Coach Oak mic'd up

[Coursesuper]

Don't get me wrong - I was a big fan of Cohen as HC. But those first 3 seasons our fanbase was split and was pretty brutal about Cohen - and people did hold back money (and hated his cussing and bunting). That started changing in 2011, and was repaired a good bit by the 2013 run. It still kept him from really running on all cylinders for a while. Imagine the monster he could have built faster if everyone was in like they are with Oak.

People defiantly held back money and it wasn't his cussing and bunting it was mainly just him.

[Coach34]

People defiantly held back money and it wasn't his cussing and bunting it was mainly just him.

Boosters mad we didnt hire Raffo
Polk had let the program rot from within
Cohen blew it up and did a total rebuild- which took a little longer

Made for some rough seasons

[StarkVegasSteve]

Don't get me wrong - I was a big fan of Cohen as HC. But those first 3 seasons our fanbase was split and was pretty brutal about Cohen - and people did hold back money (and hated his cussing and bunting). That started changing in 2011, and was repaired a good bit by the 2013 run. It still kept him from really running on all cylinders for a while. Imagine the monster he could have built faster if everyone was in like they are with Oak.

I'm honestly glad he got rid of some of the Poor Ole's that hated him cussing. And in his defense, he always made sure no kids were within earshot when he let it go.

I'll never forget the LSU series in 09. We had blown a late game lead on Friday(were up 4-1 going into the 7th) and he kicked all the kids out of the stadium and he dropped f bombs, GDs, and every other word you can think of in about a 5th minute stretch. It was absolutely incredible. I applauded. He didn't like that either. I still think about what would've happened if we would've ended up losing that Saturday game. We were up 7-3 in the 9th and they scored 4 to tie it. Thankfully, for our players and some of the Poor Ole fans who hated cussing, we walked LSU off in the 9th.

[Turfdawg67]

I'll say it- in a year or two our baseball program is about to become Tennessee without being douchebags about it.

And then BOC will retire. It's just our luck...

[StarkVegasSteve]

People defiantly held back money and it wasn't his cussing and bunting it was mainly just him.

It was the cussing and the fact that his name wasn't Tommy Raffo. Polk tried his damnedest to make sure Cohen wouldn't succeed. He really poisoned the well with a lot of long time donors. They all thought they could get rid of Cohen and Byrne and get LT back so LT would hire Raffo.

When Cohen and Byrne told them in no uncertain terms, and Cohen was pretty abrasive about it, that this wasn't Ron Polk's MSU anymore, they took their ball(and money) and went home.

Some tried to come back after Cohen righted the ship and act like nothing happened, Cohen remembered.

[Coursesuper]

It was the cussing and the fact that his name wasn't Tommy Raffo. Polk tried his damnedest to make sure Cohen wouldn't succeed. He really poisoned the well with a lot of long time donors. They all thought they could get rid of Cohen and Byrne and get LT back so LT would hire Raffo.

When Cohen and Byrne told them in no uncertain terms, and Cohen was pretty abrasive about it, that this wasn't Ron Polk's MSU anymore, they took their ball(and money) and went home.

Some tried to come back after Cohen righted the ship and act like nothing happened, Cohen remembered.

Let’s just say that there are many who have a burning dislike for him since way before any of that happened. And he didn’t do himself many favors with some while he was here.

[BeardoMSU]

It was the cussing and the fact that his name wasn't Tommy Raffo. Polk tried his damnedest to make sure Cohen wouldn't succeed. He really poisoned the well with a lot of long time donors. They all thought they could get rid of Cohen and Byrne and get LT back so LT would hire Raffo.

When Cohen and Byrne told them in no uncertain terms, and Cohen was pretty abrasive about it, that this wasn't Ron Polk's MSU anymore, they took their ball(and money) and went home.

Some tried to come back after Cohen righted the ship and act like nothing happened, Cohen remembered.

Bringing back LT, lol. Some of our money guys are mentally broken to think he was remotely a good AD. Favoring access over a functional competitive athletic department just fu<king baffles me.

[BrunswickDawg]

I'm honestly glad he got rid of some of the Poor Ole's that hated him cussing. And in his defense, he always made sure no kids were within earshot when he let it go.

