DelK

How many people actually said he should be fired? I recall lots of concerns but let's keep in mind that there is a very small percentage that wants him fired. The whole thing is getting overblown. And now we have another thread....

Oh, I remember reading letters to the editor calling for Frank Solich to take over. Don't have a clue how many people felt that way but there was dis-satisfaction without a doubt.

I'm of two minds. I remember Osborne always waiting for the results of investigations before taking action toward a miscreant, so, I guess Paterno deserves at least that much. I hope against hope there is some mitigating fact for him.

Got to say though that I'm SO DAD GUMMED sad to learn that he took no action when he should have been taking his graduate assistant straight to the police the instant he heard. So sad.

D

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ys-robinson_scout_details_deal_oregon_kelly_070111

Thanks for posting the link. I didn't even think about it. I'm a newbie.

with Lyles spilling the beans, so to speak, and telling all, we all can wonder some more about how it feels to be on staff where a couple of coaches bought influence and amateurishly tried to get some "cover". Boy there are a LOT of ways to get a tit caught in a wringer.

D

As i understand it, the email was sent on the condition that the information not be shared which put JT between a huge rock and a very hard place. In retrospect, he'd probably would have or should have gone back to the attorney and said that he couldn't comply with the request for silence and acted. What we don't know is what he actually did or said and to whom. In my mind, this doesn't even come close to Pete Carroll's lack of oversight or purchasing the services of a quarterback.

Not to be a naysayer (or something) but this old guy recalls folks calling for the heads of Osborne, McBride, and every other NU football coach during the years after Devaney retired. I remember one letter to the editor (the only bulletin board we had then), for instance, saying we'd be national champions if Osborne would turn the offense over to Frank Solich. This is to remind us all that all those coaches got a whole lot smarter when they collectively (or their recruiting coordinator) brought in players of top quality on both sides.

It IS very, very sad that guys get hired entirely for results with apparently no attention paid to whether they are quality human beings. Sometimes we in this country don't do a very good job raising kids and domestic violence is one, and only one, of the bad results.

Gee. It took him a while to screw us up. He's getting faster. He didn't even vet his new appointment. Very sad.

All this discussion reminds me of the LONG time when TO "couldn't win the big one" and took all sorts of heat and criticism for not beating OU and FSU and whoever else it was we lost to, to the point that he thought about moving to Colorado. the criticisms were that he just kept running the same old plays, used the wrong qb, didn't let Solich call the plays, didn't have enough trick plays in the repertoire or had too many gimmick plays and on and on. Truth to tell, it seems to me those teams suffered from the same thing this one "suffered" from. Not enough horses to pull the load. A gimpy quarterback, no high quality replacement, and no Johnny R to pick up the slack and what ought we to expect? I'll take the season's results thank you very much and be happy and well able to say wherever we happen to be in the country, "They play a little football in Nebraska" with a wry, sly smile.

Well, as a certain Midwestern aerospace company found out a few years ago,

you can use statistics to prove a hidden agenda.

 

It cost them about $30M in court judgements.

 

And, as our unfortunate experience in 1982 at Penn State proves,

it really only takes one crooked ref to throw a game.

 

Right, Mike Guman?

In the present case, there there is no way to get anyone into court, except for a suit by NU and that'll never happen. But there is a "court of public opinion" that is pretty potent if a reporter would pick up the trail.

As for needing only one official to "fix" a game, one never knows which one needs to be in on the deal to be certain of the outcome. The basketball ref was pretty effective because, for one thing, the number of officials is very small.

Does anyone NOT think that the BIG XII front office hasn't targeted Eric Martin and Courtney Osborn? Do you think the crews officiating the game haven't been told to watch them? How do you explain the non-call the for Gabbert fumble in the MU game and the flimsy excuse? How about the non-call of Burkhead nearly getting his head twisted off at ISU or G AY&M's Tony "the molester" Jerrod-Eddie's lack of punishment.

 

Did Beebe have to leave a paper trail? NO, just a word in someone's ear here and there. I thought it would be an issue before the season. Never realized how easy it would be to actually do.

