Yeah I hate to admit it but to me, Coach Solich is the Marty Schottenheimer of Ohio football. A championship is asking too much of Solich when he sticks to his assistant coaches when it’s clear changes need to be made. We’ll be 7-5 and go to a bowl. Yawn because soooo much more was expected of this team.
How did firing Marty Schottenheimer work out for the Browns?
And how did firing Bobby Williams and John L. Smith work out for Michigan State?
How about Tommy Tuberville at Auburn and Cincinnati? Seems to be going well for both of those programs. (And yes, Chizik got fired 3 years later, but he won a natty and a conference title at least)
Again, I'm glad you enjoy making bowl games in an era where there are 40 of them. And you know what, sometimes a change of coach changes a lot of things for the good. Look at what happened with Dino Babers at Syracuse. That guy has spiced things up there in a hurry and are gunning for a lot at the moment. Same with Dave Clawson at Wake Forest.
I'm not sure you are understanding my point. My point is that when you have coaches that perform pretty well, but not quite to the elite level that some expect, making a coaching change doesn't always immediately result in the success you wanted. Sometimes the coaching change does. But no successful examples of that immediately come to mind for me. (edit: I think Dabo Sweeney at Clemson may be a good example of this)
The examples you listed here are not the same situation. Both Babers and Clawson took over for coaches that had back-to-back losing seasons. So of course you'd want to consider a coaching change then.
We are talking about examples of coaches like Saban at MSU, Solich at Nebraska and I guess Schottenheimer with the Browns, that were consistently pretty good, but didn't take the next step.
Their immediate replacements not only didn't get the organization where they wanted to go, it actually resulted in something worse.
I don't want that to happen to OU.
I understand some people think it is worth a risk.
At this time, I don't.
I do enjoy 8-9 wins each year, an occasional win over a P5 school, competing for a MACC and a bowl game. I would love an access bowl. I don't think replacing Solich guarantees that. I don't think the gap between what Ohio has done over the past 10 years and what NIU and Toledo has done is that great (although I fully acknowledge that NIU had a nice run we're all jealous of). I also acknowledge Solich hasn't led us to a MACC. I hate that too.
When Solich is gone -- either after some losing seasons or whenever he wants to retire -- maybe Arth is the guy to take us to the magical "next level". But I'm not willing to give up what are likely to be very fun seasons with Solich and an overall solid program when we don't have to.