OHIO WINS!!

[Huskrz65]

Congrats Frank! How did they phrase that last night..."The Fighting Frank Solich's of Ohio".

[cubhusker23]

Now the pressure is on Nebraska to win. Just immagine the headlines if Billie C. looses at home to Pitt!!

That ain't gonna happen!!!! EVER!!

[cubhusker23]

solich's offense was actually pretty fun to watch.. i enjoyed their whole offense and defense

Are you kidding me? Ohio's offense was terrible. They couldn't do anything. I hear you on the defense though.

Yeah the offense was awful but it was nice to see a little of the old playbook. All those fullback traps are a beautiful thing even if it only gains a yard.

[Blackshirtsguru]

LMAO how the heck do you consider Ohio's Offense FUN TO WATCH???!!! If that was exciting...I hate to see how you react watching Grass Grow!

 

 

Ohio Passing

/ATT YDS AVG TD INT

Austen Everson 13/23 112 4.9 0 0

Theodore Jefferson 1/1 2 2.0 0 0

Team 14/24 114 4.6 -- --

 

 

Ohio Rushing

CAR YDS AVG TD LG

Kalvin McRae 13 50 3.8 0 15

Voncarie Owens 8 26 3.3 0 11

Austen Everson 7 9 1.3 0 5

Brad Young 4 8 2.0 0 7

Scott Mayle 2 2 1.0 0 1

Team 35 94 2.7 -- --

[bluewhitebenji]

Seriously.....please please please lay some huge numbers on sPitt.

I just actually caught myself jumping up and down with that pick.

I hate everyone ever associated with that damn school/city.  Everyone.

Please please humiliate them.

Are u a Penn st fan?

you might say that

[NU fan in Denver]

LMAO how the heck do you consider Ohio's Offense FUN TO WATCH???!!! If that was exciting...I hate to see how you react watching Grass Grow!

 

 

Ohio Passing

/ATT YDS AVG TD INT

Austen Everson 13/23 112 4.9 0 0

Theodore Jefferson 1/1 2 2.0 0 0

Team 14/24 114 4.6 -- --

 

 

Ohio Rushing

CAR YDS AVG TD LG

Kalvin McRae 13 50 3.8 0 15

Voncarie Owens 8 26 3.3 0 11

Austen Everson 7 9 1.3 0 5

Brad Young 4 8 2.0 0 7

Scott Mayle 2 2 1.0 0 1

Team 35 94 2.7 -- --

They did have over a 50% completion percentage. That is more than we can say for another team we follow. Nearly as many yards also. I just don't think Ohio has the right "personel." Isn't it all about personel.

[kramer]

Former Nebraska coach is the star at Ohio U.

 

By Mark Berman

981-3125

The Roanoke Times

 

Frank Solich used to have one of the most high-profile jobs in college football. Now, he's the coach of a team that has had only two winning seasons in the last 22 years.

 

But Solich, who once had the unenviable task of succeeding the legendary Tom Osborne at Nebraska, brought national attention to his low-profile school last Friday. In Solich's first home game as Ohio University's coach, the Bobcats upset Pittsburgh 16-10 in overtime on ESPN2.

 

"It's big for our program," said Solich, whose 1-1 team visits Virginia Tech on Saturday. "The program is where it's at because of not having success ... so everybody's looking for some kind of signs that maybe things will be different down the road."

 

When Solich took over at Nebraska in 1998, he inherited a team that had gone 13-0 and had won a share of the national title the year before. At Ohio, he took the reins of a Mid-American Conference team that won only 11 games in four years under his predecessor, Brian Knorr.

 

"It can get done here, but it's going to take some time," said Solich, 61. "I enjoy the challenge of rebuilding a program. That's exciting. ... I had an opportunity very early in my career to do that very thing; they were both high school jobs. ... I don't know that I've had any more fun in coaching than I did in my high school years. I've got nothing but fond memories of having turned some programs around."

 

This is the first time Solich, a Cleveland native and Nebraska graduate, has held a coaching job outside of the state of Nebraska. He was the running backs coach at his alma mater from 1983-98, helping Osborne win three national championships.

