Courtesy Photo Rob Ambrose, seen here talking to quarterback Peter Athens during a recent game, was brought to Towson to upgrade the program.

"As a football coach, when you go out and get to meet the student body, it makes you a real entity instead of that guy," Ambrose said.

He also visited the classrooms to make sure his players were sitting in the front row, taking notes, dressed appropriately and paying attention.

"When the professor sees that the football coach really cares about academics, it sheds a different light on the athletes," Ambrose said. "It shows it's not just about wins and losses."

"He made a point of making himself being seen," said Urbana 's Wes White, a senior tight end with Towson. "He almost put fear into you. He not only made sure we were there, but in the front row, hats off and no one was on their cellphones."

Ambrose, a former player and coach at Towson, was brought back to the school to upgrade the program and make it a strong Football Championship Subdivision (the old 1-AA) one. Although Towson became a 1-AA team 15 years ago, it's been a program in disarray.

At one time there was talk of dropping the football program and then of playing with non-scholarship players. They have only had the full compliment of scholarships for the last three years. It's no surprise that the team has had just one winning season since 2004 and won just three games each of the last two years.

"We were lost in the woods for the last 15 years," said Ambrose.

So they turned to Ambrose, who played at Towson and then coached there from 1992 until 2000. Because of an injury, he actually started coaching a year before he graduated in 1993.

He didn't want to leave the school, but circumstances forced him to.

"Way back in the day, I would never have left, but they wouldn't pay me," said Ambrose, who was the Tigers' assistant head coach and offensive coordinator his last year at the school.

"We had the number one offense in the country or something. I think I got a $300 raise before taxes. They didn't care."

He went to Division III Catholic University as head coach. It was a mistake as CU went 3-7.

"I've been quoted as saying that five minutes into the job I realized how much I knew and six minutes into the job I realized how much of an idiot I was," the 40-year-old Ambrose said. "That was a job I thought I was prepared for because I was young and dumb enough to think I was prepared for anything."

He left after one year to become the quarterbacks coach at the University of Connecticut. The last three years he has been offensive coordinator there.

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AMBROSE SAT in his office one day last week and talked about his first year at Towson, a rough first year that has seen the Tigers win two of eight games heading in to their last game of the year next Saturday at James Madison. His office has a great view of Johnny Unitas Stadium, but isn't real big.

"My daughter said it's small," said Ambrose, who has a daughter and a son.

For a few minutes during the interview, Ambrose munched on a sandwich. He apologized for eating, saying he didn't get much of a chance to do it.

His starting quarterback Peter Athens came in for a few minutes. He was on crutches, after having torn his ACL in the sixth game of the season. Ambrose told him he needed a shave.

Ambrose can be tough. Unlike his father, longtime Middletown coach Tim Ambrose, he doesn't have an intimidating voice. But he can yell and make his point known.

"Rob is definitely hardcore like dad is," said Rob's brother and Towson assistant coach Jared Ambrose. "He is tough on multiple levels. He can manipulate the kids mentally. He does have the voice."

"He makes you earn everything," White said. "He doesn't let anything slide. If you stray from the path he will come down on you hard, whether it's in the classroom, or outside of school."

His toughness has cost him players. He figures between 10 and 15 left the program.

"I lost one player in about 15 minutes," he said. "I made it extremely difficult for everyone, the hours we kept, the workouts we did were brutal. But more stayed than I thought would."

"He came from a big time program, he showed us what it takes," White said. "Some guys weren't prepared for that. They fell off."

Ambrose did take away two scholarships.

"They knew they earned that," he said.

Ambrose said he brought a Division I mentality to the school, something that is new to Towson. He was only willing to come back because the new mentality is what the school wanted.

"The university made a commitment to athletics and to football," he said. "The attitude that the staff supports is a Division I full-time attitude. Division I football is 12 months, seven days a week. That attitude alone is a cultural shock to this place. We've got to change people's perception of what football is, what Division I football is."

He said in line with that, the school began to pay decent salaries to their coaches, something it didn't do when he was there.

"The ability to hire and retain quality coaches is huge," he said.

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THIS SEASON AMBROSE has had to get used to losing. He only had two losing seasons at Towson and two in seven years at Connecticut. One reason for the 2-7 record this season is the competition. The CAA is the top FCS league in the country. Towson plays five ranked teams this year.

His first victory was a 21-17 win over Coastal Carolina in the second game of the year. The Tigers beat Rhode Island 36-28 on Oct. 10. But they also lost to nationally ranked New Hampshire, 57-7, Richmond , 42-14, and Villanova, 49-7.

"They say would you rather lose by one point or fifty? In the end, no one really cares about the score," he said. "Losing is losing."

He only had 14 seniors on the team and only six of them start, including a kicker. When they faced Richmond, they played a team with 19 seniors. Most of his players are redshirt freshmen and sophomores.

At one time, he had 21 players hurt. It got so bad that a defensive tackle, who was so low on the depth chart that he was on the scout team, played three and a half quarters as the starting offensive tackle against William and Mary. He was up against two All-Americans.

Towson hasn't found a suitable replacement for Athens.

"If you've got eligibility and you can play quarterback, you've taken snaps this year," Ambrose said.

He said the job hasn't surprised him because he's a workaholic who knew what he was getting into. He knew the team would struggle. But the competition has been better than he thought.

It's been hard on him and his family. For the first six months, his wife and children remained in Connecticut. Every two weeks, he would fly up there or they would fly to Maryland.

Then there is the alumni. Ambrose took over for Gordy Combs, who had been head coach since 1992. Before that, Phil Albert has been at the school since 1972.

"In comes this snot-nosed Joe Punk," Ambrose said. "With the older guys I hear a little bit, I'm not like those guys. The young alums, I hear from them in a different way. They are thrilled."

Then there are the students. His supporters have held up a sign saying "In Ambrose We Trust." Others felt the team should win right away with a Division I coach coming in.

One bonus is that he's back near his family. He brought his brother down from the University of Delaware to be the tight end coach.

His father, former Middletown coach Tim Ambrose, is on the sidelines at many games.

"I once told him you go to more of my games when I am coaching than when I played," Ambrose said. "He said, yeah, you're a much better coach than a player."

He still gets advice from his father.

"Considering the source, even though it's unsolicited, I tend to give it more credence than I do unsolicited advice," he said.

He once asked his dad about going into college coaching, but his father said he wasn't interested. He later found out why.

"I was probably coaching for a couple of years, recruiting and losing and working 24 hours a day," Ambrose said. "He looked at me and said, now you know why I didn't want to become a college coach."

In one other way, this has been a rough year for Ambrose. On Oct. 18, Connecticut starting cornerback Jasper Howard died from stab wounds suffered at a dance. Ambrose got an early morning phone call from one of the Connecticut coaches about Howard's death.

"I knew him well, my wife knew him well," said Ambrose, who got emotional when asked about Howard. "To be honest, it was three or four days when I came home to a crying wife. It's been very hard. It's going to hurt for a long time."

He was unable to go to the funeral in Miami because of his job. It was a tough decision.

Ambrose is disappointed with the team's record now. But he knows it's not about one season, it's about upgrading the program and making it into a winning one.

"Sure I don't like to lose, but it's exciting watching this thing start to grow, knowing I can play a small part in what will be the positive history of this place, trying to keep the vision bigger than the moment," Ambrose said.