(08-05-2020 08:03 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  FIFY. Pelini wasn't the guy to keep - Solich was.

Solich could have updated the offense and moved the program forward.

(08-05-2020 10:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-05-2020 10:51 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(08-05-2020 10:45 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Ohio '83-'04 (before Solich) - 2 winning seasons in 22 years
Ohio '05-'19 (with Solich) - 2 losing seasons in 15 years

Ohio football since '83:
4-7
4-6-1
2-9
1-10
1-10
4-6-1
1-9-1
1-9-1
2-8-1
1-10
4-7
0-11
2-8-1
6-6
8-3
5-6
5-6
7-4
1-10
4-8
2-10
4-7
[Solich]
4-7
9-5
6-6
4-8
9-5
8-5
10-4
9-4
7-6
6-6
8-5
8-6
9-4
9-4
7-6

My thoughts exactly. Ohio averaged 3-8-1 before Solich, 8-5 since his arrival.
Nebraska hardly missed a beat after Osborne retired, and the credit should go in large part to Solich. At the time it felt like Nebraska wanted to "modernize" its football program - for the sake of being modern. Bad move, IMHO.

Solich's record at Ohio is fine, for Ohio, but does it say he should have a P5 job? I don't think so.

And if he doesn't deserve a P5 job, he doesn't deserve Nebraska's job.

Let's face it: Solich and Coker were very similar, effective coattail-riders for 3-4 years, then you could see the program fading.

I attended Solich's first game as Ohio's coach. The game was in Evanston and against Northwestern. There were plenty of red shirts in the stands cheering for the green. We all stood waiting for the team after the game and clapping for Coach Solich.

(08-06-2020 12:34 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  I didn’t get the impression many were unhappy with DW, but Pedersen was and that was enough to persuade leadership to move on. And to base it on a season’s record, above .500, and with a respectable recruiting class coming in, sorry, quo, that’s pulling the plug too soon.

And is chronically 7-5 or 8-4 so terrible? I mean, isn’t this pretty much Ferentz at Iowa? That you can be successful enough that over time, should you choose to move on from someone who stalls out there (and that isn’t DW), you have infrastructure and kids to move it up and beyond? Because that didn’t happen at Pitt. Harris takes them to the BCS, and he gets pushed out. Program stalls. Wanny’s in, brings it up to a winner, gets canned. Program stalls.

The key with Kirk Ferentz is every 5 or 6 years he sneaks in an 11-2 season with a NY6 bowl bid. Actually Ferentz has 5 Top 10 finishes in his career. Hell, even last year Ferentz was 10-3 and Top 15. If Wanny would have got at least 1 Orange Bowl bid at Pitt, and at least 1 Top ten finish, that could have made a difference.

(08-06-2020 02:19 PM)chess Wrote:  

(08-05-2020 10:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Let's face it: Solich and Coker were very similar, effective coattail-riders for 3-4 years, then you could see the program fading.

I attended Solich's first game as Ohio's coach. The game was in Evanston and against Northwestern. There were plenty of red shirts in the stands cheering for the green. We all stood waiting for the team after the game and clapping for Coach Solich.

I can believe that. Solich was a likable guy, and he bled scarlet and cream. Heck, he even looked like Osbourne's younger brother.

But my assessment of him as a coach is correct.

I feel like Mark Right at Georgia was a bad firing. Richt was very well liked by his players, and they really did hate to see him go. The fact that he went on to coach @ Miami-FL shows that he still had something left in the tank. I'm glad we got Kirby Smart, but I could have waited for him.

Brett Bielema definitely was one, IMO. The Hawgs weren't the same after he got canned.

I'm still on the fence about Southern Miss firing Jeff Bower.

(08-06-2020 03:01 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-06-2020 02:19 PM)chess Wrote:  

(08-05-2020 10:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Let's face it: Solich and Coker were very similar, effective coattail-riders for 3-4 years, then you could see the program fading.

I attended Solich's first game as Ohio's coach. The game was in Evanston and against Northwestern. There were plenty of red shirts in the stands cheering for the green. We all stood waiting for the team after the game and clapping for Coach Solich.

