Solich v. Pelini

Hujan

Hujan

New member
Some uncanny similarities between these two:

  • Both were picked by Osborne
  • Both were fired by different ADs than the one that hired them
  • Both fired despite going 9-3 in their final season
  • There was much criticism about how the ADs handled both firings
  • There was a split of opinion in the fan base about both firings

Given the high similarity about the circumstances surrounding both firings, it stands to reason that both coaches would have similar feelings about the respective ADs that fired them. Thus the question: How did the way Solich handled his firing compare with how Bo handled his?

(BTW, this is a genuine question, not a rhetorical one, as was not a Nebraska fan until the summer before Callahan's first season. (Long story.))

 
No response to this thread, in honesty makes me very happy. Frank was a great Nebraska player, and idol for all of us smaller kids, Frankie can do it so can I attitude. He was a great coach at Nebraska and was loved by many fans and is respected till this day. There are no comparisons between the two men. Frank was Nebraska, still is Nebraska, the other, like forms can be found below whale droppings.

Please remove this thread

Hujan I understand you do not know the past, but this is insulting to a great Husker of the past. Not the best HC, but lived for this program and gave most of his adult life to it.

 
Here's an anecdote that I think is extremely telling.

After the 300th sellout. They allowed some ex-players, ex-coaches to come on and say thanks fans, and congratulations. To everyone's surprise, Frank was one of those that came on. He was wearing his Ohio gear in his Ohio coaching office.

I think a lot of us have always had a tremendous amount of respect for Frank. I can say as a supporter of both Bo and Frank during their coaching tenures, I was upset they fired Frank. I was already on the fence with Bo before. And believe me when I say, I wasn't a Bo hater.

Plus, Frank had these games that he won. The Oklahoma game in 2001 was most impressive and solidified Eric Crouch as a Heisman candidate.

1998

#9 Washington, we were #2 (gameday was here I believe)

#19 Missouri, we were #7

1999

#21 A&M

#5 Kansas St (destroyed them), we were #7

#12 Texas for the Big 12 Championship, avenged our only loss of the season.

#6 Tenn in Fiesta Bowl

Finished the season ranked #2

2000

#23 Notre Dame, this game was big regardless of ranking.

Lost to Oklahoma, who eventually won the National Championship

Destroyed #18 Northwestern in the Alamo Dome. Many may argue that we should have played in a BCS bowl. Stupid Rules...

2001

#17 Notre Dame. Beat them pretty easily.

#2 Oklahoma. You want to talk about big games? It rarely gets bigger than #2 vs #3. OK vs NU? And this was against the reigning National Champions, and Bob Stoops. I love watching Black 41 Flash Reverse often... Never gets old, I wish I could have seen it in person.

2002

OK, not so good in 2002. The jerseys were terrible, and well, the team was terrible by our standards. Growing year, just lost Heisman winner and replaced him with Jammal Lord.

2003

We beat Penn State.

The losses were admittedly lopsided.

2 disappointing years after very good and great seasons where we were regularly in the top 10 and some years never jumped outside the top 5.

 
I don't think the original poster was meaning to insult frank. He was simply saying the reasons for termination were a lot alike and wanted to know what and how Frankie handled it in comparison to bo. He handled it with class and this nonsense never happened. As a matter of fact if rarely if ever does. Ugh why do you act a fool bo

 
Frank Solich was a Husker legend. And he got a raw deal. He had just reorganized his staff. And he was given one year, just one year, to produce results with the new staff. IF there were off the field reasons, the admin should have said that there were circumstances away from the football field that led to his dismissal and that the admin was Ok with the on field results.

Speaking of on field results......

Obviously the peak of this man's HC career was winning the Big 12 and the Fiesta Bowl in 1999-00. We lost to eventual national champ OU in 2000-01 and we had a great season going in 2001 with a No. 1 ranking going into the final week of the regular season.

The Colorado game spiraled out of control... for the most part. But it should be noted that, deep into the second half, Nebraska was in position to draw within one score and fumbled at the goal line. CU then reclaimed momentum and won the game. The 2001 BCS title game in the Rose Bowl was a loss to a team that many argue was the best ever in CFB. Obviously the 1990s Huskers have an argument to make in that regard too. But the fact that people were talking about Miami in that way means that we should not have felt too awful bad about losing to them even if the game was lopsided.

2002 was a rough year. No doubt about it. But we had Jamal at the QB and we still almost got to the program standard for wins. Two losses by less than a touchdown. And the bowl loss to Ole Miss, quaterbacked by that Manning kid, beat us by less than one score.

