Brian Dozier

[RBritt]

Coach or others, do y'all know the story on him? Did Polk not even recruit a guy in our backyard?

[Homedawg]

Coach or others, do y'all know the story on him? Did Polk not even recruit a guy in our backyard?

Our previous staff knew about him. They didn't think he could hit. Wasn't the only screw up they made. They were numerous stories that aren't on this board that could be mentioned. But dozier is a big one.

[dawgoneyall]

Just one of many screwups by Polk. He allowed the NCAA crap to rule his mental state to the determent of MSU baseball.

Dozier grew up a big State fan. Although, he went to Southern Polk allowed UofM to load up on several players who would have gone to MSU if Polk and his staff had been paying attention which put UofM's program far ahead of State's program.
Personally, I would never allow Polk access to MSU again and would definitely removed his name from the stadium. Be gone.

[Coach34]

Long story short- Polk II was an extreme cluster**** that shouldnt have happened. The lack of recruiting and misses are epic

[Todd4State]

Our previous staff knew about him. They didn't think he could hit. Wasn't the only screw up they made. They were numerous stories that aren't on this board that could be mentioned. But dozier is a big one.

Face. Palm.

Of course, they didn't know Stephen Head could pitch.

[dawgoneyall]

Polk was never really into "it" after his short announced retirement in 92. Had one good recruiting class in 94 (ranked #1 in nation, but probably shouldn't have been). He had already begun his epic mental journey into the NCAA abyss.

[Homedawg]

Polk was never really into "it" after his short announced retirement in 92. Had one good recruiting class in 94 (ranked #1 in nation, but probably shouldn't have been). He had already begun his epic mental journey into the NCAA abyss.

I don't know about the probably shouldn't have been part. That class was loaded and it showed. Dubose, Piatt, freeman, Lee, Hauswald, Jackson, Polk and Patton. Two college world series later I'd say it was legit.

[TrueMaroon]

Also, Brian WANTED to go state. Both his older siblings went to state.

I know for a fact we slow played him and he was screwed over by Polk.

[Jacksondevildog]

I have a friend that played for USM when they went to Omaha and he said that Dozier is the best SS that he's ever seen. They said he was the ultimate teammate and everyone in Hattiesburg loved him. He's now a big leaguer.

If there are any of you still out there that don't understand why Polk 2.0 wasn't working, here is a very nice example.

[M.Fillmore]

Long story short- Polk II was an extreme cluster**** that shouldnt have happened. The lack of recruiting and misses are epic

I blame Larry Templeton far more than Polk. After the CWS run in 1990, Polk went on his anti-NCAA rant and his coaching focus waned. Polk did well at Georgia due to Hope scholarships and because Vince Dooley let Polk know in no uncertain terms that he was hired to win and not chase NCAA rabbits. Polk knew when he returned to MSU that had no accountability and we all knew that he would do as he wanted. Many people will fart around with no accountability.

With some people, as time passes, time softens the rough edges and they don't seem so bad. With Larry Templeton, as time passes your realize that he was worse than you ever thought and you start to understand the immense depth of LT's incompetency.

[Todd4State]

I blame Larry Templeton far more than Polk. After the CWS run in 1990, Polk went on his anti-NCAA rant and his coaching focus waned. Polk did well at Georgia due to Hope scholarships and because Vince Dooley let Polk know in no uncertain terms that he was hired to win and not chase NCAA rabbits. Polk knew when he returned to MSU that had no accountability and we all knew that he would do as he wanted. Many people will fart around with no accountability.

With some people, as time passes, time softens the rough edges and they don't seem so bad. With Larry Templeton, as time passes your realize that he was worse than you ever thought and you start to understand the immense depth of LT's incompetency.

A lot of influential MSU boosters begged him to come back in 1991- they definitely should get some of the blame. When someone wants to leave, you let them go.

Now, 2001- LT should have stepped up and told Polk not to come back. I'm sure there was also some pressure from some MSU boosters to bring him back as well. In fact, I believe that at least part of the reason why Pat McMahon left was because he was tired of hearing "how Ron would have done it."

[Coach34]

With some people, as time passes, time softens the rough edges and they don't seem so bad. With Larry Templeton, as time passes your realize that he was worse than you ever thought and you start to understand the immense depth of LT's incompetency.

Yes Sir- you are correct

[maroonmania]

Long story short- Polk II was an extreme cluster**** that shouldnt have happened. The lack of recruiting and misses are epic

Its a beaten dead horse I know but why would you bring a guy back anyway who had already quit on you twice before (once got talked into staying and the second time DID quit AND got to name his successor in McMahon)? Then he unretires, has a pretty good couple of years at Georgia with players that were already there, and gets LT to let him come back to MSU like he was the MSU baseball saviour or something only to sit on his butt and not recruit like he should have and spend the vast majority of his time pontificating against the evils of the NCAA. And then adds insult to injury by showing his rear end when he decides to walk away AGAIN but this time is not given carte blanche on naming a successor. I'll be honest, I very much appreciate what Polk did for MSU baseball in his earlier days but on a personable level, and I've been around him in multiple alumni meetings and other venues, he was probably the most unlikeable coach we've had due to his ego and arrogance. I know a lot of coaches have those traits but most do a lot better job than Polk of not making those traits so obvious to the general fanbase.