Thanks for thinking about it. How many different crews officiated NU games? Each of those crew chiefs would have been told and the word would have been passed to the crew members, so there would have to be a minimum of what? 26 guys in on the "know"? That's a lot of mouths to keep quiet. Wonder if an enterprising reporter might start asking questions?

Seems to me, given the disparity of fouls of 16 to 2 in the TAM game, consideration of methods "the brass" of the Big 12 might use to assure the results they want for football games involving NU are in order.

As a start, it is my assumption that making sure a certain team loses is not illegal. Given the right frame of mind, such action might not even be thought of as unethical if one were sufficiently incensed at NU's imminent departure from the league. It would seem to be unethical give what we all understand to be fair play.

It would seem important to not leave a trail so whatever would be done in the way of "suggesting" to a team of officials would not be done in writing and emails would be unwise. Given the tendency of folks involved in shenanigans to boast, the number of folks in on the deal would need to be kept to a minimum. What would be said, to whom, and when?

D

Motorboat - good list- Thank You!

 

one point you made in particular

5. Felt a sense of entitlement at NU. Remember him complaining after the '98 season about being at the Holiday Bowl? That's what 3 losses gets your team.

Intersting you would bring that up, i hadn't heard that before.

It reminds of things that were said about Solich with recruiting. I remember reading an article from the Denver Post about a prominant CU player (I'm sorry I forget who) who wanted to go to the Huskers but said Solich didn't even know his name and there was this attitude like "We're big bad Nebraska, who are you again?"

Martin Rucker said similar things, as Mike's brother that guy should have been an easy recruit. Instead he helped Missouri kick our ass a couple times.

 

The only reason Solich had 9 wins in his last year was because of Bo's defense. I don't know about you guys, but I remember seeing a crappy offense being propped up by a good defense.

 

I think firing Solich was probably the right move, but hiring Callahan was the worst decision ever.

In retrospect Callahan was obviously not the right hire. but we could have done MUCH worse considering how many people were saying thanks but no thanks to SP.

SP had gotten desperate enough to go after Houston Nutt! Complain about BC not knowin the "Nebraska Way" all you want but Nutt would have been our RichRod, NCAA sanctions and all.

We have had some low points to humble us the last few years but just the rumors that Nebraska was looking at Nutt... at the time Callahan seemed like a lucky break compared to that douche.

All this is VERY interesting and enlightening even though we are probably readying reasons WE would have fired Solich and the correlation between these excellent points and what Pedersen was thinking is, perhaps tentative.

At any rate, it becomes pretty clear that creating and maintaining the conditions that result in a superior football program is a delicate, if not difficult, job which may be one of the reasons it is so interesting.

So let me get this straight. It was the right move to fire Solich because he inherited talent from a NC team? If memory serves me correctly, TO inherited much the same as Solich. By TO's fourth year, 1976, Nebraska finished middle of the pack in the Big 8. Up to that point, he hadn't finished any higher than second in the Big 8. Solich won the Big 12 in year two and played for a NC in year four. TO had been head man for nearly a decade before he won his first conference title.

 

I doubt we'll ever really know the real story behind Solich's firing, but I don't think his on the field performance was the reason given the fact that he did better than TO did. Given today's coaching carousel and win now attitudes, TO would have more than likely been fired sometime in the 70's. What's the most interesting to look at is comparing the first five years of TO's career and Solich's career. Solich won 75.4 percent of his games even when putting his 7-7 season in there. TO won 78.7 percent of his games, but he had two ties. If TO had lost those two games where there was a tie, he would have had an identical 75.4 percent winning percentage as Solich. However, Solich in those first five years won a conference title and played for a NC while TO did neither of those in his first five years. In TO's first five years, there was an average of 3.2 conference teams ranked in the top 25. In Solich's first five years, there was an average of 4.4 conference teams ranked in the top 25. The level of competition Solich faced was tougher than the level of competition TO faced. When looking at the data, it just doesn't appear Solich was fired for on-the-field performance. However, we're about as likely to know the real reason of his firing as we are to know the real reason Cody Glenn's dismissal from the team in 2008.

