Top 5 Favorite Coaches at MSU

[MadDawg.sixpack]

List your top 5 favorite coaches at MSU, past or present. You can go back as far as you want, but to keep it interesting let's try to stay in the modern era. It will be interesting to see who lists coaches that have accomplished something, or those that people just have a lot of hope about. Here's mine:

1. Jackie Sherrill - Proved to everyone at MSU that we could win on the football field, and win big.
2. Rick Stansbury - Most consistent coach at MSU in my lifetime. His stock has slipped slightly recently with the early exits and transfer problems, but he still ranks solidly at #2.
3. Ron Polk (before the re-hire) - I know his name is mud in a lot of circles now, but before the 2nd stint, he truly was one of the greatest things about MSU sports. Even though I am only referring to his initial tenure, the way he ultimatelyleft things still hurts his ranking in my book.
4. Richard Williams - Final Four. What else can you say? Other than if he hadn't **** the bed at the end, he would be a lot higher on my list.
5. Dan Mullen - After the Croom fiasco I wondered how long it would take before I cared about football again. Mullen showed me it wouldn't take long. He simply came in and made us better in all aspects. That's what a goodcoach is supposed to do.

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

List your top 5 favorite coaches at MSU, past or present. You can go back as far as you want, but to keep it interesting let's try to stay in the modern era. It will be interesting to see who lists coaches that have accomplished something, or those that people just have a lot of hope about. Here's mine:

1. Jackie Sherrill - Proved to everyone at MSU that we could win on the football field, and win big.
2. Rick Stansbury - Most consistent coach at MSU in my lifetime. His stock has slipped slightly recently with the early exits and transfer problems, but he still ranks solidly at #2.
3. Ron Polk (before the re-hire) - I know his name is mud in a lot of circles now, but before the 2nd stint, he truly was one of the greatest things about MSU sports. Even though I am only referring to his initial tenure, the way he ultimatelyleft things still hurts his ranking in my book.
4. Richard Williams - Final Four. What else can you say? Other than if he hadn't **** the bed at the end, he would be a lot higher on my list.
5. Dan Mullen - After the Croom fiasco I wondered how long it would take before I cared about football again. Mullen showed me it wouldn't take long. He simply came in and made us better in all aspects. That's what a goodcoach is supposed to do.

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

List your top 5 favorite coaches at MSU, past or present. You can go back as far as you want, but to keep it interesting let's try to stay in the modern era. It will be interesting to see who lists coaches that have accomplished something, or those that people just have a lot of hope about. Here's mine:

1. Jackie Sherrill - Proved to everyone at MSU that we could win on the football field, and win big.
2. Rick Stansbury - Most consistent coach at MSU in my lifetime. His stock has slipped slightly recently with the early exits and transfer problems, but he still ranks solidly at #2.
3. Ron Polk (before the re-hire) - I know his name is mud in a lot of circles now, but before the 2nd stint, he truly was one of the greatest things about MSU sports. Even though I am only referring to his initial tenure, the way he ultimatelyleft things still hurts his ranking in my book.
4. Richard Williams - Final Four. What else can you say? Other than if he hadn't **** the bed at the end, he would be a lot higher on my list.
5. Dan Mullen - After the Croom fiasco I wondered how long it would take before I cared about football again. Mullen showed me it wouldn't take long. He simply came in and made us better in all aspects. That's what a goodcoach is supposed to do.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

Reasons (besides the obvious):

We were respected while he was here. People were scared to play us.
He was loyal to MSU, even when the big boys came calling.
He made MSU football 'cool'.
</p>

 

[STATEgrad04]

would be to do a best and worst list of past MSU coaches and see which ones make both list....

the first two that come to mind are The Kang and Polk!</p>

 

[Maroon Eagle]

1. Ron Polk I (as opposed to Polk II)
2. Richard Williams
3. Rick Stansbury
4. Jackie Sherrill
5. Ellis Johnson

Also considered: Pat McMahon, Joe Lee Dunn, Stan Jones</p>

Not considered: Dan Mullen (only one year as coach, ask again next year though)</p>

