People have commented that schedules were harder "back in the old days" so that you can't compare coaches straight up. To adjust for the schedule, I computed a "predicted wins" for each year using the following formula:
Home MAC game: 60% chance of win
Away MAC game: 40% chance of win
Home G5 game: 60% chance of win
Away G5 game: 40% chance of win
Home P5 game: 30% chance of win
Away P5 game: 10% chance of win
Home Top 25 game: 10% chance of win
Away Top 25 game: no chance of win
Home FCS game: 90% chance of win
Away FCS game: 70% chance of win

I came with the the following for projected win percentages by coach:
Wise .611 (actual .361)
Widdoes .516 (actual .542)
Hess .510 (actual .542)
Kappes .436 (actual .273)
Burke .468 (actual .477)
Bryant .436 (actual .182)
Lichtenberg .465 (actual .164)
Grobe .445 (actual .500)
Knorr .443 (actual .239)
Solich .471 (actual .568)
Last 5 years .488 (actual .585)

So, yes, the schedules are easier now, but so are the winning percentages. Coaches that won more than predicted are Widdoes, Hess, Burke, Grobe, and Solich. Incidentally, not all of the Solich schedules have been easy. 2005 was one of the hardest since WWII with Northwestern, Pitt, and Virginia Tech.

I wasn't trying to cast the staff in a good or bad light. I was just trying to answer the question of whether the schedules were harder back in the day, and yes, they are, by about 1/2 win a year. Of course, no staff wins at exactly the predicted level - some win more, some win less.

allen, look again. These numbers put Solich in a very positive light.

Yes, I know that 2005-6 were set up in advance, by Knorr/Boeh, and I recall that Solich wasn't too happy because he felt it would be hard to be successful with schedules like 2005. The more recent schedules reflect where he thinks the team is. I note that we're seeing more difficult schedules for the years ahead than we saw in recent years.

What's missing here is the strength of opponents year over year...particularly MAC opponents. For example, this was a very down year for the MAC East and that allowed us a relatively unchallenged path to the MACC. I'd love to see a SoS year over year.