Ohio will have its MACC by 2019. I have complete confidence in this. Your pain will soon be at an end.

For those of us whose favorite sport is football (my hand is raised), this time of the summer is a real dead period and a discussion of Monroe is probably as good as it gets until teams come back for fall practice in 3-4 weeks. Once practice starts there'll be a lot to discuss. Until then.....

And congrats to Monroe-with a 6 page thread with no end in sight, I think he lost the battle but has won the war.

So what time frame would you like me to use? 2010 doesn't work for you. Since 2005 doesn't work for Bcat2? What time frame reflects Ohio being on par as a program with UT & NIU?

Cherry pick some data. Please, I'd love to see some data to support that arugment.

Don't think single wins over each in the past two years signals Ohio is right with them.

You're trying too hard to find your next Monroe.... your next witchhunt of "How dare you question the greatness of Ohio Football"

Let me clear this up ... these posts aren't to detract from the success of Ohio or to imply the program stinks or Solich sucks.

It's more of a reality check for "supporters" like Bcat2 who seem to think Ohio is the Alabama of the MAC.

Accept Ohio for what they are...an above average program that goes anywhere from 7-5 to 8-6 most years.

It's who they are. Buy your $129 season tickets, fire up the grill at tailgreat park, crack open a PBR and enjoy the four Saturday home games every year. I do.

I think Sam Bobcat (love that moniker!) hits the nail on the head as far as the disadvantages in recruiting Ohio faces in the eyes of a lot of recruits. I don't know if the beauty of the campus is an important to these kids being recruited as it is to you and I. Plus, the facilities, while improved in recent years, still ranks in the middle of the pack in the MAC. Peden Stadium has its charm to many alumni; to me its FBS's version of the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium towards the end of its existence, just not very nice, to be polite. That may be sacrilegious to say, but go to other colleges with nicer and newer stadiums and you'll easily see the difference.

Plus, and I could be wrong here, but I don't think Ohio University really cares about football inordinately, from the administration on down to the alumni. Lets face it, all the new improvements, from the IPF to the new academic center, have all been initiated and funded mainly through private funds. The University will spend funds to maintain these facilities obviously but the University isn't spending the money to initiate these projects. And the alumni for the most part are indifferent to football. We all get into football clearly and I'm way into anything "Ohio"-related, but my wife and daughter, also Ohio alumni, think I'm crazy. They could give 2 you-know-whats about football and they're not alone in their beliefs.

I don't think any of this is wrong or bad. In fact, I think its quite healthy. Ohio clearly has its priorities in order and thank goodness. I'm just saying its clear to any casual observer, potential 18 year old recruits included, that there are other colleges that place a higher priority in football and they choose accordingly.

Agree with a ton of what Sam and Mark have to say.

My whole point was Bcat2 inferred Ohio wasn't in the top half of the MAC in expenses in football ... so I showed otherwise and suggested for how much money is being thrown at football, it isn't out of the question to secure a MACC.

I could go on for hours about the recruiting disadvantages for Ohio ... but there are a lot of things they can do to elevate their profile. Scheduling, marketing, etc are all things within their grasp.

And I totally disageee that if/when Solich retires, Ohio will fall off the map. The program has never been stronger and is on a solid foundation just waiting to take the next step. Like basketball, we've seen four coaches in the last 20 years lead Ohio to pretty good success. No reason to think football couldn't continue to be successful post-Solich. He will leave this program in MUCH, MUCH better shape than he found it. Huge testament to him. But hard to believe it will crumble without him.

And why is it some on here rave about the recruiting, but then say we can't recruit like UT & NIU because we are at a disadvantage. But then say we are just as good if not better than both, but we're at a disadvantage and can't compete with them?

Seems like a lot of folks talk out of both sides of their mouth depending on the convenience.

If the recruits are great, why haven't they won a MACC? If it's not Solich's fault, who's is it? Bad luck? Maybe. Just find it a touch funny that everyone is quick to attack Monroe's viewpoint (as beating of a dead horse it was) but offer no reason why it hasn't happened because they're afraid to ever question or speak bad of Ohio Football

Don't get me wrong bshot44, I'm not saying it's a foregone conclusion that the program will crumble after Solich. It is in better shape and a bright competent young coach could come in here and lead us to a MACC. You are right. I just know how rare those coaches are, and how difficult a task he will have. And if we do find that rare and elusive young coach full of talent and promise? That MACC will be his ticket up and out. So at the very least, I believe the consistency will leave with Solich, which will make the job of recruiting by any coach we do find, that much more difficult. But realistically the odds are against Ohio being the team that lands that rare beauty of a coach. So I plan on riding the Solich train while it's on the tracks. And I can't speak to the last 12 years, but the last 4 recruiting classes have been strong. From what I've seen on film and at practice, when Maxwell and Rourke are seniors, Keszi a junior, whichever of those talented young quarterbacks happens to have earned the starting job, he will have a very talented team around him with a championship winning coach at the helm. That's why I like 2019 as the "year of the MACC"

There are a lot of programs that are in similar areas like Athens that have had sustained success. Middle Tennessee comes to mind...about an hour or so from Nashville. WKU has been pretty good since going FBS and are pretty far north of Nashville.

