Students were not always this apathetic, but you have go back a long ways to find it otherwise, with a few notable exceptions in recent decades -- like the Pitt game in the Solich Era and the Iowa State game during Knorr's tenure. But, going way back to my day (and there are a few others on here that came verify this), you could drive by Peden Stadium at about 10:30 on a Saturday game day (with a 1:00 or 1:30 kickoff) and see the student side half to three-quarters filled already, with card sections practicing their various messages. Probably some of you will have to ask your grandparents what card sections were, as I've very seldom seen them in recent years. Students would stay through the whole game unless it was a real blowout one way or the other and then you'd see a gradual emptying of the stadium in the late third and early fourth quarters. There was no mass exodus after the band played. I started school before the 110 was conceived and ended my undergraduate career when the 110 had just begun as an all-male band. This was 1962-1968. I wasn't really a six-year undergraduate. I had a stint in 1964-66 as an active duty naval reservist.

Solich is a bargain compared to those Arkansas State coaches with almost as much success. To bring in a top assistant it will do more for Ohio once a few more facility projects are complete. Schaus won't move on another coach until the next president arrives which buys Frank a few more years.

For comparison's sake:

Freeze's salary at Arkansas State was a little over $200K.

http://www.memphisflyer.com/CityBeatBlog/archives/2011/11...

Malzahn made $850K. Probably because he won a national championship as a coordinator at Auburn. He earned that.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/arkansas-stat... /

Harsin's was $700K with a buyout clause of $1.75 million.

http://www.arkansasnews.com/roy-ockert/new-coach-s-contra...

The typical student sees a team that is not top 25 and assumes it sucks.

I would say it depends mostly on if the team was good or not that season. From my experience the most hype for football came right after we beat Penn St, I could really sense a heightened..."awareness" that we had a decent team.

Basketball seemed to have attracted more passionate students and I think this is partly because the ozone sits right on the floor. I also witnessed some damn good games/players during those years so it was easy to get excited for. Nature Boy was a huge reason a lot of students came to games during his 2 seasons same with DJ Cooper. They were flashy and fun to watch.

I should also note that I was a student-athlete so I had a more personal connection with every team at Ohio.

So, big wins--Penn State uptick mentioned above--do count.

A coach who'd run off if he led us to a MAC title-so we shouldn't go that way because he'd win and leave. Seriously, you don't want signature wins and a MAC title because of that? Sorry, that makes no sense to me.


Consider: the downfalling consistency of the last 11+ years looks like it's on the verge of uh oh. Sad; student almost total apathy.

Thanks for the feedback. Adds fuel to the argument for the excitement about the "big win" that everyone references in football.

If you want to see two groupings, then put it together and post it.

That's a possible conclusion.

But if the goal is a MAC title, I like the approach of evaluating a coach on his progress toward that. And changing if need be.

How many years does Solich get?


How many years do other MAC schools give guys who can't get it done?

Note that the record is 80-62. And that includes all games (not just MAC games). So the average is about 7-6 per year--against a sched with 4-6 patsies per year.

I don't agree with the number of total wins over a period of years as a criteria. The goal is a MAC title.

See the thread where there's some discussion about how students feel about the program. 'What football? What program?' seems to be the widespread feeling.


Sorry. When a coach is hired for one prime goal, one goal clearly above other goals, and doesn't get it done in 11 years in a weak conference such as the MAC....hey, how'd you enjoy 54-56 vs. Texas State?


And nearing three months with barely a single bit of news in the recruiting threads....there's beginning to be an air about this...

Yes.

I'll point to my avatar at left as one of the examples of student interest under Solich.

I don't think there is much room for debate that Solich has brought us better crowds than any of the coaches immediately preceding him and it isn't even close.

Maintaining momentum is hugely important and an opening week loss like we saw last week is very costly. It isn't time to abandon ship yet though. We win some games and the students will show up.

Top 25 rankings.

The CEO should absolutely deliver on the main thing she/he is hired for. No argument there. But if we are going to use this analogy, it is important to determine what exactly the CEO was hired to do.

They are typically given a set of goals to reach and the Board determines at the end of each contract if those goals have been achieved to their satisfaction.

I would imagine Solich has the same set of criteria. I haven't seen it, but I doubt the only thing listed is:

__ Win Conference Championship

It may very well be in there, but he most likely would be measured on:

__ Maintaining winning percentage

__ Helping drive donations for athletic facilities

__ Continuing above-average graduation rates

__ Maintaining above-average team GPA

__ Creating a strong, credible image locally and nationally

__ Dealing with team discipline issues quickly and according to the process

__ Creating a strong relationship with alumni

__ Building the recruiting pipeline

__ Consistently competing for a conference championship

The point of this original discussion -- for me anyway -- was to point out that other than NIU and CMU, I wouldn't trade the 11-year performance of Ohio with any other MAC school -- even if one of those schools did win a MACC.

The CEO analogy is a pretty good one. And a CEO is is pretty much judged on ONLY the quarterly EPS.

Harsh? Maybe. But it's 1) the reality and 2) why CEOs get paid a LOT of money.

The CEO analogy is very apt re a head football coach in D1.

All the measures that can be done by anyone without winning and/or that are minimal (must be done or else firing justified, but no partic credit given for accomplishing) are really not important. Because almost anyone can do them. Winning--not so easy.

I get it. We're not Alabama or USC. So, our coach isn't going to be burned at the stake for a run of 2 or 3 bad games.

But 11 years of no MAC coupled with the continuing...going on four years...of seasons with a LOT of really bad losses??? I dare say that there are quite few D1 programs where the coach could survive them. And I bet we'd look down our noses at almost all of those programs, even as minor of a program as we are.


Love Solich and staff all you want. Get into it.

But you'll never convince me that he's other than mediocre.

Hey, try this. Discuss the facts of Solich's W-L record with someone from OSU or BG or Tennessee or Penn State or Virginia Tech or Arizona, etc. Ask if he'd be kept on at their school. Or, forgetting age, whether they'd want him hired at their school.



How long am I going to have to keep orienting so many of you to the real world, keep getting you past your personal biases.


Hey, how about Bcat2 responding with some SolichIsGod stuff! After posting the most cringe-worthy post ever on this website a day or so ago, nothing will stop his shilling.