Frank Solich
- Thread starter DiehardPanther
- Start date
Since 1979 he's worked at 2 places, Nebraska and Ohio. One of the few coaches who hasn't bounced around to a bunch of programs. He's in his 70's and his next move will be retirement. Old school like Bill Snyder.
Nebraska didn't fire him. Steve fired him.
"Solich's six-year tenure ends
Nov 30, 2003
Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. -- Nebraska football coach Frank Solich was
fired Saturday night after winning more than 75 percent of his
games over six seasons but failing to keep the Cornhuskers as the
national powerhouse they were under Tom Osborne.
The official announcement came on Sunday.
"I commend Frank Solich for his long history of service to this university and the football program," athletic director Steve Pederson said in a prepared statement. "He is a man of integrity and he has served the program well in many ways. However, I have asked Frank to step down as head football coach. It is my belief that our program needs different leadership to carry us into the future."
"All I know is we did the best we could. We mustered up nine
wins. To a man, we can hold our heads high," offensive coordinator
Barney Cotton told the Associated Press Saturday night.
Cotton said he had a bad feeling about the situation on the
flight home from Colorado on Friday night after Nebraska's 31-22
victory.
"I was happy with the win and proud of how the kids played, but
I didn't know if that win was enough to resolve the situation," he
said. "Steve's decision must have already been made."
Solich's son-in-law, Jon Dalton, said Solich is disappointed.
"I don't know the reason behind it," Dalton said. "Get Steve
to tell you. This is a sad day for the state of Nebraska."
Split end Ross Pilkington, was stunned.
"I'm so filled with emotion," Pilkington said. "It almost
feels like losing my father. After winning nine games, this doesn't
happen."
Solich and Pederson could not be reached for comment. Nebraska
spokesperson Chris Anderson would not comment Saturday night on the
firing.
Solich had just finished a 9-3 regular season with Friday's
31-22 victory at Colorado. He was 58-19 in six seasons.
Pinnacle Sports Network, the rights holder for Nebraska radio
broadcasts, reported that first-year defensive coordinator Bo
Pelini would be the interim head coach.
The current group of assistants will coach the in Nebraska's
upcoming bowl game. It was unknown whether any of the assistants
will be retained after the bowl.
"Frank just said it was over, and that Steve (Pederson) would
be contacting us," Cotton told the Lincoln Journal Star.
It will cost the university at least $1.8 million to buy out
Solich's contract, which was to run through June 2006. He was paid
an annual base salary of $321,260, with another $518,000 in
guaranteed supplemental compensation.
Solich took over after Osborne retired after the 1997 season.
The Cornhuskers won at least a share of the national title in three
of Osborne's final four seasons.
Solich was 42-9 in his first four seasons. He was Big 12 coach
of the year in 1999 and 2001, won the '99 conference title and his
team played for the national championship after the '01 season.
But Solich's success was downplayed because critics said he won
with players recruited by Osborne.
The Cornhuskers went 7-7 in 2002 -- the team's worst season since
1961 -- and struggled against quality opponents this season.
Their three losses all were by more than 17 points, capped by a
38-9 loss to Kansas State -- Nebraska's worst at home since 1958 --
in the final home game of the season.
Solich's record for his six seasons was 58-19.
The last Nebraska head football coach to be fired was Bill
Jennings, who was removed and replaced by Bob Devaney in 1962.
Solich played fullback for Nebraska from 1963-65. He was
assistant to Osborne for 19 years beginning in 1979."
http://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=1674143
God what a blunder-and then Pederaen replaces Solich with career NFL retread Callahan with the grand idea that he was bringing the Nebraska program into the 21st century. Instead he destroyed that once proud institution.
As for the notion that Solich was a poor recruiter, and only won at Nebraska becomes of Osborne’s players, let’s remember this dirty little secret that nobody likes to talk about: Osborne was a dirty cheater. He recruitied a lot of bad actors and kids with poor academics, and did all the usual things to keep them eligible. He meddled in police and university investigations of his players, practiced depth chart justice, and covered up a lot of incidents. Sound familiar?
So Solich comes in and tries to do things his way, which included keeping the NU Power I but running a cleaner operation. He did pretty well with it all. He did a good job for a bargain price and never got greedy. And his reward was to be unceremoniously canned by a stuffed shirt mid-manager in favor of a career NFL piker with no college football resume at all.
Unfortunately, this is the way the world works.
True--but that is at least partially due to the fact that after Osborne, the program is no longer a finishing school for street thugs, felons and rapists. Osborne looked and acted like your favorite uncle or the friendliest guy in your church, but he was dirty as hell, especially those last few years where he wanted to play for national championships instead of just Big 12 championships.
Lawrence Phillips wasn't the only rotten apple in Osborne's barrel, he was just the most highly publicized one. There were a lot of those kinds of kids in that program under Senator Tom.
Nebraska died when it went to the big 10. Though, Stevie helped it along too.
Yep...
And 14 years over still mediocre.
Steve is so powerful that way...
He even counteracts the demigod Tom Osborne’ Influence .
Under Solich Nebraska won 9, 12, 10, 11, 7 and 10 games and that moron Steve Pederson fired him and hired Bill Callaghan, only to see Bill win 5, 8, 9 and 5 games.
What a F'n moron Steve is.
And of course, good ole Souf is here defending him.
What a F'n moron Steve is.
And of course, good ole Souf is here defending him.
