Rutgers has a winning problem.
With the hiring of softball coach Kristen Butler and gymnastics coach Umme Salim-Beasley, athletics director Patrick Hobbs has signaled his blueprint for change.
Both are young coaches who demonstrated program-building ability at their prior stops and now take over programs that have underachieved in recent years, replacing long-tenured coaches whose contracts Hobbs declined to renew. They also come to Rutgers after Hobbs raised the bar for compensation at their positions.
Butler and Salim-Beasley signed four-year deals that will pay them a higher base salary than their predecessor, according to contracts obtained by NJ Advance Media through Open Public Records Act requests.