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Nebraska football: Why did it take so long to ask Frank Solich back?

By Oliver VanDervoort

23 Aug 1998: Head coach Frank Solich of the Nebraska Cornhuskers looks on the field during the Eddie Robison Classic game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Tom Osborne Field in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska defeated Louisiana Tech 56-27. Mandatory Cr
23 Aug 1998: Head coach Frank Solich of the Nebraska Cornhuskers looks on the field during the Eddie Robison Classic game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Tom Osborne Field in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska defeated Louisiana Tech 56-27. Mandatory Cr /
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A new push to get Frank Solich back to Lincoln and around the Nebraska football team has started, but the question remains as to why it took so long and why now?

On its face, the push to get Frank Solich back to Lincoln, for any reason, makes sense. The Nebraska football program is going through a kind of reunion tour with Scott Frost at the helm.

Former Cornhuskers have been spotted in Lincoln and around the team more often than in the recent past. There are also other former Huskers on the coaching staff with Frost.

The push to get Solich here isn’t a mystery, especially since former head coach Tom Osborne is speaking to the media again now that his former quarterback is at the helm. What should confound and confuse is why it took this long for the program to decide it was time to invite Osborne’s successor back into the fold.

Frank Solich has been invited to attend the 2019 Outland Trophy Award Dinner in Omaha as the winner of the Tom Osborne Award. bit.ly/2IwhXRX

Posted by Big Red Today – Omaha World-Herald on Thursday, May 17, 2018

For some fans, the answer to that question is simple. Solich being back in Lincoln, for whatever reason would just start the debate as to whether he should have ever left all over again.

When you have people running the program like Bo Pelini or head coaches struggling to win games like Mike Riley, that’s  a debate no one wants to have. But why did it take this long for the athletic department, the people who really have a say, to open the door?

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The people who were tied to Frank’s firing have been long gone. Steve Pederson left before Bill Callahan did.

While people blame Harvey Pearlman for literally everything that went wrong with the program in the last few decades, his fingerprints weren’t on that firing. Anyway, he’s gone too.

Some of it has simply been a lack of foresight. I’m willing to bet there was also some fear Solich would say some unkind things about the state of the program since he left.

Now that Frost is saying those very same things, the fear of blowback is much smaller. As the Omaha World-Herald reports, Solich has been invited to the 2019 Outland Trophy Dinner.

For now, there isn’t an answer known. It’s possible, just possible that the Nebraska football program has reached out to its former coach before.

It would make sense if Mike Riley (an all-around good guy who did it poorly here) and Shawn Eichhorst (an enigma who did it really poorly here) reached out to Solich in order to try and put the program back together. Maybe Solich said no.

If this is the first time the program has really tried to get the current Ohio Bobcats coach, a man who has gone 97-71 since leaving Lincoln, back in the fold, then people need to start explaining why.

Next: Athlon gives Adrian Martinez starting nod, not much love

The Nebraska football program needs to heal. So does the fandom. That’s not going to happen until the mistakes of the past are really addressed.

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