[Thick]

It's funny and ridiculous at the same time. I met Drew Pomeranz a couple of years ago in the RV area by Dudy during football season. We drank a few, while he told me how bad he and other OM players wanted to come to State. How Raffo and Polk literally snubbed them or just kept them warm because they didn't attend camp. It is absolutely amazing how messed up Polk and Raffo were during his final tenure.

[engie]

It's funny and ridiculous at the same time. I met Drew Pomeranz a couple of years ago in the RV area by Dudy during football season. We drank a few, while he told me how bad he and other OM players wanted to come to State. How Raffo and Polk literally snubbed them or just kept them warm because they didn't attend camp. It is absolutely amazing how messed up Polk and Raffo were during his final tenure.

Exactly.

"Come visit in November" was the Polk/Raffo mantra without giving them any type of offer or guarantee beforehand -- even to kids who went to all the camps and showed out. This flew in the face of all these kids' MANY other SEC opportunities -- with coaches who wanted answers from them MONTHS before they'd even get the opportunity to visit MSU. Common sense says that these kids never really had the option to go to MSU even though it's what they most wanted. Many hold an eternal grudge about it too -- and I don't blame them.

[Homedawg]

It's funny and ridiculous at the same time. I met Drew Pomeranz a couple of years ago in the RV area by Dudy during football season. We drank a few, while he told me how bad he and other OM players wanted to come to State. How Raffo and Polk literally snubbed them or just kept them warm because they didn't attend camp. It is absolutely amazing how messed up Polk and Raffo were during his final tenure.

Additionally, we wouldn't offer a player until he came on his official visit. That was the practice until rp's last year, when he finally changed that. So with that said no matter what Raffo and mcnickle did- and trust me they had their hands in evaluating problems- it really didn't matter bc mos players were committed before we ever would give them an offer. So, essentially we were getting guys that either dreamed of playing here( and we lost plenty of those during that tim too!) or had no other options.....sorry engie must have been typing at the same time.

[slickdawg]

Speaking of Raffo, I had to go check and see how he was doing this season:

Record: 24-24
Home: 15-12
Away: 9-12
Sun Belt: 10-14
Boydsworld RPI: 142nd

[M.Fillmore]

Polk's explosion at Byrne is laughable. The year before, Polk went to the CWS, Polk's personal bootlicker LT was sitting in the AD chair. Polk could have retired then and Raffo would be our coach today and we would be on the NCAA tourney bubble instead of the Top 8 National seed bubble.

Polk wrongly figured the rest of the world is as incompetent as LT. Greg Byrne has brass nuts and proved it to Polk.

[Goat Holder]

Now, 2001- LT should have stepped up and told Polk not to come back. I'm sure there was also some pressure from some MSU boosters to bring him back as well.

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

This is the complete opposite of what happened. LT BEGGED Polk to come back....that's is STRAIGHT from the horse's mouth. Huntsville Quarterback Club circa 2006. Polk wanted to quit.....he didn't even want to come back.

It's ALL on LT....let's get the blame right, here. LT admitted this. Polk was much cheaper than Maneiri.

[Homedawg]

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

This is the complete opposite of what happened. LT BEGGED Polk to come back....that's is STRAIGHT from the horse's mouth. Huntsville Quarterback Club circa 2006. Polk wanted to quit.....he didn't even want to come back.

It's ALL on LT....let's get the blame right, here. LT admitted this. Polk was much cheaper than Maneiri.

Not to take any blame off lt he could have handled it differently. However, fact is coach Polk called LT and said, " what are WE going to do"?! We as in Msu. He wanted to come back. Anything contrary just isn't true. As I said, WE didn't have to hire him back. We all know the rest, we did..........

[Goat Holder]

He wanted to come back. Anything contrary just isn't true.

Sorry, but you are mistaken.

[Todd4State]

And Drew Pomeranz is an Ole Miss legacy. Although, I think he had a close family member who was a manager or grad assistant with the MSU baseball team.

[Todd4State]

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

This is the complete opposite of what happened. LT BEGGED Polk to come back....that's is STRAIGHT from the horse's mouth. Huntsville Quarterback Club circa 2006. Polk wanted to quit.....he didn't even want to come back.

It's ALL on LT....let's get the blame right, here. LT admitted this. Polk was much cheaper than Maneiri.

