Flomo-genized, perhaps our perspectives are different. Given the state of Ohio football when coach Solich arrived I am quite pleased with the progress. There have been MAC championship games, a defense that led the country in turnovers, great special teams, Rodgers and Flading were 3rd team All MAC on the OL last year, QBs though not All MAC have been Ohio record setters, pre-season All-Americans, five or six highly rated recruits committed in September. I still believe the trend is upward. I am not troubled, yet.
Given the hype that the staff came in with, the increased level of financial commitment from the university, and the state of the MAC East over the last 5 years, I'd say that the staff so far as met, but not exceeded, expectations. And that's good. But what I don't see is a program that is continuing to improve. Rather, I see a program that is stagnant. Specifically, while 2006 and 2009 were very nice seasons, 2007 was average, and 2008 was below average. Meanwhile, 2010 appears to be shaping up to be average at best, and perhaps below average.
Call me crazy, but when we brought Solich in I expected to see us routinely placing OL and RBs on the first and second team All-MAC lists by now. That's what it is going to take to consistently challenge for and win MAC championships. To me the problem starts at the recruiting end. We simply aren't getting the level of athlete we need on the offensive side of the ball to succeed at every position except WR. Our offensive recruiting has been MAC average
at best, and in my mind below MAC average, for 5 years now. We haven't landed a single impact RB or QB under Solich, and the potential impact linemen we've signed have either transferred out or not developed as hoped.
The easiest comparison for me to make is to the basketball program. Groce was able to immediately improve the level of athlete we were signing by a significant margin. Our entire basketball recruiting classes are filled with guys that most MAC schools can't match. In football, while we occassionally land a guy with a bottom-tier BCS offer, it is much more common that we lose guys to other MAC programs and have to rely on diamonds in the rough. That simply isn't the level of recruiting that is necessary to elevate the program to the next level.
At the end of the day, my expectations for the football program are relatively low, so I'm fine with the job that Solich has done. But I don't see this staff elevating the program much over the current level unless the offensive recruiting improves significantly.