Maroon and White talk- Omaha edition

[Coach34]

Todd and I come out of hiding for some CWS talk

http://maroonandwhitenation.com/?p=5793

[Ghost of Hank Flick]

Alright, between listening to this and the Bench Mobb music video my morning is set.

[Bullmutt]

Coach- since I don't live in-state I've never heard the full story about the roots of the animosity that Polk has for Cohen, other than the fact that Cohen's hire prevented Polk from installing his hand-picked successor, whom I assume was Raffo. Does it actually go deeper than that?

[Coach34]

yes- and I really cant answer as to why because I dont know the whole story either. I know Polk doesnt like the way Cohen cusses and some other things he does in running a program, but it goes back to Cohen being at Fla with Mac and then at Kentucky.

[Todd4State]

It goes back to when Cohen was a player. I think Polk actually considers Cohen an outsider to a degree since he actually started out at Birmingham-Southern and transferred in to MSU. Cohen was a very emotional player and at times out of control and would sometimes cuss and Polk didn't like that. I had heard a story that when Cohen got into coaching as an assistant at Missouri, Polk pretty much laughed at him and pretty much thought he would be a failure.

Polk wanted a clean cut, choir boy image for the baseball team- or as we may say "classy".

There was a time when Cohen was coaching at Kentucky, they played us in Starkville and the LFL actually started cheering Cohen's name- that really pissed off Polk as well. As far as coaching goes, I don't think Polk likes Cohen's philosophy with putting pressure on a team. Polk likes to do everything pretty much straight from the book to a fault. And Polk was very successful doing that- but when push comes to shove in a playoff environment, sometimes you have to make a key decision that may be against the grain, and Polk was not very good at that. Conversely, Skip Bertman was excellent at doing that. Sorry to go all Ben McDonald on everyone there. But Polk believe HIS way is the best way and the way it should be.

I also think Cohen, while he likes Polk, is also not loyal to the point where he would do whatever Polk told him to do- like not take the MSU job. Cohen wanted the job and did what he had to do because he wanted it. And we all see how Polk reacted to that.

[Bullmutt]

It would appear that Polk, like so many men who have some success and earn alittle praise, reached a point where he allowed his ego to affect his judgement.

[Hump4Hoops]

As far as coaching goes, I don't think Polk likes Cohen's philosophy with putting pressure on a team. Polk likes to do everything pretty much straight from the book to a fault.

So, I can assume that Will James wishes we'd kept the old man around!