What did you expect LT to say? I hired Ron Polk II because I'm his and his supporters little bitch and hell, it was pretty easy and I wouldn't have to do a national search because I don't like doing that? THAT would have been the truth.

We could have low balled Manieri at the time and still got him. Heck, Manieri pretty much TOLD ME before the MSU Notre Dame game that he wanted to come to MSU, and if that wasn't enough, he wrote a letter to Gene Swindoll (this was pre-sixpack) which he put on Genespage talking about how much he liked the place and basically kissing our ass.

[Todd4State]

Polk's explosion at Byrne is laughable. The year before, Polk went to the CWS, Polk's personal bootlicker LT was sitting in the AD chair. Polk could have retired then and Raffo would be our coach today and we would be on the NCAA tourney bubble instead of the Top 8 National seed bubble.

Polk wrongly figured the rest of the world is as incompetent as LT. Greg Byrne has brass nuts and proved it to Polk.

Here's how that went down:

1. Pitching staff implodes with injuries because Russ McNickle had no clue what the hell he was doing. We lose to Air Force.

2. We lose a series to Ole Miss and get dominated other than a miracle near no-hitter by Ricky Bowen. Polk realizes we are going to have a losing season.

3. Polk resigns while LT is still around (if I remember correctly LT was there for like a year while Byrne transitioned to the AD position or something like that.)

4. Polk in his retirement manifesto which was miraculously only one page long recommends Tommy Raffo hoping that LT will step in and force Byrne to hire him. One of the main points was Raffo's work with the Diamond Girls. Byrne had other ideas. Thank God.

5. Rest of season was full of unintentional comedy- the baseball God's at least allow us to somehow win the Governor's Cup despite starting a walk-on catcher.

6. Byrne hires Cohen. Shit hits the fan on Polk's end.

[Todd4State]

Speaking of Raffo, I had to go check and see how he was doing this season:

Record: 24-24
Home: 15-12
Away: 9-12
Sun Belt: 10-14
Boydsworld RPI: 142nd


The ironic thing is that Pat McMahon replaced Raffo with Cohen as his hitting coach at Florida.

[FFF]

Here's how that went down:

1. Pitching staff implodes with injuries because Russ McNickle had no clue what the hell he was doing. We lose to Air Force.

2. We lose a series to Ole Miss and get dominated other than a miracle near no-hitter by Ricky Bowen. Polk realizes we are going to have a losing season.

3. Polk resigns while LT is still around (if I remember correctly LT was there for like a year while Byrne transitioned to the AD position or something like that.)

4. Polk in his retirement manifesto which was miraculously only one page long recommends Tommy Raffo hoping that LT will step in and force Byrne to hire him. One of the main points was Raffo's work with the Diamond Girls. Byrne had other ideas. Thank God.

5. Rest of season was full of unintentional comedy- the baseball God's at least allow us to somehow win the Governor's Cup despite starting a walk-on catcher.

6. Byrne hires Cohen. Shit hits the fan on Polk's end.

It was pretty obvious Polk's main problem was not Byrne, it was Cohen. I had an older booster tell me (who thought Polk was god himself) that it was Polk's way of keeping his promise of "never throwing a player, current or former, under the bus." People I know who tried to either walk on or were recruited basically said he did not give a shit about anything. The players loved him, but that's because he was nothing more to them than a frat brother... never pushed them, never forced them to work hard for anything. His tirade was completely over the top... and probably would have carried more weight if he had not quit on us twice before (even then, I think we would have went with Cohen). Raffo's resume wasn't even in the same league as Cohen's in terms of experience and accomplishments.

[State82]

What did you expect LT to say? I hired Ron Polk II because I'm his and his supporters little bitch and hell, it was pretty easy and I wouldn't have to do a national search because I don't like doing that? THAT would have been the truth.

We could have low balled Manieri at the time and still got him. Heck, Manieri pretty much TOLD ME before the MSU Notre Dame game that he wanted to come to MSU, and if that wasn't enough, he wrote a letter to Gene Swindoll (this was pre-sixpack) which he put on Genespage talking about how much he liked the place and basically kissing our ass.

Maneiri would have hitchhiked from South Bend to Starkville and left all his possessions behind had we given him the opportunity at the time. One of the biggest, if not THE biggest blunder ever in the history of MSU athletics. Now, John Cohen has had to come in, clean up a monumental disaster of a mess, and reconstruct a program. Of which, he has done a pretty good job. Of all the coaches possibly available for our job, Cohen is probably the only one that would have wanted it more than Maneiri. At 2 very different times in the past, obviously.

[maroonmania]

Maneiri would have hitchhiked from South Bend to Starkville and left all his possessions behind had we given him the opportunity at the time. One of the biggest, if not THE biggest blunder ever in the history of MSU athletics. Now, John Cohen has had to come in, clean up a monumental disaster of a mess, and reconstruct a program. Of which, he has done a pretty good job. Of all the coaches possibly available for our job, Cohen is probably the only one that would have wanted it more than Maneiri. At 2 very different times in the past, obviously.

