https://getsomemaction.com/news/2021/7/1...coach.aspx

The MAC East is going to be wild this year with this announcement.

He'll be missed.

Hope his health issue is not serious but at 76 most any is.

I became a Bobcat in 2009, so all I've ever known was Frank Solich at the helm of Ohio football.

Tim Alban, his long time offensive coordinator will be taking over the head coaching responsibilities. He's been the OC at Ohio ever since 2005, so at least it won't be a drastic transition.

Best wishes to Frank Solich and hope it all works out for Albin. He has been there for a long time and sure Bobcat fans have some opinions.

I've always been impressed with Solich. Ohio signing Alban quickly shows confidence that hopefully will keep your recruits on board.

I'd like to see App and Ohio play again sometime. Classy bunch.

Frank Solich's legacy:

• 173-101 career record
• 115 wins at Ohio, the most ever by a MAC coach
• 77-46 in conference play, second only to CMU's Herb Deromedi (90)
• 16 years with the Bobcats, tied for longest serving head coach in the MAC with Deromedi
• 12 winning seasons
• 11 bowl appearances
• 4 MAC East titles
• Turned Ohio football from a perennial basement dweller to a competitive team who was consistently in the running for a MAC title. While he never was able to bring home a MAC title for OU, I sure hope his guys bring one to Athens in this upcoming year.
  

(07-14-2021 10:00 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  I've always been impressed with Solich. Ohio signing Alban quickly shows confidence that hopefully will keep your recruits on board.

I'd like to see App and Ohio play again sometime. Classy bunch.

Don't see a problem. Only one verbal to date. Otherwise, the 2021 recruits should already be on campus.

https://247sports.com/Season/2022-Footba...erence=MAC

(07-14-2021 10:43 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(07-14-2021 10:00 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  I've always been impressed with Solich. Ohio signing Alban quickly shows confidence that hopefully will keep your recruits on board.

I'd like to see App and Ohio play again sometime. Classy bunch.

Don't see a problem. Only one verbal to date. Otherwise, the 2021 recruits should already be on campus.

https://247sports.com/Season/2022-Footba...erence=MAC

With the transfer portal a bunch of 2021 Ohio recruits could have put their names in it if the coaching staff turned over. Look at what happened with Leipold and all the Buffalo players that entered the portal and transferred to Kansas to follow him.

What a huge loss for Ohio and the MAC. Solich is a great coach and definitely MAC hall of fame, even without a MAC title to his name (Joe Novak never did at NIU either and we look at him fondly).

(07-14-2021 08:48 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  I became a Bobcat in 2009, so all I've ever known was Frank Solich at the helm of Ohio football.

Tim Alban, his long time offensive coordinator will be taking over the head coaching responsibilities. He's been the OC at Ohio ever since 2005, so at least it won't be a drastic transition.

Better hope it's more successful than Jim Grobe to Brian Knorr was.

(07-14-2021 01:28 PM)MajorHoople Wrote:  

(07-14-2021 08:48 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  I became a Bobcat in 2009, so all I've ever known was Frank Solich at the helm of Ohio football.

Tim Alban, his long time offensive coordinator will be taking over the head coaching responsibilities. He's been the OC at Ohio ever since 2005, so at least it won't be a drastic transition.

Better hope it's more successful than Jim Grobe to Brian Knorr was.

11-35

(07-14-2021 10:13 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  Frank Solich's legacy:

• 173-101 career record
• 115 wins at Ohio, the most ever by a MAC coach
• 77-46 in conference play, second only to CMU's Herb Deromedi (90)
• 16 years with the Bobcats, tied for longest serving head coach in the MAC with Deromedi
• 12 winning seasons
• 11 bowl appearances
• 4 MAC East titles
• Turned Ohio football from a perennial basement dweller to a competitive team who was consistently in the running for a MAC title. While he never was able to bring home a MAC title for OU, I sure hope his guys bring one to Athens in this upcoming year.
  

Going over half a century without a MAC title does tend to take the glow off his consistent record of good teams over 16 years. He was 0 for 16 when it comes to MAC titles. So lifetime most MAC wins but no championships. Good run, but maybe not a great run?

