2 rumors I heard this weekend

[1msudawg]

The first one has been mentioned on here before.

I talked to a "cigar boy" this weekend and he said, "At the end of the season all coaches but Croom will be fired, and if Croom does not like it, well.. he can go too." That seems to be everyone's hope.

The other involves Tommy Raffo. I talked to a friend of his also this weekend. He said that Raffo never wants to set foot in Starkvegas again. He feels that way for 2 reasons. 1. Polk promised him the job. 2. When UK was looking for a new baseball coach (when they hired Cohen), Cohen told Raffo about wanting that job. Kentucky wanted to interview Raffo. He told them no, because Cohen wanted the job and he was not going to compete against a friend for the coaching spot. He felt that since he did that for Cohen, Cohen should have done that for him.

 

[Shmuley]

and hope he has a long and illustrious career that is completely self-satisfying and gratifying. In the meantime, forgive me if I turn another cartwheel that we passed his *** over like a pink corduroy hat on a sale table.

 

[Harry Truax III.nafoom]

Raffo knows he let himself be fooled.

And I also don't think we should fire our defensive coaches. We need Cheese and Moneybags for recruiting, not to mention they are OK coaches.

 

[GuyD770]

In the meantime, forgive me if I turn another cartwheel that we passed his *** over like a pink corduroy hat on a sale table.

Nailed that one...

 

[patdog]

Did he not interview for the UK job because he didn't want to compete with his good friend John Cohen or did he not interview for it because Polk had promised him that if he stayed at MSU he would be Polk's successor? If Tommy wanted to be a real friend to Cohen, he wouldn't expect Cohen to give up his dream just to he could have it for himself.

 

[graddawg]

A couple of things. First of all, it would be stupid to force Sly to fire "all" the coaches. Hell, I'd be perfectly happy if a new coach came in and wanted to retain David Turner (I think he's done a good job with the DL) and Melvin (for obvious reasons). As for the second rumor, if that happened Tommy is an idiot. Nice guys finish last.

 

[saddawg]

I'm calling ******** on rumor #1 and tough nuggies on #2.

Polk is the bad guy. He's the one that made a promise he couldn't deliver on.

 

[1msudawg]

and hope he has a long and illustrious career that is completely self-satisfying and gratifying. In the meantime, forgive me if I turn another cartwheel that we passed his *** over like a pink corduroy hat on a sale table.

And when I told them that I think it was better for MSU baseball that we hired Cohen, they just shook their heads, and the conversation kinda died. They are evidently closer friends of the family than I thought. When I said that if he had left the program at some point and gone out and coached somewhere else and been successful that he would have most likely been everyone's front runner for the job. They responded with why should he have left when Polk said the job was his. I just sat there for a second and then changed the subject.

 

[dawgphd]

thought possible. And in nonMSU fashion we ended up hiring the popular candidate who was actually the best candidate. God bless Greg Byrne.

 

[maroonmania]

promised Raffo the job. That's not really news to anyone. And Polk certainly thought he could deliver since he had been the "supreme ruler" of the MSU baseball program under LT for a long time. The Fogelsong dismissal of LT with an AD that might actually demand excellence in all sports is what Polk hadn't counted on. How many college sports programs have you ever seen elevate from within in a time when everything involved with that program has been on a downhill slide for a lengthy time. I feel bad for Raffo, but when you are the chief assistant in a program that most people feel is underperforming, keeping the status quo is not the wise move. I'm just glad we had a guy with the intestinal fortitude in the AD position to make the needed decision. Also, Raffo should blame Polk for this, because if Polk had gone ahead and stepped down after the fluky CWS appearance with LT still at the helm, there is no doubt that Raffo would be our HC right now.

The KY rumor doesn't even sound logical. At the time that job came open, Raffo would have had no reason to want to interview seriously there since Polk was back at MSU and Raffo was already the heir apparent for when Polk decided to retire again.

 

[vhdawg]

1. Polk promised him the job.

<span style="font-size:xx-large">IT WASN'T POLK'S TO OFFER.</span>

 

[Stansfield]

Raffo should be mad at Polk, not MSU.

 

[Todd4State]

This is the where Raffo screwed up- he played his cards that by hanging around the program for years that he would eventually be given the job. He was almost right- he didn't count on Byrne coming in and being the wild card if you will.

I keep hearing all these rumors about how Raffo was a guy that all of these schools "wanted to interview", and I 've kept up with college baseball for a while and 1. I have NEVER heard Raffo EVER being mentioned as a candidate for a job at UK, Auburn, or Notre Dame, or anywhere other than Arkansas State or Jones JC. 2. I have NEVER heard ANYONE talk about how Raffo was one of the top assistant coaches in the SEC from anyone other than Polk. 3. This is Raffo's fault for not taking the job if he had a chance to get it. Does anyone really believe that UK would have hired Raffo over Cohen at the time anyway? Cohen had HC experience at Northwestern State, won a couple of championships there, and was the top hitting coach at UF at the time.

Believe me, if Raffo was that good, he would have been rumored for just about every SEC job from South Carolina to Arkansas, and IF he was that sought after, they would have offered enough money that they would have gotten him. The MSU job would have been his if he had wanted it. But the bottom line on Raffo is this: Nice guy, average coach, poor recruiter. And I'm not sure if it would have mattered if Raffo was the next Skip Bertman because Polk would have still been calling the shots anyway. Polk wanted Raffo in part so that he could be his puppet and prop up Raffo. It would have been a win/win for both of them. That's one reason why Polk promised him the job.

I hope Raffo looks back on this and realizes that this probably is a blessing in disguise because I don't think that the MSU fans would have given him a fair chance to succeed because of his ties to Polk (I don't think he would have done anything anyway) and now he can actually prove whether he can coach or not because he has cut ties to Polk.

 

[MSUCostanza]

if it is true, then Raffo is a giant *** and shouldn't be coaching in big-time college baseball.

For what it's worth, I don't believe #1 either. Why fire Harbison? Our defense has been more than good enough to compete in the SEC. Croom is the only one that needs to go at this point. To kill the snake, you cut off the head.