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Twenty years have passed since Frank Solich’s controversial firing from Nebraska, and he hasn’t publicly appeared at Memorial Stadium since. That’s about to change.

Solich, 78, remains a beloved figure among much of the fan base, having been an all-conference fullback for the Cornhuskers in the 1960s, an assistant to Tom Osborne for two decades and the head coach who won 75% of his games over six seasons before his unceremonious dismissal.

With the prodding of athletic director Trev Alberts, the urging of Osborne and the invitation of first-year coach Matt Rhule, Solich figured now is the time to return to Lincoln. He and his family will be honored during the Huskers’ spring game April 22 in what he hopes will be the start of a renewed relationship with the program.

“I’ve always appreciated the fans of Nebraska and always felt good about them, and the same way about basically most of the coaches I worked with there,” Solich said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. “With the people of Nebraska and the real friends I have there, it just made sense now to come back.”

Alberts, an All-America linebacker at Nebraska in the early 1990s when Solich was an assistant, said he has been trying to get Solich to return since he became athletic director two years ago.

“I’m really looking forward to Husker Nation honoring Frank and thanking him for everything he’s done as a player, as a coach and also honor him for what he did after he left here,” Alberts said.

Solich was 58-19 in six seasons as the successor to Osborne, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who won national championships in three of his last four years and retired with the program at its pinnacle.

Under Solich, the Huskers won the Big 12 championship and finished No. 2 in the polls in 1999, and they played in the 2001 Bowl Championship Series title game against Miami despite a jarring 62-36 loss to Colorado in the regular-season finale.

The Huskers lost three straight games to end 2002 and finished 7-7, the first time since 1968 they hadn’t won at least nine games. Solich fired three assistant coaches and gave up offensive playcalling duties, and the Huskers won nine games the following regular season.

But bad losses to Missouri, Texas and Kansas State and a 16-12 record over his last 28 games prompted first-year athletic director Steve Pederson to fire him. In explaining his decision, Pederson famously said, “I refuse to let the program gravitate into mediocrity.”

The decision was divisive. Some fans agreed the program was showing signs of slippage; some argued Solich deserved more time with his restructured staff.

Solich took the high road through the years when asked about how things ended.

“It’s not my style to publicly come out and talk about or complain about things,” he said. “I know I’m a good coach. I knew that through my time at Nebraska, through my time at the high schools I was at and through my time at Ohio. I can put together a good staff, I know I can relate to players, I know I can win football games.

“I didn’t try to look back and beat myself up or beat anybody else about it,” he added “There were things that happened that were tough to take, but that happens in life, and I moved on.”

Solich was out of coaching for one year before he was hired at Ohio. He spent 16 seasons with the Bobcats and became the Mid-American Conference’s all-time wins leader. He retired in the summer of 2021 to focus on a heart issue, and he now lives in Idaho.

Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini, Mike Riley, Scott Frost and Rhule have followed Solich at Nebraska. There has been no conference championship since the ’99 title under Solich, no bowl since 2016 under Riley and six straight losing seasons.

Solich supporters have long contended that his firing 20 years ago put a curse on the football program and that it only can be broken by Nebraska making things right with him.

Solich acknowledged he’s heard about the “Solich Curse.”

“I will say this: if I had the ability to put on curses, there would be a few more people in trouble,” he said.

Asked if Pederson was one of those people, Solich laughed.

“No,” he said, “I’m not going there.”

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Sources: Knights land Marner, give star 8 years

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Sources: Knights land Marner, give star 8 years

Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.

Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.

The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.

Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.

Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.

Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.

Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.

Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.

The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.

Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.

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Sources: Panthers keeping Marchand, Ekblad

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Sources: Panthers keeping Marchand, Ekblad

Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.

Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.

Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.

There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.

Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.

Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.

Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.

For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.

Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.

He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.

Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.

Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.

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Sources: Provorov nets 7-year deal from Jackets

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Sources: Provorov nets 7-year deal from Jackets

Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.

With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.

Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.

Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.

Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.

The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.

Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.

Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.

PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.

TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.

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