I literally had a sick feeling in my gut when I heard LT was bringing a past-his-prime Polk back to coach MSU baseball. Should have never happened.

[Homedawg]

Sorry, but you are mistaken.

No I'm not. Don't rally care what u say. You heard yours at some quarterback club meeting wherever. I heard it straight from the horses mouth to my face. Not in front of 100 people listening to him stroke his ego.

[Will James]

Hanging out with Pomeranz I'll bet y'all drank more than a few.

[DownwardDawg]

I've hated LT for a long long time. As time passes, I'm really starting to hate Polk too.

[War Machine Dawg]

Here's how that went down:

1. Pitching staff implodes with injuries because Russ McNickle had no clue what the hell he was doing. We lose to Air Force.

2. We lose a series to Ole Miss and get dominated other than a miracle near no-hitter by Ricky Bowen. Polk realizes we are going to have a losing season.

3. Polk resigns while LT is still around (if I remember correctly LT was there for like a year while Byrne transitioned to the AD position or something like that.)

4. Polk in his retirement manifesto which was miraculously only one page long recommends Tommy Raffo hoping that LT will step in and force Byrne to hire him. One of the main points was Raffo's work with the Diamond Girls. Byrne had other ideas. Thank God.

5. Rest of season was full of unintentional comedy- the baseball God's at least allow us to somehow win the Governor's Cup despite starting a walk-on catcher.

6. Byrne hires Cohen. Shit hits the fan on Polk's end.

The infamous UK series that season HAS to be mentioned here. Polk gets himself kicked out of all 3 games early on to let Raffo coach against Cohen. I'm sure it was his twisted idea of a job interview for Raffo and proving he was better than Cohen head-to-head. Then Game 3 rolled around and Cohen was having none of it. Cohen gets himself ejected very shortly after Polk. The whole thing was almost as bad as Polk's anti-Byrne tirade when he was told we'd hired Cohen.

[MaroonState]

Not hiring Manieri was almost as bad as not hiring Spurrier when we had the chance. One question that's always gnawed at me is this: if Stricklin were ad when Byrne hired Cohen, would Stricklin have had the balls to make the same hire? Hmmm

[Thick]

Hanging out with Pomeranz I'll bet y'all drank more than a few.

Yeah, the big fella can crush some alcohol. I was amazed how open and passionate he was about MSU. He flat out admitted that he wanted to wear maroon and white and play at the Dude. He pointed at it as he said it! Cool cat in my book.

[engie]

Not hiring Manieri was almost as bad as not hiring Spurrier when we had the chance. One question that's always gnawed at me is this: if Stricklin were ad when Byrne hired Cohen, would Stricklin have had the balls to make the same hire? Hmmm

I don't see how anyone can still question Stricklin's balls after the basketball situation went down. Sure, other aspects can be questioned -- but certainly not his ability to make a tough decision that he believes to be in the best interest of his university while facing considerable backlash on multiple fronts.

[Coach34]

Not hiring Manieri was almost as bad as not hiring Spurrier when we had the chance. One question that's always gnawed at me is this: if Stricklin were ad when Byrne hired Cohen, would Stricklin have had the balls to make the same hire? Hmmm

edited- read the post wrong

[MaroonState]

Striclin definitely put his nuts on the chopping block with Ray but those are two completely different situations. One, Polk was a bigger than life presence at State and was the coach when Stricklin was in school there. Stan's was not larger than life and was not a coach at State when Stric was there. Two, the choice for basketball was deciding to go down the seedy road of world wide wes or not. No such choice existed for the baseball hire. Three, the previous coach/legend said to hire Raffo and don't even think about hiring Cohen. Stan's didn't/couldn't have the ability to make such bold requests. Four, the baseball program has historically been the more prominent program of the two so going against alums with baseball would have been much harder than going against alums with basketball especially when u consider how many baseball alums are/were pro baseball players. Just my two cents of course.

[engie]

Agree to disagree.

Stricklin had to fire Stansbury -- who is very close friends with his father-in-law. Thus, in essence, he had to literally go against his own family. That is every bit as difficult as Byrne "getting rid of" Polk -- who actually DID quit and was not fired(yet) but saw the writing on the wall and saw quitting ahead of time as his only opportunity to try to get his way with Raffo. Had Stansbury resigned effective at the end of 2011/2012 season in the middle of the season, you bet your ass he would have had the ability to "demand" a replacement and much of the fanbase would have fallen in line behind him exactly like they did with Polk. Stans not doing this simply shows that he'd acknowledged the fact that he didn't have the power -- and simply means he didn't have quite the "god complex" that Polk did. It has nothing to do with his ACTUAL status at MSU -- but his perceived status in his own mind.