It was all neccessary. NU became 1 dimensional and could not pass the ball to save its life in solich's final 3 years. At least when Devaney and Osborne were around, we could rely on SOME kind of passing game, but with Solich, he made it a mission to make the team a 1 man army with his QB this, QB that, QB here, there and everywhere mentality. Solich's offense became to predictable and lacked creativity. The QB was running more with the ball then the DAMN RB/IB was.
The only one who sold us a bill of goods that turned out to be crap was Tom Osborne. That's something that will be held against him untill he dies. Had we conducted a proper coaching search back then, this wouldn't be an issue. Instead, he decided to play the loyalty card and appoint a guy simply because he wanted to keep the old offense going, not realizing that teams were on the rise like Texas (which beat him in 1996, that should have been a sign of things to come), Colorado (which won a title before he did in the 90's), Kansas St which went from consecutive losing seasons to realing off 9+ consecutive win season begining in 1993.
Solich was not succesful without Tom's recruits, plain and simple. Whether you like it or not. Under him every streak had begun to fall. The constant losses to Kansas St, the humiliation in Colorado and the Rosebowl, the poor recruiting, the inability to form a passing game untill his throat was on the line, the lousy record on the road.
Streaks that neded under Solich:
1-33 consecutive seasons with 9+ wins
2-being ranked in the final USA Today top25
3-being ranked in the final AP poll for 348 consecutive weeks
4-Losing 3 games in November since 1961
5-40 year streak of consecutive winning seasons
6-24 game winning streak against Missouri
7-47 game winning streak at home
There's more, i just can't think of them. Lets not count his 1-11 record against top25 teams on the road, his 2-4 record against Kansas St, his 1-4 record against Texas, and ending a god knows how long streak of beating Colorado in Lincoln. What about being blown out by Colorado (2001), Miami (2001), Penn St (2002), Iowa St (2002), K State (2002), Missouri (2003), Texas (2003), Kansas St (2003). Or his 4-9 record on the road since 2001.
It was time for a change..the records speak for themselves. I am not saying Callahan has a better record at the moment, but i am willing to be patient
nameless,
very good post and i agree with all, except
Instead, he decided to play the loyalty card and appoint a guy simply because he wanted to keep the old offense going
i do agree that TO played the loyalty card. this was another staple of past husker football. IMO, i think TO saw the writing on the wall and realized that changes needed to be made from an offensive perspective. TO was and is a genius on the matter of offensive football. i am just not sure if TO had the energy to put up with the BS from the husker faithful to completely change his entire offensive sturcture. just my thoughts!