LET’S BE FRANK
Nebraska’s first bowl game since 2016, the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, is the fan focus, of course, but let’s take a timeout and acknowledge the induction into the College Football Hall of Fame of former Husker player and coach Frank Solich Tuesday night.
First, as the story goes, Solich taped weights inside his shorts before weighing in his freshman year at Nebraska, to be heavier. In 1963, his sophomore year, the Husker media guide lists him at 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds (freshmen weren’t included in the 1962 media guide), a left halfback.
The 1964 media guide, his junior year, lists him at 5-foot-8, 156 pounds, a fullback. The 1965 guide lists him at 5-foot-8, 162 pounds. He was “probably the smallest major-college fullback in the country,” it says. He was also among the toughest at a tough position.
Solich was first-team All-Big Eight his senior year. But that alone didn’t earn him a place in the College Football Hall of Fame. Neither did his time as head coach at Nebraska, just six seasons, during which his teams were 58-19, with one Big 12 title and three division titles.
He was twice named Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Solich was Tom Osborne’s hand-picked successor. Osborne named him assistant head coach in 1991 and retired following the 1997 national championship season, in part, to ensure Frank’s succession.
I’ve told this story before but as the Huskers’ 31-22 victory at Colorado in 2003, the last game of a 9-3 regular season, came to an end, Steve Sipple and I were on the field, standing beyond an end zone, when he said to me, Athletic Director Steve Pederson “can’t fire him (Solich) now, can he?”
Pederson could and did, two days later.
Defensive coordinator Bo Pelini coached the Alamo Bowl.
It was a low point in Nebraska football history, a low point from which the Huskers have never really recovered, though Pelini’s seven teams, later, always won at least nine games and went to bowls. Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst fired him following a 9-4 2014 season.
By then, Solich had been at Ohio 10 seasons and coached the Bobcats into consistent contenders in the Mid-American Conference. He would coach five more seasons, and part of a sixth, before stepping aside. His record at Ohio was 115-82, including 77-46 in conference play, with 11 bowls.
He is the winningest coach in MAC history.
Solich’s most success overall came at Nebraska. His winning percentage, .753, is third-best in the modern era, behind Tom Osborne (.836) and Bob Devaney (.829). And Nebraska was the focus of his 10-minute Hall of Fame interview. About 75 percent of the interview was about his time at Nebraska.
Matt Rhule is next up in trying to return the Huskers to national relevance. They’re taken a step in that direction, as mentioned in the opening paragraph. In my opinion—and I admit I’m biased (and considered using “Frank” throughout)—Frank shouldn’t have been fired.
I’m not saying he should have been Nebraska’s coach for 15-plus-more seasons. But had Pederson not tried to rewrite the narrative here in his own words, to his own credit, the Huskers wouldn’t have to be trying to climb back under Rhule, the fifth coach to follow Frank.
Mike Babcock
