If they were going to fire him the time was after the 2002 season. During the 03 season he was correcting some of the errors he made as coach in '02 and had hired a great DC (although not great head coach) in Bo Pelini. I'm sure Solich would have done better than Callahan did over the next 4 years. From 08-14 I have no idea if he would have done better than Pelini did in real life.