Coach Frank Solich doesn't have much of an offseason, even after spring practices end.
It’s time for players to make their final impressions for coaches in advance of Saturday’s spring game as the Bobcats enter their final practices until August.
While most students start to wind down for the semester, Ohio football players will be returning to the weight room and continuing to better themselves individually.
Coaches, meanwhile, will turn their attention away from the current team in favor of trying to find future Bobcats.
“We have a week that we’ll spend in the office looking at more recruiting film of high school players because after that, we the coaches get out on the road for spring recruiting,” coach Frank Solich said. “They don’t allow the head coaches to go out for spring recruiting, so all the head coaches stay in the office, which is good because all the other coaches are out of the office.”
As the others coaches are out on the road, Solich will remain in Athens to oversee players still on campus. After spring practices, Ohio will continue its offseason workouts, which aren’t quite as long as the winter sessions but allow players to set their workout plans before summer.
Throughout the month of June the coaching staff remains busy attending camps and targeting possible recruits for the 2016 class. It is also a time to get a start on preparing for non-conference opponents for the upcoming season.
Coaches want to have solid scouting reports and breakdowns of their opponents before returning for fall camp in August.
“We get into off-season conditioning with our players who will remain here until their time is done in school,” Solich said. “Our time off doesn’t come until July rolls around because in June we have a number of camps that we go to — not only our own, but other college camps to identify recruits.”
Solich is also turning to something new this recruiting season as he joined Twitter last week in order to interact with past, present and potential future Bobcats. He admits it’s a new platform to him, but it is a necessity for him to have in this day and age of college football.
Solich was the final MAC coach to join the site and is the oldest NCAA coach with an account. Only 18 of the 120 coaches aren’t on Twitter.
“It seems like almost all recruits are on Twitter,” Solich said. “So, it’s always important to look for more ways to reach recruits and to establish a relationship. All of our other coaches have been on it for some time and it just makes sense to be on it. I’m going into it full speed and we’ll see what happens.”
When July rolls around and the coaches finally have time off from the recruiting schedule, they will have time to reflect on decisions they have to make before the beginning of the fall season.
Solich and his staff are still not ready to name a starting quarterback. The time off will also give Ohio time to evaluate all of the players they have coming back before freshmen come in the fall.
“There’s a lot of carryover that’s going to take place spring ball to fall camp,” Solich said. “Quarterback is one area that they will continue to battle. A lot have young players have gotten work in the secondary because a lot of our secondary are coming off surgeries from injuries last season. So a lot of young guys are battling for spots there.”
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