I don’t care about him.
Same place wanny is coaching?
The point is .....14 years have passed .
I know moving on isn’t in the dna of most here ...
But we’re now on our second ad after Steve.
Nebraska has had plenty of time to right the ship.
Steve is gone. Move on.
The Peters brothers were absolute scumbags who were aggressive toward women. Osborne was as phony as they came looking the other way. Thugs, felons, rapists and steroids is what should define Nebraska teams from 1993-97. The school couldn’t hang with top teams to all of a sudden overpowering them.
To be fair, Callaghan's replacement won 9 or 10 games all 7 years he was at Nebraska. So once Steve's poison was cleared away, they started doing pretty well again. Until they made another moronic hire.
I don’t care about Steve.
He’s long gone.
That makes me an ahole?
You’d be disappointed.
Well, that coach had his new team in the championship game last year. Because, he is a good coach and it showed in the results.
Steve's football hires tend to move on and don't have further success... or they lose every game.
that is 100% bullshit. You do care about him. You've been the biggest smiley defender on these boards for years. every time his name is mentioned you come to his defense.
In what way have I defended him?
Saying 14 years have passed and Nebraska is mediocre?
Saying we are 2 ad’s later at pitt?
Saying time to leave the past behind rather than dwelling on it?
In what ways are those defenses of him??
I’m moving on with this thread.
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Steve’s Hirings and Firings
Walt - initial hire was good, but trying to get rid of him and attempting to bring in Zook was bad
Howland - good
Haywood - bad
Graham - bad
Solich - getting rid of him was bad
Callahan - bad
Walt - initial hire was good, but trying to get rid of him and attempting to bring in Zook was bad
Howland - good
Haywood - bad
Graham - bad
Solich - getting rid of him was bad
Callahan - bad
Some guys just aren't cut out for big time jobs. It's one thing to have an example like Mark Richt. He got fired from a big time job, and you knew it was going to be about a day before another major P5 school was going to offer him 4mill+ to come coach for them.
Nebraska fired Solich. But it's not like any P5 school with a pulse ever picked up the phone to try to hire him. Some guys just aren't fit for that kind of job. Bob Davie was another one. Had arguably one of the top 5 jobs in America. Was fired a year after leading ND to the Fiesta Bowl. No major schools ever called him again. After 10 years New Mexico called and he's now found his home and is the greatest coach in New Mexico history, for whatever that's worth.
Nebraska fired Solich. But it's not like any P5 school with a pulse ever picked up the phone to try to hire him. Some guys just aren't fit for that kind of job. Bob Davie was another one. Had arguably one of the top 5 jobs in America. Was fired a year after leading ND to the Fiesta Bowl. No major schools ever called him again. After 10 years New Mexico called and he's now found his home and is the greatest coach in New Mexico history, for whatever that's worth.
Solich did not get any other big offers because of his age, and he is happy at Ohio.
This. Osbourne got a lot of players from Watts, Compton....guys USC, UCLA wouldn't take a chance on. High quality guys like Lawrence Phillips. But similar to someone else we know, he was always considered a great guy, and above the fray.
I've been a defender also. He had to try something in the 90's to spark life in the program. At the time the move to Heinz seemed great. I still don't mind going to Heinz but in hindsight they gambled on being able to increase attendance just because it was Heinz and that failed. The correct decision would have been the one that had the new basketball arena attached to a renovated Pitt Stadium.
So looking back now it was a bad decision to go to Heinz. And his coaching hires were bad also (Suzie McConnell looking like the next Peterson flop). And the football schedule this stretch of 3 years is terrible, having ND and OSU the same year you play PSU. Most of that falls on the AD. He does get credit for the ACC and getting the nits back on the schedule, in addition to Ben Howland (was Beranato on his watch?).
I guess my opinion is changing. I always was more on the plus side with him but looking back it is getting harder to defend the move to Heinz.
Chryst -Bad (getting played by Alvarez, although that falls probably on the BOT not Peterson)
McConnell - starting to look bad
Tracy Waites - unbelievably bad.
Beranato - think this was Long hire?
true but it did happen on his watch so I have to give him some credit. Someone like Oval Jaynes or Bozik in the chair and they probably pick UCONN or Cinci.
The two dumbest coaching moves:
Nebraska firing Solich (took a while for it to get to this point, but yeah, that's what started it)
Temple firing Bruce Arians (Paul Palmer nearly won the Heisman and people were paying attention. But they thought they could do better than Bruce . . . and nearly two decades of pure hell followed.)
Nebraska firing Solich (took a while for it to get to this point, but yeah, that's what started it)
Temple firing Bruce Arians (Paul Palmer nearly won the Heisman and people were paying attention. But they thought they could do better than Bruce . . . and nearly two decades of pure hell followed.)
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what people also forget is that Nebraska fans didn't storm his office with pitchforks & torches for firing Solich. A majority of them wanted it since they thought the program was "slipping".
Second behind Bozik as Pitt's worst AD. Forget the outright numbskull decisions, even the few that made a little sense wound up failures.
And no, that idiot didn't get us into the ACC.
Pederson seemed to actually TRY and separate his employer from any past alumni. I heard this from Nebraska fans, him actually disassociating from former alumni but I thought it was them just being bitter but this was his calling card at pitt too. I mean, he CONSCIOUSLY tried to separate the program from any and all former alumni. that's weird to me..
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