Its time to end the Ron Polk fanbase split

[wtw2400]

Last night John Cohen succesfully won the SEC Regular season. Something Ron Polk did not do in his last FIFTEEN years as a head coach at Mississippi State University. Ron Polk whined after Mississippi State did not go into his wishes to hire a coach who was far less inexperienced and as the results have proven during his tenure at Arkansas State, a coach who is medicore at best. John Cohen had a proven track record at Kentucky and is as good of a hire as you will get at any sport in any level. Ben Howlands dont just go on the job market. So that is why that even though it was obvious at the time who MSU should have hired(after all the beloved AD Byrne was the one who hired Cohen), people are still heard this season griping about that hire.

Let me make this statement: If you are still griping about that hire then you are most likely still upset that Larry Templeton stepped down as Athletic Director. You live in a complete fantasy where you think it is perfectly great for MSU to continue to be a medicore school that every SEC school gets an easy win from. Either that or you have another agenda. My agenda is for Mississippi State to win. And guess what they are doing under John Cohen? Winning! Lets take a look at what Cohen has accomplished thus far:
1 SEC Regular Season Title
1 SEC Tournament Title
4 NCAA Regionals
1 College World Series(Runner Up)

Thats nothing to cough at. And he is in good position to add some more hardware this year(but I honestly dont care about the SEC Tourney this year).

My point is this. yes Cohen did have a bad year last year. But tell me a coach that hasnt in this sport? LSUs has. UCLAs has. Oregon States has. Floridas has. So for those who are continuing to bring up stuff like that, it is quite obvious they have an agenda to make sure MSU does not have succesful nights like last night and they do not truly understand how great John Cohen was at coaching before he got 3 straight top 10 recruiting classes and it looks like its going to be 4. This isnt ending anytime soon. We done need unnecessary opposition within our own fanbase. That is what Ole Miss is for. Hailstate Go Bulldogs because I am so excited to finally win the SEC!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TBone.sixpack]

Isn't a lot of that up to Polk? I don't see him changing his mind. Should be change it and want to be involved we should accept him with open arms. All this divisiveness accomplishes nothing.

Sorry I didn't read all of your post. Mine now makes no sense haha

My bad

 

[wtw2400]

Isn't a lot of that up to Polk? I don't see him changing his mind. Should be change it and want to be involved we should accept him with open arms. All this divisiveness accomplishes nothing.

In a way yes. But he chose to leave and not come back. Plenty of fans including myself would love to see him have a better appreciation of what MSU is today and our new stadium and its all thanks to the foundation he built. But at the same time John Cohen had to rebuild the foundation because Polk crumbled it up before he left. This whole situation pisses me off. Its just another situation that divides the fanbase for no reason. You know there probaly is a reason he is still at MSU after all these years. Its because he was a good hire.

 

[121Josey]

Don't worry. Time diminishes the Polk fan base every year.

Whether Cohen or Mullen or Howland, I can handle their 17ups if they show that they are willing to make changes for the benefit of the program and address the issues.

 

[engie]

Right. I think maybe the best way to phrase the thread is "it's time for the fanbase to unite behind Cohen". Unfortunately it just isn't going to happen at this point. Short of winning a national title -- there is nothing else he can do at Mississippi State. He will have now checked every single other box on the list. I guess maybe long-term consistency at an elite level might do it. But then again, in all the battles I've fought for him, I have never viewed him as a real "consistent" coach. Great years where he's better than anyone reasonably expects followed by down years worse than anyone reasonably expects. Look at next season -- we will be almost totally reliant on rising sophs on the hill if we are going to resemble elite. Can Breaux/Small/Ford/Padgett flip the switch during the summer and be those guys next year? Or will they need 2 more like Dakota Hudson did? Our season will depend on it.

Hopefully, we can get this stadium built, and he can pull 1 or 2 more immediate impact guys per year like we did in the previous class. That's the model we need to form consistency.

 

[57stratdawg]

I don't see it as half the fan base picked Polk over MSU. It seems more like a bunch of small reasons added up over the years. The change in bats made the game borning, small ball was borning, we weren't great early under Cohen, so people faded, Cohen can rub people the wrong way, etc.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

Ron Polk quit on The Mississippi State University THREE TIMES

First was in the early '90's, when LT talked him back into coaching here. He continued, but his heart was never in it. The program declined considerably.

Second was when he quit to give Pat MacMahon the controls. Then Polk could spend all day in his office, on his manual typewriter, writing 400 page Unabomber screeds against the NCAA.

Final time was when he quit before the 2008 season. If he really wanted Raffo to be coach, he should've retired after going to the World Series when LT was AD and handed it to him. Instead, he hung on one more year and let college baseball pass him by. He thought he could get away with being the only SEC school that actually recruited baseball players (back in the day, it was usually a football assistant coaching other football players who wanted to get out of Spring Practice).

When our AD Greg Byrne decided that MSU deserved a winner, we got John Cohen instead of Polk's choice. In the words of my late, great, dear, loving mother (who never had anything bad to say about anybody, except LSU fans) Polk "acted like a little whineybaby".

So, in honor of my sweet, dearly departed, smiling down on us from heaven mother,

I say Ron Polk can just SUCK IT!

 

[KurtRambis4]

Fans' lack of intelligence

isn't Cohen's fault.

 

[Philly Dawg]

There will be fans that ***** and moan about any coach. For Cohen, it has very little to do with Polk.

 

[Maroon'12]

Only Polk can mend his feelings & he would be accepted back with open arms. Hell a part of the stadium is named after him! He put us on the map to be able to accomplish great things like we saw yesterday. It will never go un-noticed. I'm proud Cohen gave him major props yesterday because it is the damn truth. Many will or might argue otherwise, but there is no debating Polk's SEC baseball legacy.

I think the SEC network needs to get more involved. Let Ron Polk do some commentating during the tourney. Maybe it will spill over into other things. But it really is time for Ron to be part of our recent success. Obviously the manner inwhich he gets to enjoy it is debatable. At the end of the day, Polk should be acknowledged while he is still around. While Cohen is still at the helm.