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[Steve Stone]

>  > College football had passed Solich by.
>>
>>  Derek Ryter

Steve Reichenbach wrote:

>That's a funny quote, because if you'd ask me which college coach
>it was most often said that "the college game had passed him by",
>the answer would be Tom Osborne, far and away.  Perhaps, Derek is
>too young to remember the SI article that trumpeted that conclusion
>about Osborne in the early 1990's, right before he coached NU to
>one of the greatest runs of college football history.

That's also what "they" were saying about Joe Paterno the last two years.

Never depend on media types for valid analyses.

>Osborne went through a long learning process that brought him to
>the conclusion that recipe for winning was speed and agressiveness
>on defense, run the ball first and pass when you must on offense,
>and be solid on special teams.  All around him, teams were focused
>on the passing game, but Osborne stuck with developing a strong
>running game despite all the expers who said the game had passed
>him by.  It was an approach that worked pretty well and one that
>Solich followed.
>Solich has one of the best coaching records in college football.
>You don't win 75% of your games by being passed by.  The main
>problem under Solich was the unrealistic expectation of fans that
>winning 75% of games wasn't good enough --- the same thing that
>put Osborne on the hot seat in the late 1970s and again in the
>early 1990s.  It was natural that there was a period of transition:
>Solich learning about being a head coach, older assistants who didn't
>recruit energetically being replaced, bringing in younger coaches
>who were talented and energetic.  The last year Solich coached at
>NU --- finishing 10-3 finishing with wins at CU and in a bowl game
>with a QB that had great heart but wasn't one of NU's better QBs
>--- was one of the best coaching results in a long time.  It looks
>like Solich is off to a good start at Ohio.

Solich had one really down year, 7-7, and finished 10-3, evidence 
aplenty that the college game hadn't "passed him by."

Speaking strictly for myself, it was the manner in which Steve 
Pederson treated Solich that irked me most. Coaches get hired and 
fired regularly, but Pederson's handling of the matter left much to 
be desired.

My loyalty, however, is to the state and to the team, come what may.

(big snip)

>Frankly, I don't understand the animosity towards Solich: a great
>career as a player, an assistant coach during the greatest period
>of NU success, and a head coach who had an excellent record and
>had the program on the upswing with a new staff when he was fired
>in the midst of a 10-3 season. (snip)

Call it the "FDR syndrome." In the late '40s and early '50s, many 
Democrats could not forgive Harry S Truman for not being Franklin 
Delano Roosevelt although history, I believe, may accord them 
near-equal ranking aalthough we won't be certain until another 50-70 
years have passed.

Steve Stone