Its the first time we've had 3 seasons with 7+ wins in a row since the early 1930's under Don Peden. Ohio wins its 8th game and it will be 3 years in a row with 8+ wins and the first time that has EVER happened.

....and a muffed punt, blown call and dropped pass away from ending a string dating back to Oberlin--the big one that got away.  

The media has the most respect for the programs at Temple and Toledo because they've played and beaten some bigger names and regularly have the top recruiting classes. At this point Frank has definitely done more for the program than what Jim Grobe ever did and Grobe did a very nice job at the time for a hopeless program. Frank goes 11-3 this season with a MAC Championship and bowl win I would argue that he's accomplished more than Bill Hess. Hess never won 11 games at Ohio or a bowl game. Frank's winning percentage at Ohio is pretty close if not better than Hess over his tenure. Beyond this Hess inherited a fairly solid Ohio program which after his first few seasons was fairly unremarkable, 1968 aside. Frank has built the program at all units beyond anything Hess accomplished. Frank after this season would have 3 MAC East Championships in 7 seasons which compares favorably with Hess and his 2 MAC Championships through year 7 playing in a MAC with only 7 teams (Western, Toledo, BG, Miami, Kent, Ohio, Marshall). Next year if Frank can get past Penn State with T2 returning and Xavier and Neal returning on defense he has an excellent shot at going undefeated.

Frank has a done a great job - we lucked out with a guy that is a very good and under-appreciated coach who was in the late stages of his career and was willing to build our program without looking to move on elsewhere.  I hope even better days are yet to come where we can step up and beat teams like Rutgers, reach the Top 25, win a conference championship and a bowl game.

Uncle Wes,  there was no such thing as FCS in Hess' day. That split in Div. 1 (into Div 1-A and Div. 1-AA) occurred in 1978, the year that Kappes took over as interim coach due to the death of Bill Hess.  For a few years before up through 1960 we were in the "college division" but we went into the "university division" in 1961.  There were no divisions in college football prior to around 1940 (I previously looked this up and posted it in another thread, and I don't now remember the exact year).

Edit: In 1960 Ohio was in the College Division but graduated to the University Division the next year.  We had actually not been in the College Division that long because of the strange way this was reckoned in those days.  For awhile it was almost on a year-to-year basis depending on your schedule.  

You can't take current FBS schools and extrapolate that back to the days of Don Peden.  Some schools like Cincinnati were fairly weak while others like Western Reserve University were much stronger.  These are but two examples.  Also, Peden played and beat schools like Indiana, Illinois (twice) and others that you would recognize as major colleges today.  Perhaps, the best year to illustrate the futility of trying the type of extrapolation you have been attempting was 1938.  That year -- when Peden's Bobcats won the Buckeye Conference -- Ohio beat Illinois 6-0 but lost to Western Reserve 26-14 and Dayton 13-0.  

Edit:  Yes, the MAC had a self-imposed limitation of 85 scholarship when the rest of D-1 was at 105.  This makes Hess' victories over major college teams in those years even more of an accomplishment.  Kind of like winning a fight with one hand tied behind your back.  MAC Trivia: If it hadn't been for this self-imposed scholarship limit Cincinnati would have rejoined the MAC in 1969 and Louisville would have joined for the first time. It was a package deal.  This agreement was in all the papers at the time, and was all ready to go but the MAC Daddies at the last minute decided not to raise the scholarship limit to 105 and deal feel through.

That was pretty short sighted move on the part of the MAC. Had that deal gone through Eastern and Central probably would have never been let into the conference. I think its fair to say with the scholarship limit and 2-3 schools FCS level schools in the non-conference schedules the level of ball played at Ohio was more college division than major previous to 1970. Frank has the best winning percentage of any coach on a modern Ohio schedule. 

2004-2011: Frank Solich 47-39 (.547)
1995-2000 Jim Grobe 31-31 (.500)
1970-1977 Bill Hess 36-47 (.434)

Yes, it was extremely short-sighted of the MAC.  I remember being extremely angry about it at the time.  One day I see big headlines in the Columbus Citizen-Journal "Cincinnati, Louisville to Join MAC."  I was elated.   A few days later I see headlines saying that the deal fell through because of the scholarship issue.  It was a real downer.  As I recall the MAC at time included Ohio, Kent State, Bowling Green, Toledo, Miami and Western Michigan. Marshall had just been kicked out, or was in the process of being kicked out.  You are correct that it was shortly after this that all the other directionals started to be added. 

With the season winding down, I took another trip thru Phil Steele with this question in mind: At this season's end how many of the 120 1-A/FBS programs are assured of having won 8 or more games for the last three consecutive seasons (2009,2010,2011)? 

Answer:14.  Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Oregon, Stanford, USC, Boise, TCU, Ohio.

Another 12 have a chance of joining that group: Auburn, Florida, OSU, Iowa, Mizzou, North Carolina, Utah, Pitt, West Virginia, Air Force, Nevada, Temple.   To make it, some of those 12 not only need to win out the regular season but also need a bowl victory.