You're probably right about never knowing all the reasons behind the firing but it does seem to me that the AD and the coach were not on speaking terms and there are probably other clues folks can suggest.

Guess I'll just enjoy Nebraska football and hope we remain competitive. My requirements are a little lower than they were I guess.

The reason Frank Solich was fired was because he took a few too many years before firing Craig Bohl.

 

Solich wasn't the offensive genius that Osborne was. But it was the defense that crashed after Charlie McBride left which led to Solich's demise.

I appreciate all the responses but just now wish I had a ten dollar bill for all the wishes that Coach Osborne would retire so Coach Solich could take over the team. Remember? LOL.

And NOW, I remember grumbling to any would listen that Osborne had taken a national championship team and turned it into a pretty good team. I embarrass myself.

No doubt Delany had a large role, but Nebraska wasn't exactly an unknown commodity to the other Big 10 schools. I'm sure they pretty much knew what they were getting, and have probably had an idea in mind for years of which schools they would consider inviting, and which they wouldn't. What I give Delany a lot of credit for is the timing for it all to come together when Beebe held Dodds' gun to our heads.

 

I'm sure there would have been other options for Nebraska, but would any of them been anywhere near as attractive as the Big 10? What options do you see as being probable?

Very good points and you are right, I see no other options, but we also don't know what the conference landscape might have looked like had, for instance, Texas got more money from the Pac Ten than they think they'll get where they are. I guess I'd rely on someone somewhere offering a good home to a high quality product such as Nebraska. So, it's a jungle out there?

One of the most fascinating features of the process is that the Big 10 CEOs must have relied very, very heavily on Jim Delaney's analysis of whether Nebraska and their organization would fit. That shows an amazing amount of trust in the guy. WOW!

Another little feature is the fear Mr. Pearlman experienced about being "left out" when the Big 12 disintegrated. Seems probable to me that there would have been at least a couple of options for Nebraska with it's brand when the Conference went south.

Solich's first 3 seasons of success (4 if you count 2001, tho i consider that season the beginning of the end) were mostly due to the talent remaining from the Osborne era. 98 was a mediocre season due to youth, inexperience and some key injuries, new qb etc etc. Remember the 99 and 2000 recruiting classes were not particularly impressive and quite a downfall in the talent coming in. Many scholarships were used up on walk on caliber talent cuz Solich could not "seal the deal" with top notch talent. By the end of 2001 and into the 2002 season, this lack of talent adn depth began to rear it's ugly face. I think some of the older coaches were beginning to struggle with the lack of talent (darlington, bohl, etc.) and the time came for them to go. Solich made the necassary changes after 2002 and 2003 showed a re energized coaching staff and team. Tho 2002 was doomed fromt he get go with a very VERY young team, it meant the 03 shoulda been better. I believe under Solich that what was a veteran 04 team woulda been a top ten team all year long, however that team looked horrible under a new system. Bottome line is we'll never what woulda been under Solich to this day. With Pelini as D.C. i think we woulda been a top 10 team consistently.

Very good summary that squares with comments expressed to me although nothing about improprieties which is just as well if there were none. It's too bad Pedersen didn't ask Solich "What can WE do to improve recruiting?" He didn't seem to have the team concept or mentality though. Strange interlude. Which, I just learned is from Eugene O'Neill's play with this line: "Our lives are strange dark interludes in the electrical display of God the Father!"

at times I wonder the same thing fire a coach after 9 wins, but the fact is we are better off for it. We were punished with 2 terrible season and 2 mediocre seasons. I always cheer for ohio as I'm still a Solich fan but weather letting him go was justified or not Bo is a much better coach and we are now reaping the rewards

Seems to me that's about as good a summary as I've come across. It is amazingly difficult to keep an excellent company, university, team, or business operating excellently. The Husker period SS (since Solich) is pretty strange but the ship seems to have been righted very, very well.

What is the unvarnished, straight skinny on why Frank Solich was fired?

 

 

Solich was a medicore coach that wasn't a top recruiter. He was in over his head. 9 win seasons when he had 12 win talent. Unacceptable!!!!