 

[Bulldognutz2007]

1. Ron Polk ( did a lot for us and for the game )
2. Jackie Sherrill
3. Joe Lee Dunn
4. Richard Williams
5. Rick Stansbury

Also: Sharon Fanning-Otis

 

[Coach34]

1. Jackie- 2nd place isn't even close- had State a QB away from a possible national championship
2. Richard Williams- Final Four and a pom pom girl- how can you beat that? Great defensive coach
3. Polk part I- made us a national program even with underachieving alot of years
4. Dan Mullen- has brought the excitement back to football and is running the option in the SEC
5. Emory Bellard- I loved watching the Wishbone and the win over Bammer in 1980

 

[AROB44]

1.Jackie Sherrill
2.Babe McCarthy
3. Ron Polk 1...Never should have let him come back
4. Jackie Sherrill again.
5. Richard Williams .... only because of the final four (thank you Dontae Jones)

 

[patdog]

I'd only include the Ron Polk years before he first retired in 1992 (only to unretire). He was about to do to our program in the 90s what he did in the 00s before Pat McMahon agreed to come back and saved it.

 

[Agentdog]

I would put Bob Tyler in that list and drop Mullen. Simply because Mullen has not proven to be great....yet. Tyler was 39-25-3 over 6 seasons. Two 9 win seasons. Pretty damn strong at State.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

Bringing in a top 10 recruiting class? I hate on Polk as much as anybody, but let's not go overboard. Yeah he probably underachieved, but you have to achieve first. And Polk hired McMahon, so he gets credit for that. We're starting to see that Polk, while he neglected to recruit and develop pitchers in the 00s (his ultimate downfall), he can still, in fact, recruit hitters. We all know his demise went deeper than that, but you get my drift.

My point is, I'd hardly say Polk "destroyed" the program in the 90s, when he recruited a couple of classes that went to the CWS twice (I don't care how they got there, they did). His program destruction in the 00s was because of his NCAA distractions (which contributed to his loss of the what was going on with the team ie they got lazy) and lack of pitching recruiting and coaching after about 2004. Polk would probably still be here had he hired a good pitching coach instead of the bum McNickle, who didn't recruit or coach OR ice arms worth a damn.

 

[patdog]

Our program was very near to becoming irrelevent in the 1990s before McMahon returned. We went 4 years without winning an NCAA tournament game, and missed the tournement completely for 2 straight years when Polk finally realized he needed to get someone in here to pull things back together so he could retire on top.

 

[brantleyjones]

In 1992, shortly after losing the Egg Bowl, Jackie and Pitt's AD had agreed to a contract (while Jackie was supposedly re-negotiating an extension with Templeton). Jackie would have been gone, but when the deal got to Pitt's President, he flat out refused to hire him. He would have gone to AL (or for that matter, any big program) at any time, had they come calling.

The reason that Jackie stayed at State was because he was f'ing radioactive and no one else would touch him.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

Even though he, uh, did it? So Cohen isn't to blame because our pitching sucks. Ok.

