Frank Solich

[bilsker]

I would really love to see the university intentionally. and with “mea culpa” in hand, reach out to Solich to make amends. The loss of that relationship has always filled me with regret, no matter how much I did or did not like him as the HC.

I don't think the university owes him any kind of apology. He's a football coach who got fired. It happens....not to mention the two "culprits" are gone and one of them in disgrace. So nobody currently in charge really needs to apologize.

Like was previously mentioned. ..he is a little busy in the fall. When he retires they can do it up right and make a couple days out of it with former players/coaches/teammates etc.

 

[Greatest Fan of All]

i see no reason for anything special dedicated to FS. I would like to see us honor some of our best teams and players more often and he would definitely be a part of several of those type celebrations.

 

[wcbsas]

It just time to make this right. Can't bring Frank back, but can admit to his firing being a huge mistake.

Frank was a long time assistant, former player who had no previous head coaching experience. He interviewed for the Minnesota job that was offered to someone else right before he was hired at Nebraska. (Think about that for a minute ... pathetic destitute Minnesota that over the previous 25 years had a 0.420 winning percentage chose Glenn Mason over FS.) Now-a-days hiring a coach with no head coaching experience is deemed by most as a non-qualifier at Nebraska.

He is worthy of acknowledgment but I suspect it has never happened ... including when TO was AD ... because Solich's schedule prohibits him travelling to Lincoln for a fall Saturday.

 

[wcbsas]

If Scott frost wins at the rate frank won, I’d consider it a success

My expectations are a bit different ... FS with the first year of a team comprised completely of his own recruits went 7-7 ... I do not want any 0.500 seasons ever. We should be better than that IMO.

 

[denisonred]

There has been a ton of discussion on Frank. I felt he was hand tied when he took over.Always liked the man and coach. I agree that he will always be Husker.Jmo.GBR.

I agree Frank was hand tied when he took over and to to have Pedey as AD was a major handicap. People forget how close we were to another national title the 99 team came. Frank will always be a Husker.

 

[djlhuskerfan]

Frank had his hands tied when he took over as far as some of his assistants weren't overly thrilled with going out and recruiting. He didn't get the quarterback he needed and that hurt him more than anything. But Frank had some issues that couldn't be covered up completely by athletic department. He is a part of husker history!

 

[HuSkaBob]

There has been a ton of discussion on Frank. I felt he was hand tied when he took over.Always liked the man and coach. I agree that he will always be Husker.Jmo.GBR.

Yeah, Solich really inherited a mess.

I think the point was that Frank took over Osborne's staff, and didn't feel like he was allowed to make certain older coaches retire. There were several who couldn't be on the road recruiting because they had health issues. When Frank finally started getting "his guys", they did better. Not sure that TO did Frank a favor with the way that he elevated Frank to head coach. I would love to have Frank back at a home game, let 90k cheer for Fearless Frankie again.

 

[Big Red Shrine]

Apologize to Frank? He was fired from a football job, these aren't war crimes. I'm sure Frost will invite him in when he retires, but the people who wronged him are thankfully long gone. The university doesn't need to apologize.

 

[huskrthill]

My expectations are a bit different ... FS with the first year of a team comprised completely of his own recruits went 7-7 ... I do not want any 0.500 seasons ever. We should be better than that IMO.

Some of the best ever (Devaney, Bryant, Paterno, etc) has seasons near or below .500. Nobody WANTS .500 seasons, but to never expect it to happen is arrogant. It's not fair to expect another Tom Osborne.

 

[huskrthill]

Apologize to Frank? He was fired from a football job, these aren't war crimes. I'm sure Frost will invite him in when he retires, but the people who wronged him are thankfully long gone. The university doesn't need to apologize.

Maybe not an "official" apology (not sure what that would do anyway), but I hope to see an olive branch extended when he's done at Ohio.

 

[wcbsas]

Some of the best ever (Devaney, Bryant, Paterno, etc) has seasons near or below .500. Nobody WANTS .500 seasons, but to never expect it to happen is arrogant. It's not fair to expect another Tom Osborne.

We have 3 non-conference games ... we should expect to win 2.5+ of them each year. That leaves 9 conference games ... sometimes the schedule is stacked (like this coming year) but even then I would think given Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Maryland, Rutgers, NW and Minnesota truthfully being Nebraska we should win the majority of those games year-in and year-out. Yeah we lost occasionally to Iowa State and Kansas in the old Big 8 days ... but I would expect against those 7 we should be winning 6 out of every 7 times. The remaining OSU, Michigan, MSU, UW, Iowa and PSU ... we should at a minimum break-even over time.

Yeah the conference schedule is unbalanced but using the West
... Iowa/Wisconsin = 1 win each year (if we're breaking even)
... The remaining (NW, Minnesota, Illinois and Purdue) = 3+ wins each year

So I have 2.5 wins from non-conference, 1 win from Iowa/UW and 3 wins from the other West team ... that is 6.5 wins each season without counting the cross-over games against the East ... so 7 or 8 wins minimum each year with a re-energized Nebraska program - with the correct coaching staff ... is not unreasonable.

Could SF have an occasional 6-6 season? Maybe, possibly, depends on the circumstances but I would argue that if he doing the job correctly then we really shouldn't have such a record ever. When's the last time Ohio State had a 0.500 season? (FYI 2011 and before that it was 1999.) How about Wisconsin? (FYI 2001)

 

[BornRed]

I do not agree with giving an apology. But, Coach Solich gave a lot of good years to NU and I feel he is deserving of some type of acknowledgment. Maybe during the halftime of a game when the time is right. The man had a tough job following who I think was the greatest college football coach.

 

[jikastew]

Frank will get a fantastic ovation on "Frank Appreciation Day", should he choose to accept it. I have no doubts about that.

But Frank was headed in the wrong direction very quickly. I have an issue with how it went down and we all know about the failings of SP. But I never had an issue with making the change. Most ADs would have done the same but certainly could have accomplished it differently. That said, firing one of the good-ole boys was never going to be a popular decision in Nebraska.

 

[Big Red Shrine]

Maybe not an "official" apology (not sure what that would do anyway), but I hope to see an olive branch extended when he's done at Ohio.

2022 & 2027 will be great times to recognize the 1997 team and staff that Scott and Frank both contributed to. If they could work it on a Bobcat off week, great, or maybe he's retired by then. Obviously '24 & '25 could also get the gang back together.I'm down with any of that and believe the message should be, "we'd love to have you back, you deserve it, etc, etc".

 

[Deleted member 5200]

Frank will get a fantastic ovation on "Frank Appreciation Day", should he choose to accept it. I have no doubts about that.

But Frank was headed in the wrong direction very quickly. I have an issue with how it went down and we all know about the failings of SP. But I never had an issue with making the change. Most ADs would have done the same but certainly could have accomplished it differently. That said, firing one of the good-ole boys was never going to be a popular decision in Nebraska.

Most ADs would do the same? Maybe that's why Frank was the only 9 win coach to ever be fired. Well at least untl his evil twin Skippy fired Bo. The only two 9 win coaches to ever be fired. Both from Nebraska. Luckily, Perlman and the Pederhorst brothers are gone.