Why was Frank Solich fired?

[junior4949]

So let me get this straight. It was the right move to fire Solich because he inherited talent from a NC team? If memory serves me correctly, TO inherited much the same as Solich. By TO's fourth year, 1976, Nebraska finished middle of the pack in the Big 8. Up to that point, he hadn't finished any higher than second in the Big 8. Solich won the Big 12 in year two and played for a NC in year four. TO had been head man for nearly a decade before he won his first conference title.

I doubt we'll ever really know the real story behind Solich's firing, but I don't think his on the field performance was the reason given the fact that he did better than TO did. Given today's coaching carousel and win now attitudes, TO would have more than likely been fired sometime in the 70's. What's the most interesting to look at is comparing the first five years of TO's career and Solich's career. Solich won 75.4 percent of his games even when putting his 7-7 season in there. TO won 78.7 percent of his games, but he had two ties. If TO had lost those two games where there was a tie, he would have had an identical 75.4 percent winning percentage as Solich. However, Solich in those first five years won a conference title and played for a NC while TO did neither of those in his first five years. In TO's first five years, there was an average of 3.2 conference teams ranked in the top 25. In Solich's first five years, there was an average of 4.4 conference teams ranked in the top 25. The level of competition Solich faced was tougher than the level of competition TO faced. When looking at the data, it just doesn't appear Solich was fired for on-the-field performance. However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

 

[knapplc]

However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

Some of us know both, and that you're a little off in your assessment of Solich's performance at the helm.

 

[DelK]

So let me get this straight. It was the right move to fire Solich because he inherited talent from a NC team? If memory serves me correctly, TO inherited much the same as Solich. By TO's fourth year, 1976, Nebraska finished middle of the pack in the Big 8. Up to that point, he hadn't finished any higher than second in the Big 8. Solich won the Big 12 in year two and played for a NC in year four. TO had been head man for nearly a decade before he won his first conference title.

I doubt we'll ever really know the real story behind Solich's firing, but I don't think his on the field performance was the reason given the fact that he did better than TO did. Given today's coaching carousel and win now attitudes, TO would have more than likely been fired sometime in the 70's. What's the most interesting to look at is comparing the first five years of TO's career and Solich's career. Solich won 75.4 percent of his games even when putting his 7-7 season in there. TO won 78.7 percent of his games, but he had two ties. If TO had lost those two games where there was a tie, he would have had an identical 75.4 percent winning percentage as Solich. However, Solich in those first five years won a conference title and played for a NC while TO did neither of those in his first five years. In TO's first five years, there was an average of 3.2 conference teams ranked in the top 25. In Solich's first five years, there was an average of 4.4 conference teams ranked in the top 25. The level of competition Solich faced was tougher than the level of competition TO faced. When looking at the data, it just doesn't appear Solich was fired for on-the-field performance. However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

You're probably right about never knowing all the reasons behind the firing but it does seem to me that the AD and the coach were not on speaking terms and there are probably other clues folks can suggest.

Guess I'll just enjoy Nebraska football and hope we remain competitive. My requirements are a little lower than they were I guess.

 

[BigWillie]

Multitude of reasons ..

Frank was a horrible in-game coach.

Frank's recruiting was horrible. He really did not believe in really chasing prospects until after the conference championship game was over. He really did not believe in heavily recruiting during the season, and did not use alot of OV's for games.

Because of that, the caliber of athlete was down. Frank would settle with a ton of players, and take the easy way out with in-state kids who had no business in getting an offer.

Too loyal. Numerous coaches deserved the axe, but he took the TO approach and coddled them rather than hold them accountable. Unfortunately for Frank, he was not respected like TO and could not get slackers to carry their weight, and people just kept a low effort.

Even more, Solich was not intended to be hired in the first place. Bill Byrne was never going to hire Solich and was looking at other coaches, namely Bob Stoops and Mack Brown. But that's an another story in itself.

 

[HuskersGJ]

Motorboat - good list- Thank You!

one point you made in particular

5. Felt a sense of entitlement at NU. Remember him complaining after the '98 season about being at the Holiday Bowl? That's what 3 losses gets your team.