<table style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" id="sortable_table_id_0" class="wikitable sortable"><tbody><tr><td>1990</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>50</td><td>21</td><td>0</td><td>.704</td><td>17</td><td>9</td><td>0</td><td>.654</td><td>3rd</td><td>1st (T)</td><td>Regionals, <font color="#0645ad">College World Series</font></td></tr><tr><td>1991</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>42</td><td>21</td><td>0</td><td>.667</td><td>12</td><td>9</td><td>0</td><td>.571</td><td>3rd</td><td>3rd</td><td>Regionals</td></tr><tr><td>1992</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>40</td><td>22</td><td>0</td><td>.645</td><td>15</td><td>9</td><td>0</td><td>.625</td><td>3rd</td><td>5th (T)</td><td>Regionals</td></tr><tr><td>1993</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>41</td><td>21</td><td>0</td><td>.661</td><td>17</td><td>12</td><td>0</td><td>.586</td><td>4th</td><td>2nd (W)</td><td>Regionals</td></tr><tr><td>1994</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>36</td><td>23</td><td>0</td><td>.610</td><td>15</td><td>12</td><td>0</td><td>.556</td><td>4th</td><td>3rd (W)</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>1995</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>34</td><td>25</td><td>0</td><td>.576</td><td>11</td><td>16</td><td>0</td><td>.407</td><td>9th</td><td>4th (W)</td><td>--</td></tr><tr><td>1996</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>38</td><td>24</td><td>0</td><td>.613</td><td>17</td><td>13</td><td>0</td><td>.567</td><td>5th</td><td>7th (T)</td><td>Regionals</td></tr><tr><td>1997</td><td>Ron Polk</td><td>47</td><td>21</td><td>0</td><td>.691</td><td>19</td><td>11</td><td>0</td><td>.633</td><td>3rd</td><td>7th (T)</td><td>Regionals, <font color="#0645ad">College World Series</font></td></tr></tbody></table>
Not really irrelevant in my opinion. There's not even a losing season in there. Polk left when he needed to. The mistake was when he came back in 2003 or whenever.

No offense to you, I've just never agreed with this viewpoint. Polk slipped, yes, but he recovered. He slipped again, badly, the second time. I outlined all of this in my previous post.

 

[I let the dawgs out]

Was Jackie in Starkville in 1993? Please give some sort of proof of your statement.

Why mustour fansnever give the benefit of the doubt to any MSU personnel? Other schools pump their own. Not us, no way.

I happen to remember South Carolina and Auburn pursuing him after 1998. And there were talks with Alabama at one time, don't know if they ever came after him. Alabama was to King Jackie as Florida is to Mullen, so yeah, he'd have probably gone if they'd wanted him. But remember he was a Mississippian - he considered MSU to be 'home'.

 

[Dog in Oxford]

1. Jackie
2. Ron Polk I
3. Richard Williams
4.Jackie again
5. Emoy Bellard

 

[brantleyjones]

1. Ron Polk - 3rd in the nation in '85, 5 other top 8 finishes
2. Richard Williams - brought MSU basketball back from the dead, 4th in the nation in '96
3. Babe McCarthy - 4 SEC Championships in 5 years, has any other MSU coach in the Big 3 sports done anything comparable?
4. Paul Gregory - 4 SEC championship in 7 years, #8 in nation in 1971
5. Allyn McKeen - only SEC championship EVER in football, even if it was pre-WWII
6. Bob Tyler - proved that you could win at State, post-Johnny Vaught (39-26-2), two 9 win seasons in 3 years, won his first (and only) bowl game, owned LSU, never finished more than a game below .500 (ie. no 3, or fewer, win seasons)

Edited because I thought about it. I knew I was leaving someone out, and I answered my own question from #3. It's also 5 if you don't consider Allyn McKeen to be modern history.

 

[Dawgbreeze]

After USM kicked Bellard's *** all over the stadium in 1980, he basically walked into the locker room and quit. He told his assistants he was ready to hang it up and they told him to simply let them handle the offense from then on and barry wilson and Gary "Moon" Mullins took over the offense and play calling. MSU went on to run the table the rest of the way and yes, they beat Bama but Bellard was a non factor. amazingly, after MSU got the Sun Bowl bid, Bellard got off the plan in El Paso and immediately told his coaches "I'm going to show these clowns how to play Texas football and he took over the offense again and Nebraska kicked our tails. You constantly ***** about Stansbury but there has never been a more stubborn s o b than Bellard unless you count Croom. None of us are surprised you left off Stansbury even though he has had more success than any you named other than Polk in the early years. As usual, not always getting the right facts.

 

[Coach34]

you really believe all this **** you spew don't you? They guy that invented the 17'ing Wishbone is going to turn it all over to his assistants and let them call the same 6 plays he was calling...ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha


keep posting Grandpa...eat more bran...and keep that walking regimen going at the mall...we love you around here

 

[brantleyjones]

Proof? In 2010?

