Frank Solich

[Crazyhole]

he definitely was not a play caller. I think any success he's had at Ohio has largely been his OC Tim Albin. Frank probably has some better assistants at Ohio than he had at NU in some cases. Frank still got some great players. Just not nearly enough of them and his offensive recruiting was just plain bad.

Albin was going to take over playcalling in 2004 and would have been a huge upgrade from what we had.

 

[goldencohusker]

Of course it would have been difficult and unpopular - correct decisions are often difficult and unpopular, but still need to be made.

As for the lack of public outcry about Solich taking over: It was a done deal and people didn't want to publicly criticize Solich before he had even coached a game, but a lot of people had doubts about it being the right way to go.

And to be fair, absolutely nobody NU hired was going to keep pace with what TO had done - going 60-3 over his last five years. It's also entirely possible that Byrne might have hired someone that would have done far worse than Solich. But in the end NU got what most athletic programs get when they allow legendary coaches to hand-pick their successor - mediocre results. There are some exceptions - Judd Heathcote and Tom Izzo, for example - but they are few and far between.

Agree that a fall off in the program was likely to have happened regardless of who succeeded Osborne. If Byrne had been allowed to make the decision as he should have, and didn't hit a home run in his hire, there's a good chance we have a different villain (Byrne vs Pederson) in revisiting the history of the program today.

While I understand the point about allowing legendary coaches to pick successors, I'm not sure if there is much of a sample size of legendary coaches who retired at the pinnacle of their success like Osborne did. The one that comes to mind is John Wooden. While he did not pick his successor, Gene Bartow, an external hire, quit after only two years and a 52-9 record due to the extremely high expectations placed on him from a program that defined success only by championships. Would NU have been any more tolerant for an outsider who produced 9-3 results in Osborne's wake?

 

[Baxter48_rivals204143]

Albin was going to take over playcalling in 2004 and would have been a huge upgrade from what we had.

Frank chose Barney, weather or not if it either Albin or Barney I think frank was to much of micromanager that he never would allow his assistance to do the job.

 

[dinglefritz]

Frank chose Barney, weather or not if it either Albin or Barney I think frank was to much of micromanager that he never would allow his assistance to do the job.

To the contrary, I think part of Frank's problem was that he couldn't manage his staff. Of course, Frank has his own personal problems that affected his job performance some which made it a little tough to dictate behavior to his staff. The party was on.

 

[Crazyhole]

To the contrary, I think part of Frank's problem was that he couldn't manage his staff. Of course, Frank has his own personal problems that affected his job performance some which made it a little tough to dictate behavior to his staff. The party was on.

I was relatively familiar with some of the staff in that 2003 season, and that is the impression I kind of got. I had absolutely no connection whatsoever to Riley's staff but it seemed to me that it was the same kind of deal. The guy in charge wasn't really paying attention to what was going on in the program. I had/have a lot of respect for Albin, and while he is kind of a fart in a skillet, he would have been a good OC for us the next year.