Intersting you would bring that up, i hadn't heard that before.

It reminds of things that were said about Solich with recruiting. I remember reading an article from the Denver Post about a prominant CU player (I'm sorry I forget who) who wanted to go to the Huskers but said Solich didn't even know his name and there was this attitude like "We're big bad Nebraska, who are you again?"

Martin Rucker said similar things, as Mike's brother that guy should have been an easy recruit. Instead he helped Missouri kick our a$$ a couple times.

The only reason Solich had 9 wins in his last year was because of Bo's defense. I don't know about you guys, but I remember seeing a crappy offense being propped up by a good defense.

I think firing Solich was probably the right move, but hiring Callahan was the worst decision ever.

In retrospect Callahan was obviously not the right hire. but we could have done MUCH worse considering how many people were saying thanks but no thanks to SP.

SP had gotten desperate enough to go after Houston Nutt! Complain about BC not knowin the "Nebraska Way" all you want but Nutt would have been our RichRod, NCAA sanctions and all.

We have had some low points to humble us the last few years but just the rumors that Nebraska was looking at Nutt... at the time Callahan seemed like a lucky break compared to that douche.

 

[HuskersGJ]

Even more, Solich was not intended to be hired in the first place. Bill Byrne was never going to hire Solich and was looking at other coaches, namely Bob Stoops and Mack Brown. But that's an another story in itself.

Assuming the "story in itself" were true. Neither Stoops or Brown make very good Nebraska coaches IMO. At NU, Mack absolutely does not get the superior talent he has at his finger tips in Texas. I will give him credit for managing that talent (which isn't always easy), but at Nebraska I don't think he wins without the fertile recruiting ground.

Same with Stoops, I don't know that he would have done well here either. He did a great job saving the sinking ship that was OU at the time and did it with Blake's recruits. Nebraska wasn't nearly as stocked in 2003/04 as OU was when Stoops came aboard.

I don't know who would have been a good coach to continue after Osborne. but anyway we seem to have found our guy now. Whatever trials we had to go through to get to this point.

 

[Hercules]

Here's what I really believe is the REAL reason Solich got fired:

We got spoiled. The state of Nebraska, the fans, got spoiled rotten. Osborne finished his last 5 years going 60-3, winning 3 national championships, and was ever so close to winning 5. We were used to not only winning, but winning BIG. Certainly, nobody could remember the last time we had been blown out, even though Nebraska had been blown out a number of times under Osborne. So when we went a whole 6 seasons (gasp!) without winning a national championship, obviously the coaches were to blame. Never mind it took Tom Osborne 22 years to win his first championship. Once Bob Stoops came around to OU and won it in his second year, everyone started expecting the same kind of results.

Essentially, Solich got fired because he followed Osborne. Pelini is still here because he followed Callahan.

And for those of you who are saying that Solich's last team wouldn't have won 9 games without Pelini's defense, I have a few things to say to you. First of all, SOLICH brought in Pelini to fix the defense, which had collapsed the year before under Craig Bohl, leading to a 7-7 season. Part of the job of the head coach is to put together a staff that can win games, so to just say that Pelini deserves all the credit for the 2003 season is ridiculous. Also, Pelini's defense was decent that year, but not otherworldly like his 2009 defense (which also only won 9 games in the regular season, by the way). If my memory serves me correctly, Pelini's 2003 defense gave up 35 points or more to Texas, Missouri, and Kansas State in blowout losses.

Anyways, unless you're also willing to blame Pelini and not Watson for every offensive problem we had last year, stop blaming Solich for the defensive letdowns we had in the last few years of his coaching career. If Pelini had stayed on as defensive coordinator after 2003 and been given the time to turn around the defense like he has the past few years, Solich and Nebraska would have a couple of championship rings to show for it.

 

[DelK]

Motorboat - good list- Thank You!

one point you made in particular

5. Felt a sense of entitlement at NU. Remember him complaining after the '98 season about being at the Holiday Bowl? That's what 3 losses gets your team.

Intersting you would bring that up, i hadn't heard that before.

