we head out today um not really the one thing I do want to mention is the Ruckers Club of New York City they do have I think it's at Penn New York City it's called Uh the bar I forget the exact name of the bar but uh the guy guy Zach over there that runs everything um for away games they're going to have a bunch of different uh events they're going to have giveaways uh where is this uh it's called Pennsylvania 6 New York City uh it's on West 31st Street right next to MSG so you get off the train you're right there I I plan on attending at least uh one of them I'm not sure which one yet uh for one of the away games but uh we're partnering with them we're going to do a bunch of giveaways they also just started a buers club of Nashville that's going to have watch parties so that's pretty cool uh might have to make a little trip down to Nashville I haven't been I've heard good things though um and that's really it we're just kind of getting ready for the season um when we going to get one practice availability next week and Greg will talk again and then uh the week after that it Monday hits that's press conference day and that's uh getting ready for Thursday night um it's a weird schedule this year Thursday night game two Friday night games across the country games so get ready cuz the new Big 10 is here and it's right around the corner and um I can't wait to stay up till 2:30 in the morning writing game recap I'm so excited yay yeah that'll be uh that'll be an interesting week um I do want to talk more about this giveaway like we've already said yeah night and day uh apparel our promoting sponsor is doing a giveaway in conjunction with us you got to do two things in order to be eligible for the giveaway one you got to follow them on Instagram their handle is just night. and. day. apparel that's on Instagram you have to be following them and you also have to write either in the comments below Night and Day Giveaway or give us a review on Apple podcasts mentioning Night and Day giveaway and you can get two entries for doing that um they're giving away three products are we giving three things away to one person or three separate things away to three different people that is a good question um I think that's really up to us to decide um three separate winners so we got more people to uh spread the love around too um so three separate winners um will get one prize uh and we'll announce that the winner uh the week of the Howard game so the week of the 26th at some point the last pod before the actual game we will announce the winner so keep entering keep sending those comments keep uh following night and day on Instagram and uh you'll have more chances to win the uh the contest but that's all I got um want to thank you for listening once again it's exciting season um can't wait for it to get started but for me and Rich this has been another edition of the night Report podcast signing off [Music] hey hey hey