With an influx of coaches arriving in Athens over the past few months, Jim Schaus finally completed a deal that did not involve convincing an outsider to come to Ohio.
The Ohio athletic director announced that football coach Frank Solich has received a contract extension through the 2013 season.
Solich, who has coached at Ohio since 2004, will receive a raise increasing his salary from $257,162 to $330,000 per year plus $70,000 for fulfilling media obligations. Solich has performance incentives in his contract, Schaus said.
“It’s important to retain successful people,” Schaus said. “Investment equals return and we have to make an investment to get where we want to be.”
Solich has posted a 19-18 record over his three seasons at Ohio, including a 6-6 record last season. The Bobcats open their season Aug. 30 against Wyoming.
Groce completes staff
Ohio men's basketball coach John Groce completed his coaching staff with the hires of assistant coaches Dustin Ford, Chris Holtmann and Jamall Walker.
Ford played at Ohio under current Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter from 1997 to 2001. He had served under Hunter as Western Carolina's associate head coach. Ford is also the brother of former Ohio player and new Kent State coach Geno Ford.
Holtmann had worked as an assistant coach at Gardner Webb for five seasons, including four as the associate head coach.
Walker, a former player at St. Louis, coached at Murray State last season.
The addition of the three coaches to Groce's staff means that former assistants John Rhodes, Kevin Kuwik and Bacari Alexander will not be retained. Alexander has already accepted an assistant coaching position for Western Michigan.
New softball coach
Schaus also has named former Southern Utah coach Jodi Hermanek Ohio’s new softball coach.
Hermanek coached at Southern Utah for four seasons, reaching the NCAA Tournament twice out of the Mid-Continent Conference. She replaces former coach Jill Matyuch, who left Ohio to coach high school softball in California.
“I think Jodi brings experience to our program,” Schaus said. “She has energy and enthusiasm to win conference championships.”
Reader Comments
Certainly a well-deserved extension and raise, and I'm sure that Frank will lead the program to new heights over the next several years. The progress that we have made under his short tenure is nothing short of phenomenal!
Now let's go beat Ohio State on September 6!!
An $80k+ raise to a president with scads of No Confidence votes and a $70k+ raise to a football coach at a school where the marching band draws more people than the game itself. Wow.
Wait... what was that I just heard? Was that the sound of another tuition increase? The sound of more staff being laid off? The sound of dorm doubles being converted into triples? The sound of more students groaning in pain and discomfort as they wait in the terribly understaffed student health office? The sound of more parking meters being put up to squeeze that last quarter out of commuters' pockets?
Yeah. Very well deserved.
get over it C and the Cat...its the way universities run. Coaches win, they go to bowl games, they make boasters happy, then they get pay raises. God I hope you don't work for me some day.
Agree completely, CNash. We still pay Coach Solich peanuts compared to most high-level BCS schools. I wonder how some of our local "fruitcakes" would react if he got the kind of money coaches at Florida or USC recieve!
And, CuriosityAndTheCat, tuition increases have absolutely nothing to do with the athletics budget. It is a seperate campus entity that is not supported by tuition charges, though it does recieve general fee money. So athletics certainly cannot be blamed for any of the cuts that you are mentioning.
Keep up the good work, Frank!
We pay our coaches peanuts because we're *not* a high-level BCS school. I know the football coach gets paid a bunch of money, I've accepted that. But you can't compare Solich's salary to OSU's. that's apples to oranges.
If he was consistently BCS-ranked every year, that's another story...
Good point Outdoor83.... we are not a BCS school and I think people need to remember that. He does now have the #2 salary in the MAC. I am one of those people who think the jury is still out.... these next couple of years will be critical because we will finally get to see how his recruiting classes perform as upper classmen. Yea... Curt is right... it is how Athletic departments run... I hate it... but have accepted it.
I still do not think we should jump the gun here and start proclaiming him the second coming.... I mean the Bowl season was great... but once we started playing good teams (CMich in MAc Champ, SMU in the Bowl) we were barely competetive (lost both by 21 points, the ride back from Detroit was the longest of my life) and our season ending wins against Akron and Miami were very ugly since we had so many turnovers and sloppy play.... This past year I really expected them to win the MAC East (The East was weak and hey a lot of sportswriters thought we would) but we ended up 6-6... maybe my expectations were just too high after last year.
Still I hope them the best... the guys plsy their hearts out under Frank... which is not something I noticed under our previous coaches while I was here... and that is what is important in the end... I hope we get our first MAC championship soon.
And here is a shoutout to Schaus... and let's hope he fixes that budget deficit.... because even though athletics is funded by the general fee... its poor fiscal health does hurt other general fee units like Health Services just like C and the Cat was worried about... we had whole sections of BPC meetings where all we talked about was "what do we do with athletics"... let's hope they can stop operating in the red so much and that those beloved boosters we keep hearing so much about start giving us soem money to close the budget gap... cuz it really has not happened too much yet.
And bobcat_football.... why is everyone a fruitcake, anarchist, or some sort of derogatory term just because they disagree with you?... you seem pretty up on campus issues.... some of these "fruitcakes" that are worried about how athletics spend their money are fairly high ranking administrators (one's who you also seem to support a lot)... please keep that in mind
I can't believe Groce brought in a new staff for this program. Coach Rhodes was a strong candidate for the head coach position and now is completely out of the program? This guy was probably one of our best recruiting tools and now he's out? I just don't understand that at all...
Solich deserves the extension and the raise because unlike some administrators who get raises for doing nothing, Solich has taken a HORRIBLE football team and taken it to unbelievable levels. The only question is how long he stays around. We've got a BCS coach who should never have been fired at Nebraska and we've got him for pennies compared to coaches who couldn't do half of what he can with much stronger programs. Put Solich at a school like WVU or BC and he's taking them all the way. The fact that he has taken OU to a Bowl game and a .500 season in his three years here speaks volumes to his ability. He's earned his raise, unlike other administrators who fail to meet goals and get more cash in the pocket.
Never said they were causally related, only that it's the image of the school. We're no longer the party school with the great Journalism department; we're now the money pit that's got nothing but bad PR. Sure, it's "the way universities are run", but it doesn't matter how well the gears are oiled if the machine is unappealing and no one wants to buy it. Solich might have nothing to do with tuition increases or the cuts being made, but McDavis does, and McDavis has shown considerable support for Solich.
Then again, discussing this is useless as the university rarely listens to outside opinions.
You talk about "image"...well, letting your athletics programs suffer in mediocrity is part of exhibiting a poor public image. Though it is cliche, athletics are very much the front porch of any major public university. Right or wrong, bad athletics programs are often associated with a bad university.
A major part of raising Ohio University's status nationwide involves having top-flight athletic programs that consistently compete for MAC Championships and NCAA tournament/bowl game appearances. With Jim Schaus, I think we are finally on the right track!
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