[Husker] old subject

[Alan Siporin]

Here's what nearly everyone ignores:

The day after Frank Solich was fired, his recruiting class was ranked 14th
by Rivals. Yes. 14th! That didn't even include a top recruit like Courtney
Grixby, a four star db who said later he would have signed with Solich or
Callahan. It didn't matter.

More importantly, Solich managed to show that much improvement with less
than a year under his belt with HIS recruiting staff. To argue, as many do,
that Solich had five or six years -- is to ignore where he stood after four
years. People who present this argument are saying they would fire a coach
with one of the top five active winning records and who had played in the
national championship game one of those years, while his best team (12-1)
didn't even get a chance to play for the title despite avenging the one
loss, beating Texas in a rematch.

I know. I know. It wasn't his record. But if you're producing one of the top
records on the field and competing for the national title nearly every year,
you would be nuts to make major changes - of any kind.

But Solich, like others, worried he was slipping, despite his outstanding
record. (Only two losses, but hard losses, hurt). So, when his one bad year
followed, (7-7) he made changes. Until then he was averaging more than ten
wins a season. Averaging - nearly 11. His replacement has yet to win ten in
his best year, while averaging Solich's worse year - 7). Solich brought in
new people, changed some recruiting philosophies, and showed immediate
improvement. See Rivals 14 rank above.

I know a lot of people say it was HOW Frank was fired that bothered them,
but that it needed to be done. Not me. I was bothered by the firing,  not
because of HOW it was done. But WHEN it was done. It was done before we
could see if the changes were paying dividends. Now, we never will know.

I am a Callahan fan. I think he will do well, too. But if he does win it
all, it will prove NOTHING about Solich. Just as a Callahan failure would
prove nothing about Solich.

I only meant to offer one line - the Rivals 14 ranking. But it needed
explaining and one thing led to another. I would rather we turn our
attention to the coming season. Or to the current recruiting class - which
is looking great, but makes me nervous because its a long way until
February. So, maybe talking about the actual football season is where it's
at - even if on-the-field records don't count.

Alan Siporin


On 8/6/07 8:48 PM, "JEN_SENS" <answerman1 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I originally wrote this as a reply to Bob and then thought "don't do it." .
> You may wish I had listened to the voice, but here it is.
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you Bob for reminding us that it was not his record that was Frank's
> undoing.
> 
> As I said a long time ago, there are very few of us on the list who can
> receive a directive from our boss and by our behavior say, "shove it."
> 
> Contrary to his family's complaint about not being given expectations, Frank
> was told:
> 
> Upgrade the recruiting materials.
> 
> He did not do this. Pederson and Downing ended up doing this job.
> 
> Spend time during the season recruiting
> 
> Frank did not do this, resulting in very few if any (my recollection here is
> not clear) official visits during game days.
> 
> Keep your hands off the offense and let Barney do his job.
> 
> Frank did not want to give up the offense, but realized he would lose his
> job if he didn't hire a coordinator. A lot of what Barney could have done
> would have been more effective had Frank let him have a larger voice in game
> management. (Look at the difference in the offense after the Texas debacle.
> The offense looked fresh and great against K-State, and Colorado because
> Barney was left alone.
> 
> No Blowouts
> 
> 
> 
> Have we gravitated to mediocrity yet? No but more than likely we would have
> had Frank stayed. Look at the rankings of his recruiting classes compared to
> the Big 12 N.
> 
> 2002 #5 #40 Nationally behind #10 Colorado #14 KSU #29 Missouri #30 IA State
> 
> 2003 # 4 # 42 Nationally behind #19 Colorado #28 Missouri and #39 Kansas
> 
> (Callahan)2004 # 2 #27 Nationally behind #18 KSU.
> 
> "Coincidently" we lost to those teams (who out recruited us in 02 &03) in
> 2004 & 2005 and it was Callahan's fault. While we had a few good players,
> depth was severely depleted. It has taken several years to restore.
> 
> We would have been in a world of hurt for a quarterback for at least two
> years and probably three (2004, 2005, 2006) Joe Daily showed at UNC why he
> was never going to be the answer. (By the way, I am one who was very high on
> Daily when he had some mop-up his freshman year.) I liken Joe Daily to Mike
> Grant, who had talent, but couldn't seem to put it together on game day.
> 
> Remember Solich's prize quarterback recruit (Callahan pulled the offer) was
> D.J. McDowell who didn't even graduate from high school. He somehow managed
> to enroll and play at Troy State for a year, but he did absolutely nothing.
> Thus you would be counting on the 2005 quarterback to come in and rescue the
> team in 2006, that seems pretty unlikely.
> 
> Did you see the recent World Herald article on the third football season in
> Texas? It is the seven on seven summer passing league. During the coach's
> clinic this year Sean Payton made the statement that there are few teams not
> running a one back shotgun offense down in Texas. He said, even for them
> (pro evaluators) it is hard to find fullbacks and tight ends because of the
> type of system they played in.
> 
> Whether we like it or not the Tommie Frazier type of athlete isn't going to
> play quarterback in the next few years. I'm sure things will evolve back
> some day.
> 
> Gerald
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <weldoc at juno.com>
> To: <husker at tssi.com>
> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 12:29 PM
> Subject: [Husker] old subject
> 
>> The issue that bothered me most was that Frank never had that season to
>> prove his coaching management ability once he divested himself of
>> play-calling. But let's not re-hash that, since the new coach has this
>> well at hand.  :)
>> 
> 
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