Yeah and we all know Pedey didn't want NU to slip into mediocrity

At one time, there was rumor of improprieties by Solich and a commentator in a piece recently wrote the dismissal was justified. There are often many angles, sides, and interpretations and re-interpretations for such events. Very interesting.

What is the unvarnished, straight skinny on why Frank Solich was fired?

MOD Edit - corrected confusing thread title.

A fellow Huskerboard member, teachercd, seems to have caught wind of a change of position for the youngester Antonio Bell. Apparently, he has been moved to DB. Well, I assume he meant Antonio, but he could have meant Kenny, I just assumed Antonio since he has been here longer. Has anyone else heard anything about this? I feel Antonio has a great deal of potential since he worked his way onto the field as a Frosh, if only for mop up duty. I really liked him as a WR prospect, and really hope we're not talking about him like some do about Niles now (i.e., imagine how good he could be if he was only a JR this year, if Cally hadn't burnt his redshirt). Time will tell, but it's a moot point if he switch positions. Anyone know anything?

 

 

www.huskerfanclub.com

 

 

Thats where I saw it, froma poster the usually doesnt just post made up crap.

 

So it is Antonio said poster was referring to?

 

 

Yes

 

Thank you sir, hopefully this is not the case. If it is, I wonder about our WR. We do have much depth at DB. Those in the know, did Antonio play DB in HS?

If he isn't able to block, how is he going to be able to be a sure tackler?

1) How long have you been a member of Husker Nation? Born into it in 1936. I grew up in Illinois but my dad and relatives followed Nebraska for all the intervening years.

2) What/who led you to The Nation? My uncle saw every home game between about '48 and about '70 and I caught the fever from him. He and my father talked about the "old" days when Bible was the coach and the team whipped up on about everybody.

3) Where are you from originally? Bellevue, Nebraska.

4) Where do you live now? In a motor home. As this is written, it is parked near Allen, NE. You better believe that by the time snow flies it will be in Phoenix or some other spot in the far south.

5) Favorite Husker memory? Experiencing the transition. As a first year grad student I attended the very first game Bob Devaney coached. It is almost impossible to describe the feelings on campus as the team that had been a doormat for years suddenly COULD play some football. You cannot believe the awe, excitement and sense of pride of the students, faculty and fans that season. It was amazing!!!

6) Worst Husker memory? I guess it would have to be the sorry mess we went through with Pedersen and Callahan. Neither one got the picture and the former had experience and still drove the car off into the ditch.

7) Number of home games attended? Don't know nor remember. Every home game for two years and a couple more after.

8) Number of away games attended? Only one. At the University of Illinois a few years before I arrived on campus--a 21 to 21 tie.

9) Favorite Husker memorabilia/apparel? Got a cap. I'm not big on outward stuff.

10) Favorite place to watch a Husker game? (section in Memorial, bar, friends house etc.)

11) Favorite all time player? Bob Churchich. Saw him on campus several times. Just a skinny-ass kid who could play football.

12) WCO or Option? You call that a choice?

13) Stevie Pederson or Billy Byrne? Byrne, of course. I'm not too sure he got the picture because he let criticism get under his skin but his head was screwed on so that it pointed mostly straight ahead.

14) Lil Red or Herbie Husker? Flip a coin.

15) Favorite Husker play? Bouncerooski of course.

16) Favorite game-day beverage? Water.

17) How did you find HuskerBoard? (referral source)

GBR!!

It's a good thing we have all this to ponder as we wait for football to start. It is quite interesting to me that NU played TX to a standstill last year (ahem, ahem, ahem) with recruit classes that must have ranked number twenty or lower each of the last four years while the Texas classes have ranked in the top one or two each of those years (I'm guessing a bit here so you can fire me.)

Cornhuskers in the top barely holding off a hard charging Clemson program who picked up big time commitments in recent days

 

Guess we better pick up our game if we want to stay in the top 10. No matter where we land ranking wise I really think this is shapping up to be the best recruiting class ever.

It would probably be nice to have the "numbers" for a high rank in recruits. At the same time, I have this image of an un-ranked, walk-on-through-a-tryout safety cutting down a ball carrier well back of the line of scrimmage with the swipe of his arm last year.