New Rutgers athletics director Keli Zinn said all the right things on Day One. Most importantly, she conveyed an understanding of what Rutgers needs.

She’ll encounter plenty of the latter in New Jersey. But Zinn deftly brushed aside questions about the mess her predecessor, Patrick Hobbs, left in his wake. Her mentor spent many years watching Rutgers officials step on rakes from College Park, Maryland, and made a promise about the woman taking the job:

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Rutgers named Keli Zinn its new athletic director on Wednesday, filling the job after a one-year vacancy. Zinn had been deputy AD and chief operating officer at LSU since 2022 after stops at West Virginia, Maryland and the Big East. She assumes control of overseeing 24 men’s and women’s varsity sports on Aug. 6.