Frank Solich had himself quite a time in Omaha last night.

Nice thread on this one.

Frank Solich had quite the return to Nebraska last evening. I’m not big on “getting the band back together” as having a huge impact on the performance of Husker football, but if Tom Osborne wanted Solich to come back to an ovation, that’s good enough for me.

Revisionist history appears to be quite prevalent as I look around social media and Husker message boards. Current sentiment from Husker fans seems to be that Frank should have never been fired.

That’s quite a bit different from what I remember at the time.

What I remember was that at the time there was a pretty even split amongst Nebraska fans about whether Solich should have been fired. It was clear at the time that recruiting was starting to suffer and that Frank didn’t have Tom’s offensive genius. When he went 7-7 in 2002 it broke a string of 40 straight winning seasons, 33 of those with at least nine wins.

Husker fans freaked out.

He was fired after going 9-3 in 2003 (I would’ve liked to have seen Frank have one more year to see what would have happened with his new coaches, including one guy named Bo Pelini) by a guy who told us the program was sliding into mediocrity. Many believed it at the time (although I’m sure a great many have since changed their story given what’s happened since). It tore the Nebraska fan base apart, and it has remained in such a condition since.

Husker Mike’s article from yesterday put things in the proper perspective. We could argue for hours about whether Solich is a good or great coach, but he has a respectable place in Nebraska football history.

It hasn’t been so bad for Frank. He’s gone on to Ohio University and taken that program from the trash it was to winning consistently. A close friend who teaches at Ohio once told me that before Solich came along their fans would go to the games to watch the band at half time. He’s been in four Mac Championship games (but has yet to win one) and made it to nine bowl games. He picked up his 100th win in 2018.

Nebraska’s fan base is more united than it’s been since Solich was fired. It’s pretty easy to get behind a native son who’s returned home to save the program. I hope we’re still altogether five years from now.

Poor Alabama - Can’t Even Defend Themselves In the Hospital

News

Early Big Ten Football Predictions for 2019

West Division

1. Iowa

Iowa gets the early nod as Athlon’s favorite to win the Big Ten West next season, but there’s not a significant gap between No. 1 and No. 5 going into spring practice.

I don’t know if I’m ready to predict Nebraska as Big Ten West champs next season, but my first take on declaring Iowa the Big Ten West winner was that the author is trolling. Iowa couldn’t manage to win the division in 2018 when their schedule was favorable and everyone else except Northwestern was falling over themselves to lose.

Lawsuit seeks $11.5 million from NCAA, Oregon Ducks, Willie Taggart over workout-caused injuries
An $11.5 million lawsuit against the NCAA, the University of Oregon and former Ducks football coach Willie Taggart was filed Wednesday on behalf of former Oregon offensive lineman Doug Brenner, seeking compensation for "serious, lifelong injuries sustained during a series of highly controversial workouts imposed on Duck players in January, 2017," Brenner's attorney told ESPN.

What losing Greg Mattison and Al Washington means for Michigan recruiting - Maize n Brew
Defensive recruits and guys from Ohio will be impacted the most.

Why Trevor Lawrence Should Sit Out the Next Two Years - WSJ

In a season when college football players skipped bowl games to prepare for the NFL draft, there is a case for Clemson freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence to take the trend to a radical extreme.

I imagine NFL guys are salivating over Lawrence as we speak. If they didn’t see him play for two years, would they say the same?

Markus Howard scores 53 as No. 21 Marquette tops Creighton
When he was finished Wednesday night, Howard had scored a Big East-record 53 points, with 14 coming in overtime as the No. 21 Golden Eagles beat Creighton 106-104.

No. 16 Ohio State falls on the road to Rutgers, 64-61 - Land-Grant Holy Land
The Buckeyes struggled against the zone, and couldn’t overcome the Scarlet Knights in the waning minutes of the second half.

Rutgers Upsets #16 Ohio State 64-61 - On the Banks
Geo Baker and Montez Mathis led the way to a stunning victory

2018 college football saved almost all its chaos for the end. WORTH IT. - SBNation.com
A season without many surprises ended with Nick Saban’s dynasty getting obliterated.

How to fix NCAA’s targeting rule with one simple change - SBNation.com
Players should not be ejected for clearly accidental violations. FBS coaches apparently agree.

College football coaches want targeting penalties split into two categories

Todd Berry, the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said Wednesday that the FBS coaches in their annual meeting unanimously supported a model that would assign Targeting 1 or Targeting 2 to a player who makes forcible contact with the crown of his helmet. Targeting 1 fouls would result in a 15-yard penalty but no ejection or suspension. Targeting 2 fouls would result in an automatic ejection and potential suspension.

This seems like a reasonable proposition. You’d wonder why it wouldn’t be adopted as early as next season, but bureaucracies move slow.

Then There’s This

Twitter rolling out status updates to select users in the coming weeks - The Verge

The new features are supposed to encourage healthy conversation on the site, something the company has been working toward. Twitter wants to cut down on harassment and hateful content, and while these changes don’t directly target harassment, the idea is to foster and highlight more positive conversations.

Healthy conversation on twitter - something the company has been working toward.... really?

If Twitter wanted healthy conversations, they’d charge a subscription fee. It would go a long way to getting rid of the 84 gazillion bots people use for trolling. They’re not going to charge people, of course, because the user count would drop faster than the stock market after mention of a trade war.

6 months of exercise may reverse mild cognitive impairment

A new study finds that 6 months of exercise, when added to dieting, can reverse 9 years of decline in certain cognitive functions.

I have to get off my ass a lot more, starting today.