Even in a job of constant repetition and routine, the weekly press conference has to be one of the more monotonous parts of the job for a college football coach.
It’s the same thing every week for Ohio coach Frank Solich. He spends about 20 minutes going over the previous game, injuries, standout players and how the team is preparing for the forthcoming game.
He’s often asked about his relationship with the other team’s coach. Solich is the longest-tenured coach in the Mid-American Conference; he’s been around a long time, and he knows everybody.
He answers questions the same way he’s no doubt rehearsed them for years, seldom showing any emotion, except for the smile he cracks when you mention something about his age.
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You can see it in the worry lines on Frank Beamer’s face. You can hear it in the trembling in Jerry Kill’s voice. You can feel it every time you read about a coach being let go by an owner or athletic director.
Coaching is very difficult.
But coaching can also be incredibly rewarding. There’s no way it couldn’t be, with so many willing to put their own health and reputations on the line week after week, year after year, for the sake of being able to lead others.
Coaches make friends and they make enemies. They become legends and they become pariahs. Some even win.
It’s hard not to ponder extensively about the coaching business in 2015. It’s the year Jim Harbaugh left the National Football League to pursue a gig with his alma mater Michigan.
It's the year Kill walked away from 21 years of head coaching because of health concerns.
It’s the year three of the 10 longest-tenured head coaches in Division I announced they will step down at the end of the season.
And it’s hard not to consider all of that and not think of Solich, who even himself has been a little caught off-guard by the string of retirement announcements that have come through in recent months.
“To see them, one after another, step down, it’s difficult to see that happening without having some kind of feeling about it,” Solich said. “Obviously, you sit up and take notice. If you’ve been in the game for any length of time, you know how good they’ve been for the game of football and for the players beneath them.”
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Solich began his coaching career immediately after finishing college, jumping into a head coaching spot at Lincoln Southeast High School that he would hold for 10 years.
He was then hired as an assistant at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, where he spent 18 years coaching freshmen and then running backs before being appointed the head coaching successor to Hall of Fame coach Tom Osborne following a national title year for the program.
Solich spent six years as the coach of Nebraska, winning 58 games and one Big 12 title while making one national championship game appearance. When a new athletic director was brought in following a disappointing 2002 season, Solich was fired despite having more wins in his first six seasons than anyone in program history.
Ohio hired Solich in 2004, a move that completely changed the Bobcats’ football program.
In the 11 years since he was hired, Solich has taken the team to five bowl games, won three MAC East division titles and won six games or more in a season nine times.
Ohio had won six games or more in a season nine times in the 37 years before Solich was hired.
It all adds up to 47 years of coaching under Solich’s belt. That’s 47 years of recruiting and getting to know players and their families, 47 years of game film, and 47 years of talking to media. It’s 47 years of triumph and jubilation and 47 years of headache and heartache.
It’s more than enough time to know how important family support is to a career, which is why Solich says he doesn’t hesitate to allow his assistants to attend family functions, particularly for their kids.
“That’s kind of how I grew up under Tom Osborne,” Solich said. “He was very good in regard to coaches’ families. ... It’s a very hard business on a family."
"There’s always something pulling you away from home life. I’m one that can say that I was probably in the office for more time than I should have been,” he added.
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Solich enters the media room again, this time after clinching Ohio’s seventh win of the season, a 48-31 victory over Ball State. The win all but clinches the Bobcats’ sixth bowl appearance under Solich.
The win came on Senior Night, a night during which Solich watched 21 of his players dress for their final games at Peden Stadium. It had to be a bittersweet evening for Solich, likely similar to the last 47 senior nights he’s witnessed.
Maybe it was the win, the emotions of seeing all the families, the goodbyes, the nostalgia or a combination of those that got Solich to cast aside his typical all-business demeanor as he answered questions about how he felt watching some of his players.
Is there a part of you that was happy A.J. reached the 100-yard mark tonight?
“No question,” Solich responds, with small smile.
Was it fitting that Daz’s last touchdown in Peden Stadium came on a reverse where he made a shake to make a couple guys miss?
This time, a bigger smile. “I knew the last guy didn’t have a chance at him.”
Maybe Solich will look at the decisions being made by his peers around college football and decide this season’s bowl game is the last game he ever coaches. Maybe he decides to stick around for another year, maybe two. Hell, maybe he decides to round it out at 50 years or even push beyond that.
Each time you see him on the field, though, and wonder what’s keeping him there, all you have to do is remember those rare, but genuine, smiles.
@_tonywolfe_
aw987712@ohio.edu
