When a director picks the cast of his upcoming sports movie, he usually looks toward a proven actor to portray the inspiring, or in some cases overbearing and short-sighted, head coach.Just one year before he was trying to get a bunch of motherf****** snakes off a motherf****** plane, actor Samuel L. Jackson played hard-nosed, no-nonsense high school basketball coach Ken Carter in Coach Carter
which saw mild success at the box office.Most recently, Greg Kinnear was cast as former NFL coach Dick Vermiel in the current No. 1 movie in America, Disney's Invincible. The movie has been surprisingly successful yes, but I'm pretty sure it's because of Dirk Diggler's ' I mean Mark Wahlberg's ' performance and not Kinnear's.But if a movie wants to see tremendous success at the box office and find a special place in a sports-movie nerd's heart like mine, it needs to have a professional head coach playing himself in a cameo roll.Who can forget the vital roll NBA legend and former head coach Larry Bird played in the success of Space Jam? Or the part NFL Hall of Fame coach and player Mike Ditka played in the underappreciated Kicking and Screaming? Or how about NHL legend and current Phoenix Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky chattin' it up with movie coaching legend Gordon Bombay, played by none other than Emilio Estevez, in D2: The Mighty Ducks? It doesn't get much better than that.None of those coaches, however, had the on-screen poise and grace that Ohio football coach Frank Solich showed in his acting debut this past Saturday in a video that aired before Ohio's 29-3 victory over Tennessee-Martin. Playing himself in a supporting role to the main star of the video, the new-look Bobcat, Rufus, Solich shows the new cat in town the ropes, letting the mascot know what he expects out of him for the upcoming season and how vital he is to the team's success.All right Rufus you're lookin' sharp. It's game day buddy! We've got to make sure that you're ready to go and you've got to be willing and able to do your part
says Solich, looking as powerful and focused as any Hollywood actor could as the motivating sounds of Van Halen's I'm the One play in the background.Solich's shining moment of the video comes near the end, when he shows his ability to be hands-on, diagramming a play for Rufus on his office whiteboard, and showing him what he needs to do when the Bobcats punch one in to the end zone.Now
when this comes off the way it's supposed to come off (drawing a play on the whiteboard) and when we get that thing done
this is where you take over
you got it? Solich says, as he puts all his confidence into the rookie kitty. And then what are you gonna do? as the coach slowly raises his hands but is beat to the punch by the flamboyant feline, Touchdown!Despite his natural abilities on the big screen, Solich has shown little interest of ditching out to Hollywood yet, but said he has no problem helping out wherever he can around Athens, acting included.There's a lot that goes into producing a football game
Solich said. I'm willing to help in any way I can and giving Rufus a little pep talk
I was fine with that.
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