I may even have the years mixed up, but I was sitting there watching us lose the Craig Plump / Todd Jordan Egg Bowl, the one where we had the ball for 8 plays inside OM's 10 at the end of the game and couldn't score, and Jackie and LT are on TV and LT's smiling and talking about how happy we were to have Jackie and Jackie was smiling and talking abut how happy he was to be there, and that Jackie was going to sign a contract extension on Monday. Grins all around.

We lose the game. Monday comes, no announcement of a contract extension. Tuesday, the same. Same all week. Eventually I read an article, probably in the Morning Advocate, since I lived in LA at the time, about Jackie's failed dalliance with Pitt. Eventually the extension with MSU was signed.

I may not remember all the details, but I remember how pissed off I was at the time, us having picked him up off the junk heap and all. And I wasn't the only State fan that knew about it. The biggest Jackie booster of my acquaintance claimed that the best part of having Jackie as head coach was that he was trapped and couldn't go anywhere else.

So whose argument does Jackie being there in '93 back up? Whose argument does him staying after winning 10 games in '99, at poor Ol' MSU back up, especially considering the complete and total collapse that occurred shortly thereafter?

Believe what you want, but why would I come on a message board with a made up, cock and bull story like this just to disillusion you?

I just get tired of reading crap, occasionally.

 

[brantleyjones]

<div>
Proof? In 2010?

I may even have the
years mixed up, but I was sitting there watching us lose the Craig Plump
/ Todd Jordan Egg Bowl, the one where we had the ball for 8 plays
inside OM's 10 at the end of the game and couldn't score, and Jackie and
LT are on TV and LT's smiling and talking about how happy we were to
have Jackie and Jackie was smiling and talking abut how happy he was to
be there, and that Jackie was going to sign a contract extension on
Monday. Grins all around.

We lose the game. Monday comes, no
announcement of a contract extension. Tuesday, the same. Same all
week. Eventually I read an article, probably in the Morning Advocate,
since I lived in LA at the time, about Jackie's failed dalliance with
Pitt. Eventually the extension with MSU was signed.

I may not
remember all the details, but I remember how pissed off I was at the
time, us having picked him up off the junk heap and all. And I wasn't
the only State fan that knew about it. The biggest Jackie booster of my
acquaintance claimed that the best part of having Jackie as head coach
was that he was trapped and couldn't go anywhere else.

So whose
argument does Jackie being there in '93 back up? Whose argument does
him staying after winning 10 games in '99, at poor Ol' MSU back up,
especially considering the complete and total collapse that occurred
shortly thereafter?

Believe what you want, but why would I come
on a message board with a made up, cock and bull story like this just to
disillusion you?

I just get tired of reading crap, occasionally.
</div>

 

[I let the dawgs out]

I remember the stories of '98-'99, yet he stayed. Never heard a thing about '92.

Believe what you want, but why would I come on a message board with a made up, cock and bull story like this just to disillusion you?

Do you realize what board you're on?

 

[futaba.79]

and he said that was some of the stupidest **** he's ever heard. </p>

 

[JxnDawg39211]

I know he lost more than he won at MSU, but didnt Bobby Knight call him the greatest teacher of the game that he has ever seen? Pretty big compliment if true.

 

[brantleyjones]

But, no, I didn't make it up. I've always wondered why others didn't hold it against him more. Maybe it didn't get press in MS. You'd think UM would have run with it.

And, no, except for 1999 and up through the 3rd quarter of the LSU game in 2000, I was never that big of a Sherrill fan. Having been in school when Tyler was there, back to back 7-5 seasons didn't exactly impress me.

 

[patdog]

Seriously, Bob Boyd was a great guy. But he was a terrible basketball coach. One of the worst I've ever seen in the SEC.

