Frank Solich's Cornhuskers defeated Colorado by a score of 31-22 over the Thanksgiving weekend to give the team a record of 9-3. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? What did Frank get for his fine season? Fired.

At Nebraska, a 9-3 season doesn't impress anyone all that much. Besides, the trouble started before 2003.

Solich had just one 'typical' NU season during his six years as head honcho. The Huskers went 12-1 and contended for the national championship in 1999.

What really tore it for Solich was the 2002 season. Nebraska went 7-6 in the regular season, then lost to Mississippi in the Independence Bowl to finish an unheard of (at Nebraska) 7-7.

Solich fired three assistants at the end of the 2002 regular season as if to say, if these guys had done their jobs right we would have been a better team. Maybe that saved his job for one more season. Seems like an Oklahoma University coach tried that one once, with the same results.

This year's trouble began when the Huskers lost to Missouri by a score of 41-24. On Nov. 1, they were dominated by Texas, 31-7. They still had a chance to win the Big 12 North, but Kansas State had different ideas and blasted the Huskers 38-9 on Nov. 15.

At the high school level, folks seem to understand that the talent isn't always available. At the college level, the coach has to see that the talent finds its way to the school in question.

I'm sure a lot of things contributed to the crumbling of the Tom Osborne dynasty. It's tough to follow someone who had the fans thinking they would be rated in the top five and go no worse than11-1 every year.

Solich was 58-19 as a head coach at Nebraska, which averages and rounds to 10-3 per season. He was named Big 12 coach of the year in 1999 and 2001.

Now, the big question: Who would want to take over the Nebraska job? There aren't a lot of coaches capable of stepping in and giving the fans what they want. Mike Stoops might have wanted a shot at this, but I think he was wise to go to a program that is really down.

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Speaking of fired coaches, a couple of teams in the NBA had very little patience this year. Doc Rivers got his pink slip after 11 games with the Orlando Magic and Bill Cartwright was fired after 14 games with the Chicago Bulls.

Rivers went 1-10 and Cartwright's Bulls were 4-10 at the time of his firing. Rivers, who was 171-168 over four years, probably deserved some more time. Cartwright was 51-100 over almost two seasons with the Bulls.