I can believe that. Solich was a likable guy, and he bled scarlet and cream. Heck, he even looked like Osbourne's younger brother.

But my assessment of him as a coach is correct.

I tend to agree with you. With hindsight he may have deserved another year in Lincoln to turn things around knowing where they've gone since then, but at the time he took over NU was an unquestionably an elite program towards the very top of the college football world, with those expectations going 7-7 and 9-3 over two seasons was grounds to move on. I do think his tenure at Ohio deserves more credit than you're giving him because OU was hot garbage when he took over and SE Ohio is a tiny market to draw from, though he's probably peaked there; he's been lucky that Miami has been mostly abysmal during his tenure and now we've finally seemed to turn a corner.

(08-06-2020 03:24 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  Brett Bielema definitely was one, IMO. The Hawgs weren't the same after he got canned.

Bielema was a weird fit from the get-go. He was a Big Ten player and coach who essentially spent his whole career in the upper midwest, getting someone with no SEC experience to compete in the same division with the likes of Saban wasn't a great formula. By his last season it was clear they were going the wrong direction and letting him go was the right move. I get why Arkansas went for him with his Wisconsin resume and desire for something new after the Petrino debacle, but your analysis is more an indictment of Chad Morris than anything else.

(08-06-2020 06:30 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(08-06-2020 03:01 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-06-2020 02:19 PM)chess Wrote:  

(08-05-2020 10:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Let's face it: Solich and Coker were very similar, effective coattail-riders for 3-4 years, then you could see the program fading.

I attended Solich's first game as Ohio's coach. The game was in Evanston and against Northwestern. There were plenty of red shirts in the stands cheering for the green. We all stood waiting for the team after the game and clapping for Coach Solich.

I can believe that. Solich was a likable guy, and he bled scarlet and cream. Heck, he even looked like Osbourne's younger brother.

But my assessment of him as a coach is correct.

I tend to agree with you. With hindsight he may have deserved another year in Lincoln to turn things around knowing where they've gone since then, but at the time he took over NU was an unquestionably an elite program towards the very top of the college football world, with those expectations going 7-7 and 9-3 over two seasons was grounds to move on. I do think his tenure at Ohio deserves more credit than you're giving him because OU was hot garbage when he took over and SE Ohio is a tiny market to draw from, though he's probably peaked there; he's been lucky that Miami has been mostly abysmal during his tenure and now we've finally seemed to turn a corner.

OK, fair enough - I hereby give Solich more credit for his work at Ohio. Seriously. But I stand by the notion that UNL was correct to move on from him.

(08-01-2020 04:23 PM)schmolik Wrote:  Mike Leach's firing was based on the Adam James incident(s). Whether that was justified or not depends on who you ask. Then again after calling his Washington State players fat, dumb, and entitled it tells you about his character. I don't know what Mississippi State was thinking hiring him after he made those comments.

Leach fits the no nonsense, blue collar mentality of Miss St. I think you might be surprised and they will be a good match.

(08-06-2020 12:34 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  I didn’t get the impression many were unhappy with DW, but Pedersen was and that was enough to persuade leadership to move on. And to base it on a season’s record, above .500, and with a respectable recruiting class coming in, sorry, quo, that’s pulling the plug too soon.

And is chronically 7-5 or 8-4 so terrible? I mean, isn’t this pretty much Ferentz at Iowa? That you can be successful enough that over time, should you choose to move on from someone who stalls out there (and that isn’t DW), you have infrastructure and kids to move it up and beyond? Because that didn’t happen at Pitt. Harris takes them to the BCS, and he gets pushed out. Program stalls. Wanny’s in, brings it up to a winner, gets canned. Program stalls.

Well, Harris' trip to the BCS in 2004 was a lot like UConn's in 2010...someone from the Big East had to go and Pitt won the 3 or 4 way tiebreaker in 2004.

Harris built Pitt up from the depths of the mid 90s, which was no small task. He had them ranked consistently toward the end of his tenure and I'm not sure why Pitt didn't renew his contract. The 2004 season had to be a disappointment and they were embarrassed by Utah, but there wasn't a deserving Big East team to send.

Maybe at Pitt they think they have a cathedral ceiling instead of the 8' version that's in most homes?