Watch--give it perhaps two years.

Hey, that's not an irrational thought if with a new, apparently talented coach coming on if our side can, after ten years and a diminishing number of wins per season lately, project great glory soon.


I would not at all be surprised to see Miami or Buffalo beat us to a MAC title.

Please forgive Monroe. He's in a time warp. He thinks Knorr is still coach and we have a neophyte who doesn't know how to build a winning team. Hmm . . . I suppose it's possible that at the end of the 2012 season some alien scientists transplanted Knorr's brain into Frank and that explains why we've had two down seasons. Or, it's possible that we had locker room issues last year and the eighth youngest team in FBS football this year. Pick the explanation that you think fits the known facts best. We report . . . you decide! ;-)

The only problem is that most of those coaches you mentioned failed miserably at their next stop after leaving the MAC. Not saying you're wrong, but that's the argument that will get brought up. Just wait for it...wait for it...

And don't forget Urban Meyer at BG. I think the point is well taken. If Leopold is as good as some think, its very possible Buffalo wins a MACC before Ohio. As it is Buffalo only finished a half game behind Ohio this year anyway. I'm just saying it's possible, not probable.

Would that be an indictment of Coach Solich? Depends on your point of view. If the sole goal is a MACC, then the answer's yes.

If the goal is to resurrect a football program (and resurrect is the correct term in Ohio's situation), represent the University well, win meaningful games periodically and consistently be in the hunt for either a MAC East Division crown or the MACC, then the answer's no, it's not an indictment of Solich.

I'm in the later camp. Others are not and that's their right.

Mark...I didn't even want to go into all the other ex MAC guys going all the way back to Bo from Miami to Mich. My point is historically this Conference has had young guys who WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS and move on. Then, it is up to the next guy.

I just can't understand why ALL our hires in the lost and forgotten years were so bad. The odds should be you get one or two good ones in 35 or 40 years. We didn't,

FS has resurrected the program and he was a different kind of hire. But, after 10 years, I see this program going nowhere. Again, I like FS and what he has dome for FB. It is at least fun to watch most game days. I just have a feeling this staff has hit a glass ceiling and won't go any further than it has already.

So, when the time comes let's bring in a young guy and win at least one championship this decade!

And truth be told I'd be OK with that, so long as the coach was above board and did things the right way, no NCAA sanctions, football players graduate with a degree, blah blah blah. I still have my suspicions about WMU....

And if Coach Solich's successor is a bright young coach who wins a MACC and leaves after a 4-5 tenure, then that's just the same as what we've had on the Men's hoops side of athletics anyway.

That being said, there are very, very few coaches who when they stay at one school for a decade or longer, consistently win every single year at that school. I recall seeing something on Ohiobobcats.com this week that said that by finishing 6-6 this year, Ohio was only one of four Gang of 5 colleges to have a winning or bowl eligible season 6 years in a row. Me thinks that if some of these bright young coaches that we all like actually stayed at their MAC school for 10 years straight (instead of heading for greener pastures) they might have a clunker of a season here or there during their stay.

Also, Brian Burke wasn't that bad. The problems started with the Cleve Bryant hire, which truth be told, I was an early and loud advocate for. [I even wrote a memo to Mack telling him about Cleve's potential availability, before there was any mention publicly that he might be a candidate.] Bryant was a complete disaster. Mack, to his credit, wanted to hire Glenn Mason, who later withdrew his candidacy when he saw the direction things were going. Where do you think we'd be today if we'd hired Glenn? I don't think we would have had the Wilderness Years. You might call it the Bobcat Football Lost Generation. However, for both alumni loyalty and other obvious reasons, Charlie Ping, decided to go with Cleve. As I was to discover, not only was Cleve not a good head football coach, he did just the opposite of what Frank has done, he built a culture of what I might call "football corruption." [might not be the best choice of words, but it's real close.] PapaL tried to restore things, but he had just too big a hole to climb out of. He was not capable of changing the culture, improving recruiting and making good game-day coaching decisions in a synergistic manner. Then came the "steady the ship" era with Grobe who was able to end the Wilderness Years and bring us a measure of respectability. Knorr almost returned us to the Wilderness, but McDavis came in and righted the ship once more. It's interesting that the two best and the one worst coaching hire in this period were made at the presidential level: Bryant, Grobe and Solich. In the long run, the stability and the continuity of the Solich years is much better than the chaos before him. He's far and away the best coach we've had since Hess, with all due respect to Grobe, who is a good coach that I greatly admire.

Just for ***** and giggles I thought I'd look up Hess' record at Ohio. In year #9 he was only 5-5. One would have thought after 9 years he could have made better progress than that, right? I have to think people were calling for his head then too. Then, in year #10 he was only 6-4. That's not satisfactory progress after a decade! I mean geez. Interestingly, in year #11 (thank goodness he coached in the 60s because in today's world he might not have made it to year #11) he was 10-1.

My point is this. All good coaches, if they stay at one school long enough, have peaks and valleys. Hess did and most of this board thinks he's the greatest coach Ohio's ever had. I have no idea if Solich will duplicate Hess' feat but I think he's earned the right to try and do so.

He got another D3 Championship on his way out tonight to boot. 43-34 over Mount Union.

The Kehres family may buy Leipold his plane ticket to Buffalo just to be sure he gets the hell out of Whitewater as soon as possible.

Wouldn't it be cool if one could not plausibly make an argument that the present football was not a better coach than at least two of our other sports. webb. boldon.

Yes.


OCF--nice self-bump!

Ohio Cat Fan's December 3 post is by far the best; the most reasoned, concise, and objective summary of Ohio football Burke-2014 that I've yet read on this
Message Board. Right on, and let's see more of this analysis as we move into 2015.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it. I try sometimes put things in perspective. I guess I occasionally succeed. ;-)