Solich would be proud....

I agree with all of this and his biggest mistake (as far as his chocie of assistant coaches go) was trying to make that baffoon Barny Cotton OC. But I put the blame on Tom more than I do Frank as Tom had to have known that Frank didn't have what it took to be a HC at a major program. As far as Franks favorite plays, don't forget the FB trap. He ran that one to death, even on 3rd and long.
Agree that it's a head-scratcher. I just wonder if Frank wasn't paying attention as much as would be expected. Really seems like he didn't value recruiting very much, despite that being a HUGE reason why we finally got over the hump and were elite. And I remember listing to a post-game interview with him early on where he was asked about the fullback getting so many carries. His response was something to the effect of "you have to run inside to set up the option." REALLY!?!??! Have you not watched us run the option 40 times until they forget about the fullback and he runs untouched through the middle for 40 yards? That only happened ... almost every game for the previous 15 years.

 
He was Nebraska's coach for our last conference title, last BCS bowl, last BCS bowl win, last win over a top 5 team. So it wasn't all bad while he was here. (Though he was the coach during Black Friday, therein being partially responsible for the Curse of Black Friday, which has plagued us with irrelevancy and mediocrity ever since...)
And had Texass not cheated in Austin in '99 (two complete passes ruled incomplete on the last drive...), he would have played for two NCs.
He would have won that NC if we had played in it - we blew out a very good Tenn team in the bowl game. that team (1999) was better than the team that lost to Miami in the NCG 2 years later.

 
He was in over his head as head coach?

He did well as head coach at Nebraska and has continued to do well as head coach at Ohio.

Or am I missing something?

 
He was in over his head as head coach?

He did well as head coach at Nebraska and has continued to do well as head coach at Ohio.

Or am I missing something?
We were in steady decline as we ran out of Tom's recruits. Even the 9-3 record his last year featured exactly one win over a team with a winning record (9-4 S Miss). Not a good recruiter. He's done OK at Ohio but has never lost fewer than four games and has two bowl wins in eight years. Not terrible but nothing special either.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
He was in over his head as head coach?

He did well as head coach at Nebraska and has continued to do well as head coach at Ohio.

Or am I missing something?
We were in steady decline as we ran out of Tom's recruits. Even the 9-3 record his last year featured exactly one win over a team with a winning record (9-4 S Miss). Not a good recruiter. He's done OK at Ohio but has never lost fewer than four games and has two bowl wins in eight years. Not terrible but nothing special either.
Nothing special? At Ohio? Before Frank, they had only been to two bowl games in their entire history and never won one! In their entire 120 year history, they had won 9+ games in three seasons. Frank has won 9+ four times in only 8 seasons.

And two seasons of 7-7 to 10-3 is not steady decline. It's a blip.

Seriously, do you not have hindsight???

 
It's only considered decline because he was terminated while he was down. Nebraska fans, spoiled by the success of Osborne, think that great coaches win big and win huge every single year consistently, when in reality it's much more likely that they will occasionally have down years.

Solich never got the chance to see if he could or would prove those two years to be an aberration or a trend.

Would it have gotten better? Who knows (none of us), but to say he was in over his head as a head coach when he accomplished more in his first six seasons than Tom or pretty much any of his peers at the same time did, and has also brought unprecedented success to Ohio, is quite false.

 
I think the one thing that all big time great coaches have is that "bigger than life persona", Tom, Bobby Bowden, Barry Switzer, even Paterno. And now, guys lke Saban and Myers. Even if they're not flamboyant, ie Paterno as opposed to Bowden, there is just an aura around them. I think that is what allows them to draw in top notch recruits (and probably big money boosters too).

I loved Frank, be just didn't seem to fit that mold. He seems like a perfect fit as a mid-major coach, but I do think the decline would have continued had he stayed here as the head coach.

 
Coach Solich or fearless frankie whatever you prefer the guy will always have our respect and gratitude for all he did and tried to do. Just imagine if he would have not gotten the axe from a ad whom shall forever remain nameless. ......where we might be at today. One thing about him he was very loyal and not afraid to get out and learn from what others were doing.

 
Frank was my idol in when I was in high school. Gave me inspiration to play the game, being quite small back then. Heart of lion, a mean streak only seen on the field. But many forget that there were other reasons Frank left. The AD (unnamed) really had no choice in the matter. Carlesque shall we say.

I think a good man, that made a mistake. He paid dearly for it. He has had some judgment problems at Ohio to.

I think if some things had not happened he might still be here. He would have figured out how to recruit, and how to use his QB, as it seems he did that almost instantly at Ohio. Unfortunately as we talk about him he is having a bad season. Hope he figures it out quick and finishes on a high note, can not be that many more years left.

Would love to see him come back for a Frankie day. He deserves one for all that he did for this program, and the love he has for it.

 
Frank was my idol in when I was in high school. Gave me inspiration to play the game, being quite small back then. Heart of lion, a mean streak only seen on the field. But many forget that there were other reasons Frank left. The AD (unnamed) really had no choice in the matter. Carlesque shall we say.

I think a good man, that made a mistake. He paid dearly for it. He has had some judgment problems at Ohio to.

I think if some things had not happened he might still be here. He would have figured out how to recruit, and how to use his QB, as it seems he did that almost instantly at Ohio. Unfortunately as we talk about him he is having a bad season. Hope he figures it out quick and finishes on a high note, can not be that many more years left.

Would love to see him come back for a Frankie day. He deserves one for all that he did for this program, and the love he has for it.
So many of these "judgement problems" have been thrown around over the years. Many of which are fallacies. Which one are we speaking of here??

 
Options to the boundary are actually pretty effective. It causes the defense to have a tendancy to overpursue to the sideline allowing for some really nice cut back/cut up lanes for the qb. It actually takes more discipline defensively to defend an option to the boundry than it does to the field.
Yup and Tom's excuse for using it so much was that there typically were fewer defenders on that side of the field so they had fewer people to block to gain the advantage. It did seem to work well on the whole but, at times, it sure would drive a fan crazy when you felt you had more speed than the other team.

 
He was in over his head as head coach?

He did well as head coach at Nebraska and has continued to do well as head coach at Ohio.

Or am I missing something?
You are not missing anything, dumbest firing ever.
Easy there..........your screen name would be different if it weren't for that
default_cool.png


 
Back
Top