July is a bad time to have to hire a football coach, but so it was at Ohio in 2021. Frank Solich, citing health concerns, stepped down two months ahead of the season opener. The Bobcats promoted offensive coordinator Tim Albin. He was sort of Solich’s Frank Solich, starting as a GA at Nebraska and then spending 16 seasons as an assistant in Athens. Albin did well, going 33-19 and winning a MAC title before making the odd decision1 to depart for Charlotte.
Ohio again kept things in-house, hiring offensive coordinator Brian Smith ahead of 2025. That was going well enough at 8-4 before an internal investigation found “professional misconduct” that led to Smith’s firing. Defensive coordinator John Hauser took over as interim and landed the head role after a bowl win.
That’s a lot for five years, so maybe it’s no surprise as Ohio prepares to visit Lincoln that Hauser seems to have chosen stability. He chose last year’s backup QB over the FCS star transfer. The Bobcats will start a running back from Cologne, Germany, also last year’s backup, over a transfer from UConn. The top-line receivers are all returnees. A first-year transfer won three of 22 spots outright on Ohio’s first two-deep of the season.
Nebraska’s depth chart includes 10 such transfers alone in the top spot. It feels far removed from Matt Rhule saying the Huskers had their “own portal” in spring 2024, referring to how much NU had retained from its previous roster.
Times change. Context changes. Pressure changes.
We get our first look Saturday how this all might come together. All this roster churn across the sport makes the kind of preview I want to do nearly impossible for an opening game. So, instead of three keys to the game, here are three signs of “health” I think we need to see.