It reminds of things that were said about Solich with recruiting. I remember reading an article from the Denver Post about a prominant CU player (I'm sorry I forget who) who wanted to go to the Huskers but said Solich didn't even know his name and there was this attitude like "We're big bad Nebraska, who are you again?"

Martin Rucker said similar things, as Mike's brother that guy should have been an easy recruit. Instead he helped Missouri kick our a$$ a couple times.

The only reason Solich had 9 wins in his last year was because of Bo's defense. I don't know about you guys, but I remember seeing a crappy offense being propped up by a good defense.

I think firing Solich was probably the right move, but hiring Callahan was the worst decision ever.

In retrospect Callahan was obviously not the right hire. but we could have done MUCH worse considering how many people were saying thanks but no thanks to SP.

SP had gotten desperate enough to go after Houston Nutt! Complain about BC not knowin the "Nebraska Way" all you want but Nutt would have been our RichRod, NCAA sanctions and all.

We have had some low points to humble us the last few years but just the rumors that Nebraska was looking at Nutt... at the time Callahan seemed like a lucky break compared to that douche.

All this is VERY interesting and enlightening even though we are probably readying reasons WE would have fired Solich and the correlation between these excellent points and what Pedersen was thinking is, perhaps tentative.

At any rate, it becomes pretty clear that creating and maintaining the conditions that result in a superior football program is a delicate, if not difficult, job which may be one of the reasons it is so interesting.

 

[Hingle McCringleberry]

Here's what I really believe is the REAL reason Solich got fired:

We got spoiled. The state of Nebraska, the fans, got spoiled rotten. Osborne finished his last 5 years going 60-3, winning 3 national championships, and was ever so close to winning 5. We were used to not only winning, but winning BIG. Certainly, nobody could remember the last time we had been blown out, even though Nebraska had been blown out a number of times under Osborne. So when we went a whole 6 seasons (gasp!) without winning a national championship, obviously the coaches were to blame. Never mind it took Tom Osborne 22 years to win his first championship. Once Bob Stoops came around to OU and won it in his second year, everyone started expecting the same kind of results.

Essentially, Solich got fired because he followed Osborne. Pelini is still here because he followed Callahan.

And for those of you who are saying that Solich's last team wouldn't have won 9 games without Pelini's defense, I have a few things to say to you. First of all, SOLICH brought in Pelini to fix the defense, which had collapsed the year before under Craig Bohl, leading to a 7-7 season. Part of the job of the head coach is to put together a staff that can win games, so to just say that Pelini deserves all the credit for the 2003 season is ridiculous. Also, Pelini's defense was decent that year, but not otherworldly like his 2009 defense (which also only won 9 games in the regular season, by the way). If my memory serves me correctly, Pelini's 2003 defense gave up 35 points or more to Texas, Missouri, and Kansas State in blowout losses.

Anyways, unless you're also willing to blame Pelini and not Watson for every offensive problem we had last year, stop blaming Solich for the defensive letdowns we had in the last few years of his coaching career. If Pelini had stayed on as defensive coordinator after 2003 and been given the time to turn around the defense like he has the past few years, Solich and Nebraska would have a couple of championship rings to show for it.

I agree with this 100%. I think the rumors of infidelity were created to get more steam to push Frank out, if this girl had Franks love child, where is it? I would think by now someone would of found him (see Jon Edwards for more info on that).

In the end, as much as I hated it, we needed Frank to leave, and we needed Callahan to implode. It has reset the expectations of the program, and in the long term, put the program on a more reasonable course. We have one of the most respected AD's in the country, a coach that seems to be taking us back to the top, and, for the time being, a national media that seems genuinely pleased with Nebraska returning to the national elite, definitely as good time to be a Husker fan.

 

[junior4949]

However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

Some of us know both, and that you're a little off in your assessment of Solich's performance at the helm.

I didn't give an assessment. I gave factual statistics. If they are wrong, by all means correct them.

 

[knapplc]

However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

Some of us know both, and that you're a little off in your assessment of Solich's performance at the helm.

I didn't give an assessment. I gave factual statistics. If they are wrong, by all means correct them.

