Hi all, I'm an Ohio grad who has been a lurker on this board since 2008 when I first started attending our alma mater.

Just wanted to finally chime in to say thank you for all the posters who have been producing content and arguments for me to read for years! Also with our program headed to Detroit for the first time in five years,I figured it's time for me to chime in with my modest State of the Program observations.

I've really gotten a kick out of the "war" on BobcatAttack about how to measure the success or failure of the Solich regime. One of the things I love about college football is that success is so subjective. In pro sports, all teams have close to the same resources and talent pool so there is only one marker for success: win a championship. In CFB with it's hundreds of teams spread out among many divisions and conferences, the idea of success can be in the eye of the beholder. For a team like Rutgers success might mean just putting their cleats on correctly before the game. For Alabama it's championship or bust. And for a school like the Charlotte 49ers it's just about making it clear they belong in their new division.

Here on BA, posters like Monroe are singularly focused on the idea of winning a MAC Championship as the ultimate marker of success for our team. I really enjoy the role Monroe plays here on the sub. I think a MAC Championship and a MAC Championship alone as a marker for success is a little ridiculous but I respect that is how he subjectively chooses to measure success and that he's consistent with it. And every good, productive college football message board needs some unbendable zealots!

For me, however, measuring the success of the Solich regime is much more complicated. The Ohio Bobcats football team is never going to play Alabama for the National Championship, so we must come up with some more modest goals for ourselves. What follows are those goals, not in order of importance but in the order they would ideally be achieved. In other words, this list of goals is kind of like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The stuff at the top (MAC Championship) is perhaps the most important but cannot be achieved until the ones below it are. Here are the goals/responsibilities/expectations, in order, that the Solich regime took on in 2005.

NOTES: Any stats I collect were from manually counting things on college football reference so I apologize ahead of time for any errors.

Level One: Stop Being Absolute Unwatchable Dogsh*t at Football
RESULT: Success
This was the most important level for the Solich regime to achieve. Without it, almost no other goals can be achieved. 1978-1994 on the Ohio Bobcat Football Wikipedia entry is charitably subtitled "A Struggle to Compete" Frank Solich put an end to that with only two losing seasons in 11. You may argue that this was against inferior MAC opponents but those same MAC opponents made a laughingstock of the Bobcats for nearly thirty years.

Level Two: Win Rivalry Games Consistently
RESULT: Success
9 wins against Miami in 11 years. 4 and 3 record against Marshall

Level Three: Beat a P5 Team
RESULT: Mostly success
This is technically a success but I could understand how some people might not be impressed by it. Pitt in 2005 and Illinois in 2006 gave us the impression that beating P5 teams would be a regular occurrence. Then the next one came in 2012 against a Penn State team playing under pretty rough circumstances. This year we got Kansas but they're...you know, Kansas.

Level Four: Beat a Ranked Team
RESULT: Nope

Level Five: Beat a Ranked P5 Team
RESULT Nope

Level Six: Become Ranked
RESULT: Success
This is another one people might not feel good about given that we ended the season in a nosedive but I still think it's an excellent accomplishment. Got the Cats in the hallowed pages of Sports Illustrated too.

Level Seven: Win the MAC East
RESULT: Success
Four times in eleven years. That's actually quite good, especially given the MAC East's volatile nature

Level Eight: Win a Bowl Game
RESULT Success

Level Nine: Win Bowl Games with Some Regularity
RESULT: Close, but not really.
Under Solich, the Bobcats have done a tremendous job of becoming bowl eligible. Two wins in seven appearances isn't ideal, however.

Level Ten: Win the MAC
RESULT: Nope.
This to some is the most important one and I would say that it's my important marker of success too but it's still not the be all, end all. Just because the Bobcats haven't reached this level doesn't make any and all successes before it useless.