 

But replacing such a successful coach brought extremely high expectations. Solich was 58-19 in six seasons at Nebraska, and his 2001 team lost to Miami in the Rose Bowl in the national championship game. But the Cornhuskers went 7-7 the following year. In 2003, he was fired with a 9-3 record and wasn't allowed to coach in the team's bowl game.

 

"I get e-mails almost on a daily basis from people in Nebraska wishing us the best here," Solich said.

 

Solich turned down the Army job after the 2003 season but decided last December to return to coaching in Athens, Ohio, at an annual salary of $240,000.

 

"He didn't get caught up in that it wasn't a place that has the kind of bright lights that he's associated with," said Thomas Boeh, who stepped down as Ohio's athletic director in July to become Fresno State's AD.

 

"At this time in my career, I just knew that I wanted to be around good people," Solich said. "I wanted to be around people with integrity."

 

Everything is on a "smaller scale" at Ohio than it was at Nebraska, Solich said.

 

In 1994, then-James Madison coach Rip Scherer was one of four finalists for the Ohio job. But after interviewing at the school, he withdrew from consideration. Scherer didn't feel the school could afford to spend enough to make its program significantly better than Division I-AA JMU. Among the concerns he had were that Ohio's football offices, meeting rooms and weight room were smaller than Madison's at the time.

 

Ohio wound up hiring Jim Grobe, now the coach at Wake Forest. Grobe said Ohio is a tough job but figures Solich will benefit from Marshall having left the MAC for Conference USA.

 

Ohio is "a very academic school ... and they're restricted a little bit in their recruiting as far as who they can go after," said Grobe, who had two winning seasons in six years at Ohio. "But I think he'll do a great job. ... He'll make inroads in-state as far as recruiting."

 

Ohio has beefed up its facilities in recent years, including the addition of a strength and conditioning building in 1999 and the expansion of Peden Stadium in 2001.

 

The facilities were enhanced again this year. After Solich was hired, the school raised $1.3 million to expand the trainer's room and add meeting rooms in the stadium's tower. Solich not only wooed Ohio boosters but was able to get friends and supporters who weren't associated with the school to donate money, such as an admirer from Las Vegas who sent a five-figure check. Solich said he raised $226,000 in one night at a function in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Solich has been the centerpiece of the school's marketing efforts. An employee of the college bookstore took a page from the "Got Milk?" campaign and created "Got Frank!" T-shirts and other merchandise. They have even been ordered by Nebraska fans still fond of Solich. The Ohio athletic department took notice and launched a "Got Frank! Get Tickets" campaign to sell football tickets.

 

"Everything we've done advertising-wise has really been focused on the fact that we've got Frank Solich as our head coach, and that's not something Frank's been comfortable with," assistant athletic director Derek Scott said. "He is very much a low-key, team-oriented guy."

 

Season-ticket sales rose from about 2,000 last year to about 2,700 this year. The Bobcats, who averaged 15,797 fans last fall, drew an overflow, school-record crowd of 24,545 fans to the win over Pitt.

 

Since Solich's hiring "it's been nonstop buzz in a community that has never really been that excited about football," Scott said. "The enthusiasm level has been off the charts, not just in the Athens community ... but amongst our alums. The struggles we've had in football, it takes something special to get people excited."

 

The victory over Pitt was the biggest for the Bobcats since a 2000 win at Minnesota under Grobe. Interestingly enough, Nebraska (2-0) plays Pitt on Saturday.

 

Solich's successor at Nebraska, Bill Callahan, was 6-6 last year. Some Cornhuskers fans wish Solich were still in Lincoln.

 

"You know how that works," Solich said with a chuckle. "It's a tough business and you just take it day by day."

 

Christiansburg resident Cindy Koziol, president of the Southwest Virginia chapter of the Nebraska Alumni Association, said Nebraska is paying for Solich's firing with the struggles under Callahan. She has liked Solich since he was a Nebraska running back.

 

"I hope he's happy in Ohio, but I wish he was still in Nebraska," she said.