 

[Dawgbreeze]

Not only did numerouscoaches know that he wasn't calling plays anymore but so did his players and there were numerous who knew this. Of course, you and fish were diagraming plays for the academy league and had no knowledge other than what you heard from each other. Against LSU, we ran a play action pass on the first play and David Ellis was so far behind the LSU safety that Bond almost underthrew him. Bellard was so damn stubburn he told Bond to not even read the option, just hand it to whom he said to up until Barry and Moon took over.Now, that is one dumb s.o.b. but since he is your hero,I am not surprised. he won with Tyler's talent and was much like Richard Williams, couldn't recruit ****, but since you have never had to do that on a collegiate level, you'd never understand that.

 

[brantleyjones]

The QB away from a NC thing?

There were a lot more things wrong with the '99 offense than just Wayne Madkin. No offensive line being the biggest one (among other limitations and transgressions, one offensive holding call against Ark from being 11-1). Sherrill insisting on starting Chris Rainey at RB being another. One dependable receiver, a converted QB who played there for one year. Etc.

The season as a whole was great, but those games were excruciating to watch, until late in the 4th quarter.

 

[brantleyjones]

just refused to recruit.

OK, half a great coach, since recruiting is a large part of it.

 

[Coach34]

I remember the stories of '98-'99, yet he stayed. Never heard a thing about '92.

Believe what you want, but why would I come on a message board with a made up, cock and bull story like this just to disillusion you?

Do you realize what board you're on?

This board has broken many a true story before it came out...now you do get the crazy **** like Dawgbreeze tried to throw out on Bellard today, but all in all, lots of good, inside stuff can be found on here

 

[War Machine Dawg]

[No message]

 

[Coach34]

in spite of Rainey...in spite of our OL...had we had a functional QB we would have won the Bammer and UPig games- it's that simple...

And our defense on the Atlanta turf was unreal with all the speed we had...I would have liked our chances in the SEC championship game

We could have easily been undefeated heading into the bowl game with a better QB

 

[Coach34]

he doesnt know the paragraph has been invented...

And I'm sure he also believes Rockey called plays against Kentucky in Lexington too for Crooms and then was never allowed to do it again

 

[Rebels7]

1. Croom
2. Croom
3. Cohen
4. Croom
5. Cohen

 

[brantleyjones]

If our line and our running game been better, our QB tandem might have been enough. Defense and the running game, that's how you win, right? Defense and no running game? Not so much. (Worked for 10 games, and would have worked for 11, except for Love's TD pass getting called back.)

I wasn't a big Madkin fan, but I didn't come out of that season thinking Madkin sucked (that wouldn't come until 2001, although it may have been the '99 AL game that I first thought that he looked a lot like Derrick Taite). I did come out of that season thinking that our O line sucked big time. If we'd signed Courtney Lee and Tommy Watson a year earlier*, what could have been?

I agree about the SECCG.

*Which brings up the subject of Sherrill's downfall, and the o-line. Other than the 2 juco All Americans in 2000, how many years of awful o-line recruiting did we have to put together to end up where we did? WTF was that all about?

 

[bbqbully]

1. Jackie. No doubt, no question. Hell, I wish he was still here just to piss off the Mississippi fans.

2. Polk I. Probably the best hire ever made by an MSU AD. He single-handedly made college baseball what it is today. Polk II may have been the worst, but Polk I was the best.

3. Babe McCarthy. Best basketball coach, not only in Mississippi State history, but in the history
of the state of Mississippi.

4. Emory Bellard. I still remember Michael Rubenstein on WLBT in Jackson announcing his hire.
"He smokes, he drinks, he swears, all in moderation." The first big
name coaching hire at MSU.

5. Richard Williams. Final Four. Need I say more.

 

[TR.sixpack]

nm

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

He came in after years, and years of consistent losing. Yeah he screwed up at the end...he also stacked the deck for Ballard.

WIN SOMETHING TODAY!

 

[thatsbaseball]

the day he got his sorry fat *** fired than any other MSU coach ever. But I digress........

Sherrill
Polk I
Tyler
Williams
Dunn