SportsThursday
CU game
helped
save Solich
Given that
it’s awfully
tough to be
caught dead in
this state with
out an opinion
on the Husker
_ T
tv/uiuou ivaiii) a
wonder what John
most fans are Gaskins
thinking about
good ol’ Frank
Solich right about now.
I wonder, but that doesn’t
mean I care. See, like most, but
not all, of you born and bred
Comheads, I don't really know a
damn thing about NU football,
I because, you see, I’ve never been
on the team (thank God for you).
Granted, I’ve been following
' NU since the week before I came
out of my mother's womb, when
Jim Pillen recovered Billy Sims’
fumble on the three-yard-line
that gave Tom Osborne his first
win over Barry Switzer in six tries.
But I can’t tell you diddly squat
about strapping on a helmet,
strapping on a jock, towel-snap
ping, or being flattened to the
ground like a pancake by a 300
pount mammoth in pads com
ing at me like a dump truck out of
Iowa.
But, like everyone else, I have
an opinion on things. And I find it
a very interesting time to have an
opinion on how Frank Solich has
performed so far as a coach..
My rating? About fair to part
ly cloudy. We all know about his
21-5 start and No. 1 spot in the
polls. Certainly the man is no
program destroyer.
But like it or not, he is still fly
ing on Tbm Osborne’s borrowed
wings and blockbuster recruits.
The pipeline system is still oper
ating smoothly. He had a genius
defensive coordinator. I could go
on.
But you can't argue with 12-1.
You can’t argue with a Big 12
Championship. You can’t argue
with consensus preseason No. 1,
no matter if Solich or Gerry
DiNardo is your ring leader.
So I would assume most logi
cal people are happy. Just not
quite doing the Frank Solich trib
al dance quite yet
Which brings up a point:
How would we be rating Solich
had he gotten a couple of bad
breaks and NU ended up, say 10
2, or 9-3 last season?
Probably not calling for his
head, but probably a little skepti
cal, like people were of Osborne
before he finally beat Switzer.
And Solich would have received a
lot more blame for losing than
the praise he receives now for
winning. See 1998.
mats couege iooiDau. inais
the fickleness of the media and
fans - especially in this state.
The dreaded "H” game - the
hypothetical game - is meaning
less to coaches and players. What
happened, happened. But the
game is fun and can make you
think.
Let’s travel back in time to
Boulder, Colo., the day after
Thanksgiving, 1999. Nebraska
Colorado. If you recall, NU had
the game in hand, up 27-3 late in
the third quarter.
Solich, or should we say
Nebraska, put their feet up on the
coffee table and fell asleep on the
couch. When they woke up, it
was 27-27 and Dan Alexander
fiunbled, giving way to a mean
Colorado attack at a victory.
On the last play of regulation,
CU kicker Jeremy Aldrich let a
straight-away, 37-yard field goal
my cocker spaniel could have
made sail just inches wide left
Overtime. NU prevails. Big 12
Championship. Fiesta Bowl. 12
1. No. 1 preseason ranking. We
like this Solich guy.
What happens if it is made
like it should have been? No Kg
12. Hello, Holiday Bowl II. Billy
Warbucks Byrne's wallet growls
out of starvation.
1 know, that s purely hypo
thetical, but talking with players
and media this week, it’s a strong
point: This game, and sports in
general, is fickle. We know the
dich£ - die ball can bounce both
ways.
After all, no Matt DaVison
catch, no Miracle in Missouri, no
1997 National Championship.
No tipped two-point pass against
Miami, 1983 National
Championship.
Thousands of examples can
be given. The point is that when
you watch, follow, live and die by
every play this season and judge
Frank Solich, remember that
sometimes the outcome has very
r
Nebraska Head
Coadi Frank
Sotidi speaks to
the assembled
press at this
yeart Nebraska
FootbaRMedb
D»y>tape
recorders catch
ing his every
BY JOHN GASKINS
We’ve seen the routine for
three years now. Frank Solich,
sitting in front of a microphone,
or huddled by reporters, or on
the set of his TV show. Rigid.
Stiff. Bland. Plain. Devoid of all
things remotely amusing.
We’ve read it and heard it all
before: certainly this and
tremendously that, sometimes
pleased, sometimes disappoint
ed, never too high or low.
All of it is said in a tone of
voice comparable to Ben Stein
reading an obituary list.
We know the drill, and it gets
tiring. It’s not that Solich is eva
sive or chilly, a la Bill Snyder. It's
not that he has nothing to say,
either.