In 2003, we lost to Texas, a team that was two years away from beating USC for the national title. We lost to a one of the better Missouri Tiger teams of all time. And the Tigers resorted to trick plays to get the job done. The third loss came to Kansas State. And the Wildcats, just for the record, went on to blast No. 1 Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game.

Frank should have been retained. And I would argue that Frank would have probably got our offense to the point where it would have been one of the most envied in the country. We were already doing some of the things with speed option that would have led right to zone read. And we would have been at the tip of the spear in terms of innovation.

 
^ the only question mark that will never be answered in regards to Frank is if he was going to be able to recruit well enough to maintain the standard set before him. I personally don't think he was going to - so while he certainly turned things around I am guessing we would have continued down a similar path as the one Bo just led us on the last 7 years. Probably wouldn't have watched the bowl streak or other things fall like we did under Cally - but likely wouldn't have seen the success of his early years repeated either. As bad of a word has it is around here - "mediocrity" was an appropriate term to describe the path we were being led down.

 
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skersfan said:
No response to this thread, in honesty makes me very happy. Frank was a great Nebraska player, and idol for all of us smaller kids, Frankie can do it so can I attitude. He was a great coach at Nebraska and was loved by many fans and is respected till this day. There are no comparisons between the two men. Frank was Nebraska, still is Nebraska, the other, like forms can be found below whale droppings.

Please remove this thread

Hujan I understand you do not know the past, but this is insulting to a great Husker of the past. Not the best HC, but lived for this program and gave most of his adult life to it.
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NUpolo8 said:
Yeah seriously.

Frank Solich personifies Husker football. Bo is lower than Callahan.
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Huskinator said:
I don't think the original poster was meaning to insult frank. He was simply saying the reasons for termination were a lot alike and wanted to know what and how Frankie handled it in comparison to bo. He handled it with class and this nonsense never happened. As a matter of fact if rarely if ever does. Ugh why do you act a fool bo
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"Huskinator" is 100% correct. I did not start this thread to degrade Solich, and frankly, I'm surprised anyone would read it that way. Quite the opposite, in fact. My point is to pierce through the BS justifications that the Bo apologists are making, such as "Bo was just blowing off steam about being fired, no big deal" or "Bo shouldn't be flamed because he might have had a point about Eichorst." This made me wonder how Solich handled it.

You've all confirmed what I suspected, which is Solich handled virtually identical circumstances with class and grace. Given that these two men faced virtually identical circumstances yet one went out with class and the other is frothing at the mouth and lashing out at everyone, I think it just goes to show Bo's lack of character and the fact that it didn't have to be this way and the only reason it was is because Bo is not man enough to take his lumps and move on.

 
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Frank had it a lot worse. 1999-2000-2001 were great seasons. 2001 didn't finish off well, but still generally a great season.

We never heard a "Frank Tape".

Then again, no one ever wanted to hear what Frank had to say. No one ever decided to record him and think "Oh boy, this ought to be good!!!"

I think Frank was genuinely hurt by his firing. He doesn't like talking about it because he was heartbroken. That's my perception, always has been.

Even before this came out. I never thought Bo was heartbroken, or hurt. And I was someone who liked Bo. I was not surprised by what I heard. What would have surprised me was if he told them that he was hurt and heartbroken.

 
The only possible similarity, imo, is saying both may have been fired for "off-the-field" issues.

When Pederson was hired as AD, it was "common knowledge" that Pederson had an axe to grind with Frank (going back to Pedey's stint in the 80s/90s). Not finding the OWH article on it but it's a common story... There were some rumors re: Frank's off-the-field behavior but nothing approaching the reality of Bo. One common rumor was problems with alcohol...

As far as the aftermath, no comparison. The worst public fiasco involving Solich post-firing was his DUI at Ohio. Nothing sensational and definitely nothing vindictive towards NU or the AD...

 
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kchusker_chris said:
^ the only question mark that will never be answered in regards to Frank is if he was going to be able to recruit well enough to maintain the standard set before him. I personally don't think he was going to - so while he certainly turned things around I am guessing we would have continued down a similar path as the one Bo just led us on the last 7 years. Probably wouldn't have watched the bowl streak or other things fall like we did under Cally - but likely wouldn't have seen the success of his early years repeated either. As bad of a word has it is around here - "mediocrity" was an appropriate term to describe the path we were being led down.
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One name. Carl Crawford. Had he chosen NU over baseball, IMO, Frank's legacy would be completely different.....

 
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