Just to be clear, I'm not saying that "40 years ago/tradition" is a reason. I'm saying it is a symptom. I'm saying that the problems today with recruiting are a continuation of problems that have existed for a long time.

Your question goes directly to the heart of the problem, and I expect that it has been the heart of the problem for the last 45 years.

You would think that a good coach would be part of the answer. The IPF is perhaps another part. The Sook Academic Center will probably help as well. If the problem was a lack of commitment to athletics form the Administration, McDavis should have changed that. If the problem is the rural location, however, nothing is going to change that.

Everyone on here has a different set of standards and expectations.

For me I want my team, Ohio, to claim a MACC maybe once every five years (more would be great). Outstanding programs should claim conference championships with regularity and be in the mix for them more often than not.

In this day and age winning records and bowl games are nothing to sneeze at, but are fairly common and are not a mark of excellence in my opinion. Average is 6-6 and that can get you a bowl.

47 years and counting since our last conference championship. Until that changes I am going to struggle to take too much solace in what Solich has produced.

I think this has to be taken into account when we look at the near future for Ohio. The kids he is recruiting in HS now know Frank only as that guy at OU who hasn't won the MAC. They were barely in grade school during his Nebraska days and mere glimmers in their father's eye during the heady Tom Osborne days. Sadly, playing for a PJ Fleck must sound like a lot more fun. (Row, row, row your boat may still on their playlist.)

I would agree that age could be a factor. As for the experience standpoint, I'm sure that even though the kids weren't around in those days, they are informed of it. It's certainly possible that a young, exciting, dynamic, sales oriented coach "might" be able to recruit significantly better players. The questions with that is, at what cost, and for how long?

To me it's been a matter of a steady, but agonizingly slow improvement in the recruits. While Frank is old, he doesn't look as all that old. I've seen a lot younger guys that looked older. He also has some solid selling points, like going to those bowls. While Alan like to hate on them, the kids are not as well traveled as he is, and they like them.

To me, the best recruiting classes yet were 2013-2015. How high can those classes take Ohio? I think they might be good enough for a MACC. The best shots are the next three years. They need one year like 2006, 2009, or 2011 when they injuries don't kill them, and I think they will be right there. Heck, if they can beat BG tonight, they could get to the MACC this year if they win out as BG very well may lose another game.

I think we are hampered more by things like style of play, success on field (possibly), academic demand etc. than location. Plenty of examples to point to around the country where programs have strong play despite a remote location. Athens may not be NYC or even Columbus, but it's not Siberia either.

Frank is old. He seems tired. Watch a few of his press conferences (particularly the BG one from this week). He appears slow and worn down.

Even Arkley tried to get him to talk about his future at the end throwing out a question about Beamer/Spurrier and guys retiring/being fired. Frank wouldn't bite....

I love what Frank did for our program...but I think he is not only on the back nine of his career...but the final couple holes (if not the last)

Let him putt out and head to the 19th hole for a well-deserved beer (or two)

It's time to breathe some fresh air into this program. The facilities are at an all-time high...there is still some name recognition with Ohio football within the MAC....but with every 6-6, 7-5 ho-hum season that cache that Ohio has/had drifts further and further away.

I know Frank would love to get a MACC before he goes...but it feels like he is drifting further from that with each 30+ point loss in November these last few years.

We are much better off than we were 10 years ago....but we aren't as well off as we were five years ago.

#ThanksFrank but take a page from Spurrier/Beamer and hang 'em up while you can still get a standing ovation. We'll see you when they rename the field after you and build a statue out front. And I'm not joking about that...what he has done for Ohio football deserves it.

Solich Field at Peden Stadium has a nice ring to it.

DeKalb is rural in a farm town sense, but that isn't out of the norm for many of their recruits from the upper Midwest, plus Chicago is much larger than Columbus and doesn't have a dominant team of it's own, so I don't think that comparison is apt. CMU is a better question.

How about someone trying to identify other teams gin non urban areas that have had good recruiting success, and maybe finding some things they do that Ohio could learn from and do better? Specifically, how do they get the kids to visit? That has always seemed to be a huge barrier. When Ohio has gotten the kids to visit, they love the campus, and they stay. Is it that Ohio doesn't have the budget to pay for visits? Or is it that the kids just don't want to come?

Casper, as you know, I pretty much always agree with you, with the exception that I tend to be more optimistic. That is true here, too. I don't think there is one single "answer", but I think Ohio can continue to improve recruiting.

It is and always comes will down to getting a really good QB. We almost made it with TT and he was the best in a long long time. South Carolina almost won the SEC and finished 9th, 8th and 4th in the country 2011-13 because they had Connor Shaw. Get an outstanding QB and we can contend but when we don't have it don't expect to win the MACC.

Location???? Have you ever been to Bowling Green, Ohio? It's in the middle of nowhere, it's windy and cold, it's flat, its's boring, and the the campus is ugly.

Toledo undefeated, ranked....then loses to a division foe.


Wonder how their path over the rest of the season will compare to OHIO's when we were in the same position a few years back.

One of the ugliest campuses in the nation. I sometimes describe the architecture as looking like a B-1 bomber had flown over and dropped the buildings willy-nilly in no apparent order with obviously no planning. It is a complete hodgepodge of buildings that don't blend in with each other in a flat-as-Kansas landscape that is in itself ugly and boring.

True.