It’s just that, well, Frank
Solich is... Frank Solich.
"Frank is not exactly the type
of coach that’s going to fill up a
reporter's notebook or be the
first quote in a story,” Kansas
City Star sports writer Blair
Kirkhoff said.
He s not a good 01 ooy like
Bobby Bowden and he doesn’t
do card tricks like Lou Holtz. He
answers questions very thor
oughly- We’re not expecting him
to let his hair down or get down
and get funky anytime soon.”
Get down and get funky? No,
not Frank Solich. But certainly
the man can’t really be who he is
in front of the microphones and
cameras. Can he?
Dig a little deeper, though,
beyond the spotlight, and Solich
is neither the talking stiff most of
us see nor the closet table-top
dancer we wonder he might be.
He’s Frank Solich.
“With Coach Solich, what
you see is what you get," kicker
Josh Brown said. “He doesn’t
pretend to be anything else."
Still, going beyond that spot
light is worth a shot, isn’t it?
***
So, Matt Davison, one of the
more outspoken and laugh-trig
gering members of the NU foot
ball family, is enlisted in the
hope he will provide an
unashamedly, witty way to spin
his coach’s lack of spice.
But it doesn’t happen.
Davison, d 'spite understanding
the angle of approach, goes the
opposite way. He says Solich,
outside of practice and games, is
just one of the guys. He lets his
guard down more frequently
than most of us would imagine.
Frank Solich? Guard down?
Right on cue, Solich strides
down the hallway.
He smiles jovially. He laughs.
He jokes around. Seems as if he
just left a blowout fraternity
party from his college days at
UNL in the mid-1960s, back
when he was a bulldog All
American fullback for media
But an NU sports informa
tion official makes it clear that
Solich doesn’t want to talk. He’s
busy. Besides, the coach already
told the official that “he’s too
boring for 15 minutes” of talking
about himself.
On the surface, it is a valid
argument.
Solich, much more the
Osborne vanilla flavor than the
Rocky Road Devaney, set the
tone for his public persona, or
lack thereof, the very second he
was introduced to the world as
Osborne’s successor. It was Dec.
10,1997, at the same press con
suit, plain red tie, plain parted
hair style and plain face with an
occasional plain smile.
And, like his predecessor,
Solich spoke in plain words. No
blockbuster quotes, no barn
burning jokes, just straightfor
ward statements reporters
could have penciled into the
post-conference transcript
before he even opened his
mouth.
And that's the way he likes it
“When I took this thing over,
the last thing I felt I wanted to do
was be flamboyant” Solich said.
Three years since, little has
rnenaiy cnangea. case
party-man in point: early
Bob August's Big 12
Devaney. Media Day
Frank 2000 in Kansas
S o 1 i c h ? City, Mo.
Smiling Solichwore
jovially? another plain
Laughing? suit and was
Joking the only one of
around? 12 coaches,
Yep. including the
That’s morbidly
Frank placid Snyder,
S o 1 i c h . who cracked
Believe it. nary a joke,
“ I story or dabble
think he’s of anything
got a little that raised
•<7* ? Behind the public image
£?dviw8 lies the same Solich p“ !he
got a side only thing that
maybe story by John Gaskins “bucKm
none of us regular Husker
see. beat writers
“Every was Solich’s
once in a while, he shows flashes
of what he’d be like to hang out
with on a fishing trip. So, maybe
years down the road, I can go on
some kind of vacation with him
and see what he’s like, because I
think there’s a side to him that
would get along with my other
side.”
So, Davison hasn’t actually
seen the side, but is intrigued.
Frank Solich? Intriguing?
***
It’s time to talk to Frank, to
find out about this “other” side.
ference that Osborne
announced his retirement
The passing of the torch
crossed more than just a football
philosophy plane. Down
stepped Osborne, whose sto
icism lulled reporters for 25
years.
Up stepped Solich, who
immediately offered little rea
son to believe there would be
any great awakenings in the
excitement department from
NU’s football coach.
Solich sported a plain gray
rampant use ot the words cer
tainly” and “tremendous.”
In a nail-biter of a race,
“tremendous” eked out the win
in a legendary late-conference,
tremendously-dominated para
graph. But both words came
away winners, each having been
said more than 15 times.
“I don’t try to come up with
any clever terms or big words or
funny jokes or spend time giving
something that is entertaining,”
Solich said. “I don’t prepare or
work tremendously hard on
JoshWoHe/DN
dealing with the media. My time
is spent on football.