Marshall has found ways to win pretty consistently being in rural southern WV.

ECU isn't exactly in a major metro area in Greenville .... but obviously much bigger and accessible than Athens.

Arkansas State is another decent example.

I think the fact Ohio has built a "winning tradition" the last decade that it would be looked upon as a good job in the MAC ... and one that would attrach a decent pool of applicants.

The location argument is tiresome. Not every school is located in a major metro area....and not many are just 80 miles from the 14th largest city in the US.

You can win at Ohio in football just like you can win in basketball. From O'Shea to Groce to Christian to Phillips, Ohio basketball hasn't had too many bad seasons. Only one back-to-back losing season (in fact only four total in the last 16 years.) That's sustaining pretty good success....oh, and that includes 8 20-win season and three 19-win seasons.

So if Ohio hoops can sustain that level of success in the MAC, there is no reason why football can't as well. We are obviously just as committed (financially) to football as we are to basketball in regards to the rest of the MAC.

I think you are short-changing Ohio football if you think it's a crapshoot the success will continue once Frank leaves.

Schaus has shown a good history of hires in hoops....even if some of those guys have bolted to higher profile jobs (and Bryant, ha!)

There are some really talented young coaches out there and I'm sure, when the time comes, some others that are in a similar boat like Solich just looking for another FBS job (like a Bo Pelini maybe...or a Rich Rod ... or someone similar)

I'm pretty confident that the days of 2-10 and 3-9 are over for Ohio football. Especially the way the schedule falls EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

Even on a bad year, Ohio should win 3-4 MAC games...and worst case scenario 1 or 2 non-conference games.

This isn't 1998 anymore ... or 2002 for that matter. The CFB landscape has drastically changed and fortunately for Ohio, they're on the right side of the curve with their football program where rather than trying to build any sort of sustained success, they're there.

Look at WKU, BG and Toledo....even NIU. They have managed to remain highly competitive thru multiple coaching changes. (And yes, there have been a few hiccups in there) It's because they've build a strong foundation of winning, etc. Something Solich has brought to Ohio.

While we're not your dominant MAC champion program....we're certainly not Kent or EMU.

Let me preface this by saying, I'm not asking them to fire Solich or that he needs to go.

But .... when that time comes ... I'm excited about the prospect of someone new taking over that can breath some new air into the program.

In NASCAR terms .... we have a good ride. And a pretty good driver. But I'd be curious to see what someone else could do behind the wheel for a few laps.

I agree completely with your post. Consistency is not easy. How many other G5 teams have been bowl eligible every year since 2009? I doubt if it's more than 1 or two. I'm also curious what the next coach will be able to do, but not in any particular hurry to find out.

Bringing this back to Monroe himself, I've been in communication with Monroe and he asked that I post the information below.

He notes that his suspension was without specific request from the moderators to gear back, without notice, without meaningful explanation from the moderators, and without chance to respond. He believes that the moderator's sole explanation of "Enough was enough" is so shapeless as to be impossible to respond to.

He notes that not a single person claims to have gone back and read his posts in order to verify if the suspension is just and not a single person has posted words from a single of his posts in support of the various claims in this thread-- but believes that if they had, and considered them in light of all other posts on this board, then they would find his posts are well within what others post here and his suspension is, thus, unjust as it applies a standard to him which no others here face.

He believes that he has not bullied or baited or trolled according to the definition of those terms. He believes that he has not threadjacked anymore than anyone else on this board, claiming that his posts about Solich are almost always in threads related to the team's performance and prospects and his volume of posts is in no way excessive compared to others and reasonable discussion.

He notes this very thread as carrying, as some have acknowledged, some of the traits for which he has been pilloried. He believes that his suspension is basically because he has the wrong opinion.

He asked me to carry these thoughts to you because he found it interesting that it was suggested that he apologize but notes that, even if he were so inclined, he has absolutely no way of doing so since his only ability to communicate is via email to those few members of this board for whom he has an email address.

Monroe is delusional.

If that's true, then the same must be true for Miami, BG, Kent, Akron, and Buffalo. All of them are in the MAC East, and most of them play an FCS team. The current streaks of bowl eligible years for all the MAC East teams are:
Ohio: 8
Miami: 1
BG: 0
Akron: 0
Buffalo: 0
Kent: 0

Even if they have messed up their streaks, most teams should be able to do it fairly often, though, right? Here's the number of times each MAC East team has been bowl eligible since 2009:
Ohio: 8
BG: 5
Miami: 2
Akron: 1
Kent: 1
Buffalo: 1
Total: 18/72

OK, so...if MAC East teams can be bowl eligible by random chance 18/72 times, or 25% of the time, that means the chance of doing it 8 times in a row by random chance is .25^8, or .000015, or one in 65,536.

I guess it only seems easy because Ohio has done it. Yet, maybe Sam is right to be impressed by the unusual consistency.

I say bring him back. Obviously he loves Ohio athletics and is passionate.

There's a simple programming solution to the Monroe problem.

Just rate-limit him. Limit his account to N posts per day/week/month.