CONCLUSION:
I have no idea. I'm happy with the Frank Solich regime because for the most part it's meant that I haven't had to worry about the team being completely hopeless and outclassed against similar MAC opponents. And occasionally I get to experience some hope against superior opponents. Ohio football likely would not have been able to say that for the thirty years up to Frank's hiring so I appreciate it. I totally understand why some posters feel differently though. If your hopes for this team begin and end with a MAC Championship, I see how it could be completely rational to get rid of Frank because at this point I'm starting to suspect he won't win one. Still, I'm happy for the progress we've made and hopefully the next regime, whenever that will take over, will be able to reach the Level Ten of a MAC Championship.

This is what success looks like when the people being measured for success get to define success:

https://mobile.twitter.com/OhioBobcatTV/status/8012700026...

Our program is a success. I don't have to think too hard about it.

We have beaten 5 MAC teams with winning records in the last five years, we have become respectable, but successful is a huge stretch. We are ok, FS has done a great job this year, we have been completely decimated with injuries.

Nice high curveball for Monroe! ;-)

Situation, D.A.--Here we have an excellent, balanced lead post. Yet you follow with the absolutist stuff, with inability to reasonably view the whole picture.

Giacomo--Sorry, but is saying, essentially, that only those who are marvelously successful at the top level can comment a sensible approach, a basis for any kind of discussion? Don't those types themselves appreciate solid insight no matter who it comes from?

Perhaps you can explain, Monroe. How is posting a picture of players celebrating "absolutionist"?

I think I figured it out...

Monroe is an absolutist desperately crying out for help to loosen up.

If you're in it, you have a chance to win it.

Luckily the 2016 team has put themselves in a situation where they can achieve the next level of success. Without a MAC title or Bowl win, it's hard to really difficult for me to consider this season a success.

Bottom line, we're one of the top 5-6 MAC teams on a fairly consistent basis. (NIU, Toledo, BG, CMU, WMU, and OHIO). I want to be top 2 consistently, sort of like Toledo has been for the past five years.


I'd also like to add NFL talent to the OP's levels. We've churned out a few solid pros.

Lucky Sparrow - Good thinking on the NFL prospects. I can't believe I overlooked it as I tend to think one of the best signs of a healthy program is producing NFL talent. Miami has been terrible for years now and I think most college football casual fans who have barely any idea who is in the MAC would assume Miami is a stronger program than Ohio because they produced Ben Roethlisberger.

I realize now that would seem to be an argument against NFL prospects being a marker of a healthy program but it's still the perception. And perhaps moreso than in any other sport, perception matters in college football.

Ultimately, I would like to top 2 or 3 in the MAC every year. Measuring success for me is more of a feeling. I want to feel like we have a legitimate chance to win every MAC game we play.

I would use the same analogy for BG. They've recently been the class of the MAC East and had a really bad year. But they have out-classed Ohio by leaps and bounds the previous four years.

Toledo probably wouldn't trade us either. They've been on the doorstep of national relevance for years...just haven't got over the hump in the West vs. NIU or WMU.

And I'm guessing NIU is pretty happy with themselves. They also had a bad year and struggled the back half of last year....but their program is on pretty solid ground I'd say.

The only programs who are unquestionably behind Ohio are Akron, Kent, UB, Miami, EMU and Ball State I'd say.

That keeps Ohio in the top half....which is nice. But I agree with a lot of others on this thread that say I'd like to be a dominant Top 2 in this league year-after-year. We can't say that.

We're top half....and every few years contend for a top 2-3 spot.

I expected more with the longest tenured coaching staff in the MAC by a lot.

I've said it a thousand times...we're peaking in 2011-2012....but since have taken a step back. The back half of last year and this year have showed flashes of improvement...but we are still a long way from being the dominant program in this league.

We might find that out the hard way on Friday......but that's why they play the games.

B44. He wants the "dominant program in this league." Nothing short of the "dominant program in this league," is success. Well, by wins since 2006 Ohio is the second following NIU. Fourth appearance in the MACC in 12 seasons, not too shabby, again second to NIU over that period. Eighth year bowl eligible, no big deal, well, where are NIU & BG bowling this year?