“In the long run, it serves you
better to be direct and just
answer the questions.”
*** i
So Solich, and his players,
defend his “tell it like it is” mm
ner.
But that's just the football
family. Surely sports pundits,
state-and-nationwide, get side
of hearing the same old song
and dance.
Wrong. Most sports writers
and broadcasters accept it
“Frank has coachedln an era
where there’s general hesitancy
toward the media,” said Jim
Rose, a long-time Nebraska
sports broadcaster and talk
show host.
“People are writing and talk
ing about everything you say,
and as a result, these guys are
very generic in news confer
ences.
"I don’t think he’s bland.
When Osborne got the job, he
was bland, and he always was
media shy. I know (Solich), and
he’s got a great personality, one
of warmth and sincerity that
comes out at different times.”
But the Solich media, players
and coaches don’t just like him
simply for saying things they
already know. There’s more to it
It’s called openness. Ttust Care.
And it’s something invisible in
Solich until he looks you straight
in the eye.
"Compared to any other col
lege coach in the country, by far
he is the most accessible,”
Kirkhoff said.
"If he walked into the back of
a room filled with reporters and
had to make his way up to the
podium, he wouldn’t mind stop
ping and chatting with them a
bit. He understands their job
and wants to help them with it"
Simply put, "he’s one of the
nicest, greatest guys you could
deal with in college football
today,” Rose said.
Frank Solich? One of the
nicest, greatest guys? To a
Please see SOLICH on page 13
Missouri hopes airing it out leads to Big 12 success
■Coach Larry Smith junks
ground attack to emulate
aerial offenses like K-State
BY DAVID DIEHL
Call them conformists.
Accuse them of being followers.
Go as far as to call them sheep,
lust don’t call them boring.
Entering the 2000 season,
Missouri has adopted a similar,
pass-happy offense to the aerial
attacks already employed by the
likes of Oklahoma, Texas Tech
and Kansas State.
The new Tigers offense will
feature radical passing sets with
things like five wide receivers
and a sandlot football type flair.
Such unconventional offens
es are emerging in the Big 12,
and across die nation, and are
* W
becoming more, well, conven
tional.
“(Coach) Larry Smith has
accepted it,” said Associate
Coach Rickey Hunley at the Big
12 media days, sitting in for
Smith who was recovering from
blood dots. “He’s accepted it just
like he learned to accept e-mail,
computers and losing the type
writer.
“It’s the future.”
Missouri is looking for a
change this year after an anemic
offense was outscored by an
average of 13 points per game in
route to a 4-7 season a year ago.
Tight end Dwayne Blakely,
an honorable mention All-Big 12
pick last year as a sophomore,
said he and his teammates had
some bigger responsibilities to
carry this fall.
“The offense has a lot of
*
weight on its shoulders,” Blakely
said. “There were some games
last year we didn’t even score. I
mean, that's the whole goal, to
score.”
Last year’s offense was bal
anced, but neither rushing nor
passing was satisfactory. Mizzou
ranked eighth in the Big 12 and
No. 79 nationally with a 337
yard-per-game average.
This year, Blakley said that
figure should be about 60/40 on
the passing side.
“The good thing about this
offense is you can’t key on any
one guy,” Blakley said. “We’ve got
five wide receivers and numer
ous tight ends - sets where any
body can get the ball at any time.
“It not only gives me, but
everybody, the chance to make
big plays.”
Defensive end, and All
V
America candidate Justin Smith
said the offense was beginning
to make the defense do double
takes in practices.
"After spring ball and seeing
all the sets they threw at us and
all the screens they threw, it was
different. Not all of it worked, but
some did, and that’s a real differ
ence from last year.
"We’ve got some good play
ers and if our offense is clicking
this year it'll be one of the top in
the North Division.
If so, that offense could in
turn help out the defense, too,
Blakleysaid.
"This is what has been
thrown at them by other teams,’’
he said. “It'll help them stop
other teams that pass a lot. It’s
not only going to help us score
points, but also help our defense
prepare, too.”
Big XII Preview
Missouri Tigers
Preseason Rank: 6th
” (North)
1999:4-7 (1-7 Big XII,
w 6th in the North)
Offensive Starters
Returning: 7
Defensive Starters
Returning: 7
Prognosis: Snappy
^ nawoffansa won't
keep Mizzou from
hanging out In the
cellar.
D«ian Lonowski/DM
* ! 1