(07-14-2021 07:09 PM)DICK Wrote:  

(07-14-2021 10:13 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  Frank Solich's legacy:

• 173-101 career record
• 115 wins at Ohio, the most ever by a MAC coach
• 77-46 in conference play, second only to CMU's Herb Deromedi (90)
• 16 years with the Bobcats, tied for longest serving head coach in the MAC with Deromedi
• 12 winning seasons
• 11 bowl appearances
• 4 MAC East titles
• Turned Ohio football from a perennial basement dweller to a competitive team who was consistently in the running for a MAC title. While he never was able to bring home a MAC title for OU, I sure hope his guys bring one to Athens in this upcoming year.
  

Going over half a century without a MAC title does tend to take the glow off his consistent record of good teams over 16 years. He was 0 for 16 when it comes to MAC titles. So lifetime most MAC wins but no championships. Good run, but maybe not a great run?

Relatively speaking, I'd say it was a great run. In the early 90s, I remember Ohio and Kent battling to stay out of last place. Some seasons to avoid going winless. Grobe did make the Bobcats respectable for a few years, but what Solich did, making Ohio essentially the beast of the East for more than a decade, is really impressive. At least, from this outsider's POV.

Undoubtedly one of the most successful coaches in MAC history based on how he took a pretty crappy program to relevance for so long. To Dick's point the lack of success in Detroit hurts his legacy a bit, though if they win it all this year it'll definitely take out the sting. It helped that Miami admin shat the bed right when he took over and that lingered for the last half of his tenure, but he took advantage of it when lesser coaches wouldn't have.

Now begs the question, what's next? Alban has the resume to theoretically continue winning in Athens, but history is littered with MAC coaches who flopped after having solid resumes and/or couldn't sustain a winning team they took over. With Miami/UB strong and Kent on the rise, keeping the program strong is far but guaranteed.

Say it ain’t so. The end of an era.

Sad to hear that. A legend.

(07-14-2021 10:13 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  Frank Solich's legacy:

• 173-101 career record
• 115 wins at Ohio, the most ever by a MAC coach
• 77-46 in conference play, second only to CMU's Herb Deromedi (90)
• 16 years with the Bobcats, tied for longest serving head coach in the MAC with Deromedi
• 12 winning seasons
• 11 bowl appearances
• 4 MAC East titles
• Turned Ohio football from a perennial basement dweller to a competitive team who was consistently in the running for a MAC title. While he never was able to bring home a MAC title for OU, I sure hope his guys bring one to Athens in this upcoming year.
  

I'll add two more bullet points to the Solich legacy:

- 11-4 vs. his archrival (I do realize, Miami fans, that you've won the last two)
- Not only did he take Ohio to 11 bowls; he won five of them

If that last point doesn't sound all that impressive, five bowl wins is more than any other MAC program since the start of the 2005 season. For comparison, here are the bowl records of every MAC program since that time:

Ohio 5-6
Toledo 4-5
CMU 3-7
NIU 2-9
Buffalo 2-3
WMU 1-7
BG 1-5
BSU 1-4
Miami 1-2
Akron 1-2
KSU 1-1
EMU 0-3

That lack of a MAC championship, especially considering Ohio's drought, is a smear on the resume that won't wash off.

That said, by no means should it overshadow all of the above. A true MAC legend.

I didn't see this coming so soon, and I'm totally bummed about it. i sure hope the transition is a smooth and winning one unlike the transition we had from Grobe to Knorr which was anything but smooth and winning!

You will be missed, Frank. Thanks for everything you did for OHIO football!

You all have seen Solich. He is not a big dude.

How many knew he played FULLBACK at Nebraska?

Says something about the size of his heart.

Also he was on the cover of September 20, 1965 CFB issue of SI.

A class act, from anything I have heard. I'm sure Bobcat fans will miss him. I hope that the transition isn't too rocky.

Well, to keep it real, barring October 23rd. If the transition is rocky on October 23rd, I'll be OK with that.