Why was Frank Solich fired?

BigWillie said:
NUpolo8 said:
Another big reason for Solich's downturn happened in 99, (A year where he coached himself out of a national title shot, no way Texas should have gotten over NU in the regular season.) When he named Newcombe the starting qb, Crouch threw a tantrum, quit, and ran home to mommy. Solich begged him to come back, and eventually gave him what he wanted. That was a great year, but he lost the respect of the team. 2000 and 2001 were rife with discipline problems.
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The only thing is, from everything I heard about that situation, Crouch was head and shoulders above Newcombe. Crouch packed up to leave because he felt the coaching staff screwed him over and did not even give him a fair chance. It sounded very much like they didn't as the coaches seemed to favor their 'big' national recruit in Newcombe.

zoogies said:
Depending on what conspiracy theories you believe, Bo might not even have been TO's choice as much as the booster's.

But AFAIK those were just crazy rumors from back in the day.
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Boosters can be rather influential in decisions. I liked how influential they were in our coaching search. :)
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Because of the result, or in principle?

 
So at what point in the season was Osborne put in as AD? I didn't realize that TO even really considered keeping Callahan.

 
Osborne was announced as the AD on 10/16/07, three days after the OSU loss. We then lost to A&M, Texas and Kansas, the KU loss being the 76-point game. Immediately after we lost to KU we pummeled KSU and scored 70-something points doing it, then lost to Colorado the next week, giving up another 65 points.

I know people think that Callahan could have kept his job had he only won those games, but I just do not see it. Osborne was brought in to return Nebraska to its roots, and Callahan was NOT the guy to do that. In fact, he was about the polar opposite of that.

Even if we'd have beaten Texas and made the other three losses after TO took over respectable, the odds of Callahan keeping his job the way he helped ostracize past Huskers and the way he so eagerly changed the culture of the program, there's no way he would have stayed.

 
knapplc said:
Osborne was announced as the AD on 10/16/07, three days after the OSU loss. We then lost to A&M, Texas and Kansas, the KU loss being the 76-point game. Immediately after we lost to KU we pummeled KSU and scored 70-something points doing it, then lost to Colorado the next week, giving up another 65 points.

I know people think that Callahan could have kept his job had he only won those games, but I just do not see it. Osborne was brought in to return Nebraska to its roots, and Callahan was NOT the guy to do that. In fact, he was about the polar opposite of that.

Even if we'd have beaten Texas and made the other three losses after TO took over respectable, the odds of Callahan keeping his job the way he helped ostracize past Huskers and the way he so eagerly changed the culture of the program, there's no way he would have stayed.
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I tend to agree with this ideology. Osborne knew we on missed Pelini in 2003 and how well his defenses performed. Callahan made it easier on Osborne, by losing games, for Osborne to state the "if you win X amount of games we can make it work or you will keep your job" or if you "lose X amount of games it's going to be tough". Don't get me wrong, Im sure Osborne told Callahan that and among other things about how it was a polar opposite of what things should have been, but that was the public reason and it was made easier by Osborne cause Callahan lost the team so badly.

If Callahan had won a few of those loses, Osborne would have cited "It's more than just about the game" and would list everything besides results on the field for his reasons for firing Callahan. Shunning of former players, no respect to walk-on program, things that just weren't how they used to be.

Since Callahan lost most of those games, he could easily file it under "Bad performance on the field and we don't do that at Nebraska" so it made it even easier to fire him.

Purely classic Osborne Politic/Coach talk, but that's how he is, he can insult you while doing it classy, or can say one thing but probably means something totally different when he is talking about negative things, ie, Callahan, the Big XII, etc.

At least that's how I saw it.

 
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DelK said:
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
schuhbdoo said:
DelK said:
What is the unvarnished, straight skinny on why Frank Solich was fired?
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Solich was a medicore coach that wasn't a top recruiter. He was in over his head. 9 win seasons when he had 12 win talent. Unacceptable!!!!
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Yeah and we all know Pedey didn't want NU to slip into mediocrity
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At one time, there was rumor of improprieties by Solich and a commentator in a piece recently wrote the dismissal was justified. There are often many angles, sides, and interpretations and re-interpretations for such events. Very interesting.
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Link?

 
Malth said:
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.
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I remember that too. Wasn't that... last year?

 
Sorry I'm new to this thread... interesting stuff. I don't have any inside info on this but here is my take. This is based on popular opinion (and some news stories) circulation after the firing.

My only issue with the Solich firing was that, from what I understand, Pederson wanted to fire Solich after 2002 but held off for PR reasons, knowing that he would fire him after 03. He knew that he would get run out of town if he fired him after 02, for two reasons: He had just gotten the AD job that December, and Nebraska was one year removed from playing in the BCS Championship Game. So he told Solich to can the defensive staff, relinquish the OC duties, etc. However, in Pedey's mind, he was just buying another season so his line about "gravitating into mediocrity" would seem plausible to the public. If this is true, Pedey was probably hoping all of Solich's new staff would suck to make the firing go over smoothly. And it certainly wasn't fair to Solich or the new staff.

Well, Pedey got his wish on offense, but on defense, Solich picked up some legitimate gems. Luckily for Pedey, the offense was so bad that even a really good defense couldn't keep it close against three teams. And I think that was just enough for Pedey's plan to work. If Missouri doesn't explode in that fourth quarter, and we end up with a 10-2 regular season, is the plan foiled?

I think Pedey wanted the best for Nebraska (in the long run), I just think while watching the disaster of 2002, he became so set on the idea that a brand new staff needed to be brought in that he didn't even care to give the new 03 staff a fair shake.

Now maybe my facts are all muddled, but I remember a couple legitimate media sources pointing in this general direction.

 
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I was told many many years ago(5 months before Frank was going to be fired), that Coach Solich used to done large eighties type glasses and pull his coaching shorts up and imitate Pedey at coach's meetings. and one day, Pedey walked in a caught him. He did that because Pedey used to attend the coach strategy meetings dressed as a coach, but had the role of recruiting coordinator. The coaches didn't really like to have Pedey around and he has never forgiven coach Solich for that.

Since we are in rumorville- 3 stories (may have been reported already) on why Tom is retiring 1) Someone told him you are too dam old and he said "you are right and I am leaving" 2) Tom is getting lots of pressure to bring beer sales into new arena- he said it would be a cold day in hell and I will retire if you continue to pressure me on the beer sales 3) Coach Bo is having some panic attacks etc.. lately and is on some pysch meds etc (he was on they hard for UCLA and was too subdue and decided to hell with his rx. He didn't titrate off them after UCLA so he had rapid heart beat etc)... anyway program is in disaster mode down there and a replacement will need to be brought in for the HC by next season is crap doesn't change (or we have another downward spiral like last season). Tom doesn't have the stomach to replace another HC.... either way TO has done great things for the state of Nebraska. Just my .02 and it is rumorville

 
Sometimes I wonder how Steve Pederson can live with himself. I know if I was THAT bad at my job, I'd probably just give up on life

 
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