A lot of hypotheticals in there....which is why I don't put a lot of stock in ranking/rating recruiting classes until they produce results on the field.

Again, as we've both said, only time will tell whether this 2014-17 recruiting will pay dividends on the field.

I love your optimism and enthusiasm for the recent recruiting classes....but pardon me if I temper my excitement because they haven't done anything yet to prove you right. It's all hypotheticals right now....paper tigers....wishful thinking. There's nothing tangible yet to show if these classes are any better than those 2005-2009 classes.

If suddenly Ohio jumps to a 11-2, 6-2/7-1 team the next few years....then the answer will be a resounding yes, these were successful recruiting classes and the best years were yet to come.

But if the 8-5, 5-3/6-2 seasons continue....it's business as usual for Ohio football. More middle-of-the-road football in a below-average league. It's who Ohio is right now and, in my opinion, it's who they'll be as long as Frank is in the saddle. Just my opinion, but I don't see those great seasons on the horizon.

Everyone was throwing up all over themselves about Maleek Irons and other recruits in the recent years. Great. What have they produced in terms of wins/titles? Nothing special ... yet.

I'd love to be wrong. I'd love to see Ohio win MACC and a few more bowl games in the next 2-4 years. Just don't see it happening though.

Stop. Just stop.

Nehlen spent over half his WVU coaching career as an independent...so 11 of those years he was unable to win a league title because there was no league title to win.

He spent the last 10 years in a league that produced a team that either won or played for the national title 4 times and that produced 26 teams that finished the season ranked in the top 25. (Compare that to Solich's 12 years in the MAC where 3 teams have finished the season ranked)

Full disclosure...I grew up in WV and have been a WVU fan for years. And no, I don't think Nehlen was an elite coach or even a great coach. But he is in the CFB Hall of Fame.
I think WVU fans remember him for turning WVU into a nationally recognized program. He took a program that had some regional recognition and made the nation stand up and take notice.

But I'm sure a lot of WVU fans also still have the bad taste of 10 years where they were pre-season Top 25 and finished in the Top 25 only 3 of those seasons.

So by the time he retired, there had been quite a few rumblings about "his time is over"

But two 11-0 seasons and two shots at a national title laid the groundwork for what Rich Rod elevated and what Bill Stewart and Dana Holgerson have continued. They aren't in the Big 12 because they were a floundering program in the 90's and into the 2000s. It's because they had built a strong program. Remember, the Big 12 took them even though they didn't have any TV market attached to them. They aren't Rutgers and Maryland, where the B1G took them just to get NYC and Wash DC TV markets for BTN. All WVU brought with them was a respectable football and basketball program that have been very competitive in the Big 12 since arriving.

What has Ohio done since Frank Solich has taken over? Yes, Ohio is a very competitive program in one of the worst FBS leagues that hasn't won a league title in nearly 50 years. Does that make Solich a bad coach? No. Never said that. But I think it's getting pretty apparent that he has taken Ohio as far as he can. We are what we are. An 8-5, 5-3/6-2 program against traditionally pretty weak schedules. Those are just the facts. We aren't a MAC powerhouse. We don't rule the league. You don't think had Brady Hoke stayed at Ball State for 12 years, they wouldn't have had a run of title or title game appearances? Turner Gill at Buffalo? Dave Doeren or Jerry Kill at NIU? Dino Babers at BG? PJ Fleck at WMU?

Solich is what he is. A good football coach. But he hasn't exactly rolled into the MAC and grabbed it by throat and turned Ohio into a national powerhouse.

We are who we are. Quit trying to elevate Ohio or Solich to something like WVU?

You may have, at some point, been an Ohio football fan. But somewhere along the way you changed. Now your just a heckler of Ohio football fans.

Wouldn't say almost identical. While Nehlen laid groundwork, he also accomplished a helluva lot during his 21 yrs at WVU. Much more than Solich has or probably ever will at Ohio. My point is that they shouldn't be compared.

Bcat2, as usual, is trying to paint me as a "Frank sucks, Fire Solich" guy when all I've said is Frank/Ohio are who they are ... 8-5, 5-3/6-2 coach/program. Nothing more, nothing less

I agree, but it's more than that. It's as if he believes there is something to be won or lost in posting here, that it is done sort of competition in its own right. It's not. It is just an exchange of opinions, nothing more, nothing less. I've given my opinion often enough that I don't need to restate it constantly. I'm am optimist, and I freely admit it. I also enjoy the journey as well as the goal, and I admit that, too.

I respect other people's rights to have different opinions. This board would be a lot more sociable if everyone respected the rights of others to disagree with them.

Everyone knows your opinion of our football coach. So when anyone posts something positive about our football program and you respond with your negative anti Solich rhetoric, it smacks of heckling, not Ohio football passion. It also keeps a lot of us from posting more often.

Well, except for one poster anyway, do I tell them to stop doing what they do?

That seems to be what you're saying I should do...saying that I should give up my advocacy.

"Battlefield" is a metaphor here. There are no casualties here in any meaningful sense of that word. My advocacy is vigorous but not damaging in any meaningful way at all.


I'm sorry but when the goal is a MACC--and it is--and the coach hasn't brought one down in 12 years, then I'm going to strongly suggest that the coach is mediocre and that odds of this coach bringing one down are minimal. And, when people argue against those reasonably logical conclusions, when people seem to deify the coach and given that I care much about the program, I'm going to respond, I'm going to challenge the thinking.




Really? When someone (not me) puts up scads of facts and logic which pretty much make it clear that Nehlen was a better coach than Solich is and yet the true believers don't see the rather evident truth, then I ain't gonna let 'alternative facts' prevail.

Note. Three good coaches. Nehlan, Grobe & Solich, 57 years coaching MAC, Big East, Big 12, or ACC, three conf championships, 57/3=19. 1 per every 19 years.

Over 9100 posts and most are either nonsensical drivel, taking a thread off topic or a repeat of something you said yesterday, last week, last month and are repeating for the 100th time. What you believe to be facts are often your opinion.

Have you contacted Schaus yet? I believe a fellow BA poster gave you his email multiple times.

Correct, if you don't agree that a MACC is the only goal of playing or watching college football, and that Frank Solich is the sole reason we haven't won one, then you are WRONG! As a son of a D1 football player, a D1 recruited player myself, and the father of a D1 player, I can say that there are far more important aspects of playing this sport to me than winning the Championship of whatever conference you happen to play for. Those who claim otherwise have probably never played the game at a competitive level. Or any sport at a competitive level for that matter.