There's quite a few people on here who are really unhappy about how this season has gone and others who defend what Frank has done/is doing. This is not a thread calling either side out, or trying to provoke people into arguing.

You're in the position of Coach Solich. Is there time to turn this season around, or are you praying that next year and the year after are what they are looking to be (and trying to build toward it)? What do you do?

Don't take this as somebody saying they could do it better than Frank or somebody trying to had him a suggestion box. I'm curious as to what you would do.

I'd say I had a lot of fun returning OHIO to respecibility but it is now time for me to retire and let the next coach continue the progress.

Monroe, don't they call that (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results) INSANITY!

Yes, it would be smart to keep doing what we are doing. They can try a few new wrinkles, but a team can't change things totally in the middle of the season. I've seen teams try to do that, and it always ends badly. Didn't Miami trash it's offense a couple years ago, and switch from a passing attack to option in mid-season? The result was as string of horrible losses, and the coach getting fired, as I recall. Didn't Knorr change the offense totally a couple times? Did that solve the problem?

The problem is that if they do a play 90% right, but one guy misses a key block, it doesn't work. Yet, if they get that last step, it works well. You and I look at the play, and we see "oh, that didn't work", but we don't have the ability to see if it was just one missed block that kept it from working, or if it was an across the board failure.

Let's say that the coaches determine that it was just a single missed block. Is it better to try to fix that 10% that isn't right, and work off the 90% that is, or is it better to throw out the 90%, and start over, and try something totally new? The answer is that it is usually better to keep the parts that are working, and try to fix the places where things are breaking down.

Turning the question around to you, and putting it in a business setting, say you build a factory, and it has 11 machines in it. The factory is producing goods, but some of them are defective. Is it better to try to fix the production, or to shut the factory down, and build a new factory from scratch, and hope the new factory works better than the old one?

That's the thing that makes it hard for me to get too exciting about the consistent bowl qualifying etc. A string of bad losses to end the season would be a similar script for the third year in a row.

I don't necessarily mean the pistol but the staff has to change its thought process and they need to find some real players from the current roster. If what they have been trotting out there is the best we have I can only say welcome to 1980s OHIO football. Again, been there, seen that, don't like it.

OCF, I can only say I hope you are right. But I have played, coached and been around athletics of all levels (even collegiate) all my life. My experience is, once you lose that "magic" it is very difficult to get it back. I just think after ten years this ship has sailed to the promised land and returned probably never to reach the shores we all had hoped for. Like i said, i hope I am wrong.

Frank is in a tough position because on one hand it would be easy to walk away after a disappointing season and just say its been 10 years and its time but he's got a contract for two more years and there is zero pressure to give him the axe, even if he's 4-8. If Frank wins 9 games next year is he going to want an extension? Then you look at those future schedule which contain a series with UMass and another rumored series with New Mexico State and you've got to feel like Frank's imprint is continuing. Part of what may prevent his seat from getting warm may not be the performance on the field but how the recruiting has looked the last few years with more in-state players. A lot of these in-state guys turn out to be misses and we were better in some regards relying on more transfers and JUCOs that could immediately fill an experience gap. Guys like Prior, Mooney, Leftwich Brothers, Boo and Theo they gave us a talent edge on the field. That is how Marshall wins, not because they sit on a powder keg of local talent. Some of those early commits do not pan out.

I don't think that the comparison is a valid one, Wes. Wait about two years and see how these new recruits pan out. It's way too early to make any definitive statement about the value of the recruits in the last two classes. Frank has said personally that they are his most talented classes ever at OHIO. I don't think he was blowing smoke with those assessment. He did not say, however, that these guys were ready to come in and play like seasoned veterans as freshmen or sophomores. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Outside of Ouellette, Polling, Robbie Walker, Sebastian Smith, Brunis nobody else in the last 2 classes has done anything. Basham but he was from Hargrave. We don't have any MAC all freshman team candidates on the roster. Perception on how things are going will come back to how this season finishes up. Does the offense finally come around and we make a bowl? As long as Frank keeps making bowl games his job is safe.

Playing is different from performing/executing at a high level though, isn't it? Not saying they aren't going out there and trying, they just aren't very good at it yet.

No doubt they will improve in the years ahead, after a few more years in the weight room, a lot of practice, a lot of coaching, and a lot of time studying film. That's perfectly normal. Players are rarely "great" as Freshmen, but if a player is good enough to get on the field at all as a Freshman, they are normally very good by their Senior year.

As a recent example, Crutcher played as a true freshmen. Back then he wasn't really that good, but now, as a Senior, he's considered a borderline draft pick. It's worth nothing players like Mitchell, Price, Brazill, Carrie, and Herman, who ended up getting drafted, all played as true freshmen. None were "stars" as Freshmen, but they all got on the field.

My point was not that they are great already, but that, given how many of them have played already as Freshmen, it's reasonable to conclude that, by their Senior years, the classes of 2013 and 2014 will be something special. That's also consistent with comments Solich has made about the two classes being very good.

I am fairly clueless regarding Xs and Os on football. But, here goes anyway:

I would trust the program I have built, and the process the program follows. I may give some "new" players a chance to play more and make an impact. I would try to figure out if there are schemes/plays that just aren't working and replace those with schemes/plays that are working - as much as possible.

That's it for in-season changes.