Coach Frank Solich looked into the emptiness of the media room, seemingly looking for a reason.
Solich had seen losses at Ohio before — 65 of them in fact — but not many of them stung like his 66th.
With what happened on the turf at Ford Field on Friday night, it's not surprising he needed some more time to recuperate. But unfortunately for the 72-year-old coach, that's just what he's running out of.
"Good football game," Solich. "I thought, played by two very good football teams that had a lot of heart, played hard and tough for four quarters. Both sides made plays. Proud of our guys. Obviously some things we could have done better."
Ohio fell to Western Michigan on Friday by just six points, 29-23, in the Marathon Mid-American Conference Championship Game. It was the fourth MAC Championship Game loss for Solich in his 12-year tenure as coach of the Bobcats.
Solich, out-done by a coach half his age, had to stomach the fact that his most recent chance at a title ended 37 yards short. Five years ago to the day, his team gave up 16 points in the fourth quarter and fell to Northern Illinois 23-20. History hasn't been kind to Solich.
But in a down year for the MAC East, it would appear his time had come. Arch-rival Bowling Green fell on its face. The schedule broke the right way. The defense was one of the nation's best.
Then he and the Bobcats ran into a herd of oarsmen.
"We had a lot of things that happened throughout the course of the year that was somewhat problematic for us, but they kept pressing for it and kept working their way through things and got themselves here and then played well, but obviously we didn't play quite well enough," Solich said.
Throughout Solich's 18-year coaching career, he's assembled a 146-85 career record. He has just one conference championship to show for it, a conference title with Nebraska in 1999. His teams have won the division seven times.
At this point, it's fair to wonder whether Solich will return for next season, his final under contract. If he were to leave, he'd leave the program on top of a mountain compared to the dirt he found it in.
"Well, obviously it was great to get here," Solich said. "As the guys have mentioned, that was a goal of theirs from the beginning and they felt they had the talent to be in this game and so did I."
While it seemed nothing would go right after redshirt freshman starting quarterback Quinton Maxwell fumbled, inexplicably, on the first drive, in came redshirt senior Greg Windham. For awhile, he was the savior Solich and Ohio needed.
"I thought it was a great performance," Solich said. "When you play great and then don't play maybe quite as well and then get injured, or play great again, then get injured, that's a lot to go through. So I think he handled it all tremendously well, kept a great attitude throughout it and was doing everything he could to help this football team."
Then Windham was picked off.
Sure, there will be a bowl game to look forward to and coach for, there will be recruiting to be done, and there will be time for reflection of season's past. But it won't satisfy the hunger of the man who built the Ohio football program from the ground up. Rather, it will be another sick reminder of what hasn't been accomplished yet.
Once again, it'll be time to settle for second place and commemorate the winners. That's really all there is to do.
"Not what we needed tonight," Solich said. "Some good things, some not-so-good things. Congratulations certainly to Western Michigan, a very, very good football team and MAC champs."