The data isn't wrong, but your assessment of what that data means is not entirely correct. Wins/losses weren't all that was taken into account. That's all.

 

[junior4949]

Essentially, Solich got fired because he followed Osborne. Pelini is still here because he followed Callahan.

Actually, I somewhat think this is a copout excuse. TO followed Devaney which is very similar to Solich following TO. It took TO nearly a decade to win his first conference championship while Solich did it in his second year. What really happened is that the game and attitudes changed. If coaches like Coker at Miami, Fulmer at Tennessee, Carr at Michigan, etc. had coached back in the 70's; none of them would have been fired or pushed out. Unfortunately, college football was hit somewhere in the late 90's with the win now or else attitude. More than likely Bob Stoops and Pete Carroll had a lot to do with this. If the SEC continues on with their dominance, I see a lot of coaches in other conferences heads rolling.

 

[junior4949]

However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

Some of us know both, and that you're a little off in your assessment of Solich's performance at the helm.

I didn't give an assessment. I gave factual statistics. If they are wrong, by all means correct them.

The data isn't wrong, but your assessment of what that data means is not entirely correct. Wins/losses weren't all that was taken into account. That's all.

I still find interesting to this date that TO handpicked Solich as his replacement. Ironically, TO is now our AD who would make the decision of hirings and firings. The second thing that I still find interesting is the fact that TO even stated he met with Clownahan and his staff when he was brought in as the interim AD. At that time, he told them his expectations which all came down to wins and losses. According to TO, Clownahan would still be our coach had he won the amount of games TO outlined for him. In all reality, Bo was TO's second choice for coach. It's somewhat likely that Bo wouldn't even be coaching in the college ranks if it weren't for Solich. It's funny how things come full circle sometimes.

 

[knapplc]

I still find interesting to this date that TO handpicked Solich as his replacement. Ironically, TO is now our AD who would make the decision of hirings and firings. The second thing that I still find interesting is the fact that TO even stated he met with Clownahan and his staff when he was brought in as the interim AD. At that time, he told them his expectations which all came down to wins and losses. According to TO, Clownahan would still be our coach had he won the amount of games TO outlined for him. In all reality, Bo was TO's second choice for coach. It's somewhat likely that Bo wouldn't even be coaching in the college ranks if it weren't for Solich. It's funny how things come full circle sometimes.

The full circle part of this is odd/weird/ironic. I didn't know that Bo was TO's second choice. Who was his first? Kelly?

I don't know why TO picked Solich. Frank is a Husker to the core, always will be, but he never seemed like the right guy. It's too bad he ever got put into the position of being the Head Coach, because that was the decision that eventually led to his ouster from the program, and a "Husker Guy" like Solich shouldn't have been put in a position where he had to get fired like that. But the reality is that it wasn't working, for a lot of reasons, and Pederson was most definitely not willing to let it go until Frank figured it all out - if Frank figured it all out.

I wonder about that Callahan stuff. I know next to nothing about his regime, or TO's actual factual reasons for letting him go, but it seems like the wins/losses thing was an excuse. I can't imagine Tom came in, saw the condition the program was in, and had any real thoughts of keeping Callahan on past 2007 regardless of wins/losses. It's convenient that Callahan lost the way he did, from a PR standpoint, but I have to figure he would have been gone no matter what. Callahan was just never a Husker Guy, not in any sense of the phrase. Frank was, but wasn't "Head Coach at Nebraska" material. Turner is, but I'm not sure he's "HC@N" material right now.

I suppose I'm happy with Bo as HC right now, but all things considered, I'd rather not have gone through the Callahan Era to get here. Two mediocre seasons and two extremely embarrassing seasons just aren't worth this, nor is the end of the bowl streak, or any of the records we gave up.

 

[zoogs]

The win-loss thing strikes me as an excuse too. It was something like 'finish 8-4, and you stay. 7-5, we can probably make it work. 6-6, no promises. 5-7, you're out.' I'd hope that TO would have made a more holistic approach, given that such silly ultimatums almost led to his firing before his career got off the ground.