I'll never forget the LSU series in 09. We had blown a late game lead on Friday(were up 4-1 going into the 7th) and he kicked all the kids out of the stadium and he dropped f bombs, GDs, and every other word you can think of in about a 5th minute stretch. It was absolutely incredible. I applauded. He didn't like that either. I still think about what would've happened if we would've ended up losing that Saturday game. We were up 7-3 in the 9th and they scored 4 to tie it. Thankfully, for our players and some of the Poor Ole fans who hated cussing, we walked LSU off in the 9th.

Pissed John Cohen was the best

[shoeless joe]

oak is great. what makes him great is yes, things like attention to detail and overall knowledge. but what really takes him over the top is how he really is just a regular guy that comes off as very intense about his craft but very genuine and real. from the times i've spoken and been around him i haven't detected any inkling of being a phony. dude is a baseball guy and in reality would probably succeed at any level of the game. i believe we are very fortunate to have him.

what i really like about him is how he doesn't try to reinvent the wheel within preparation. but there's always a little something that forces the players to not only perform but to think. almost a built in way to prevent them from just going thru the motions.

[Todd4State]

Ron Polk being upset about Cohen becoming the head coach is ironic because there was a time when it came down to Polk, Tom D'Armi, and Bragan for the head coaching job in 1974. D'Armi eliminated himself with some incidents that would make Cohen look like an Upward League baseball coach. I think they chose Bragan over Polk because Bragan had a background similar to Paul Gregory's and he had a pro baseball background and he was part of the Reds minor league system back when they were the Big Red Machine and this hire was when they were in their heyday. Bragan was probably our worst baseball coach ever rivaled only by Cann. Alex Grammas who played at MSU and was friends with Bragan helped MSU "save face" by hiring him as an assistant for the Brewers and we hired Polk away from Miami where he was an assistant. Truth is Bragan was a horrible recruiter and had split the team (being generous most greatly disliked him) and was basically about to be fired. D'Armi ended up at Duke as their head coach a few years later.

Who knows how many NC's we would have right now if we had let Polk walked and hired Augie Garrido, and then went from that to Paul Manieri and then to Cohen?

McMahon got tired of hearing about "what Ron Polk would have done." LT hiring Polk back was the most LT move ever. And the timing couldn't have been worse because that's when Ole Miss hired Bianco. Polk's recruiting killed the program as well as him being distracted with being the savior of college baseball while everyone else won games. And like someone said- thank God for the 2005 SEC baseball tournament where our pitchers had the games of their lives four days in a row and the 2007 SR. Polk 2 rarely even won the Governor's Cup so we didn't have that to potentially look forward to.

Hiring Cohen was probably the most controversial coaching search I have ever seen at MSU. It had to happen though. Yeah- you had some fans that wanted Raffo. But you also some other smaller factions like a few who wanted Steve Smith, some who wanted Brian Shoop, some who wanted us to go outside the MSU family- I remember some fans mentioning Brian O'Connor at the time which is very ironic now. I know Byrne talked to Pat Casey and Tim Corbin and both turned it down. Rumor was Polk called Casey and asked him to not take the job. Very difficult time for MSU in baseball but Cohen pushed through and got it done. Transfer portal would have been REALLY nice back then. MSU was at a crossroads at that time. Our choice was to become a National Superpower/Blueblood or become what Wichita State is now. Really glad we chose the blueblood route. But to do that Cohen had to do what he did and we had to break away from Ron Polk. And honestly, if we had hired Raffo I don't think it would have worked and we would have wasted another 3 years probably and then we would have still had the same confrontation with Polk and however long it would have lasted would have been a waste of time.

As far as Cann, in hindsight I wished we would have made Gary Henderson the interim and then did a proper search. I do wonder what would have happened if we hired Cann to be the hitting coach for a couple of years sort of like what Polk 1 did with Pat McMahon? We might have been able to pick up on some things to say the least.

Lemonis was kind of a risk when you think about it. Indiana baseball and MSU are completely polar opposites. And yeah he won at Indiana but it's not like Lemonis was taking them to Omaha and hosting SR's either. In hindsight if we had hired Schlossnagle odds are he would have left us for A&M or Texas as soon as he could. And Dan McDonnell really hasn't done much that's impressive lately either. He's a good coach but he's probably getting past his prime now.

Hiring BOC was probably one of the smoothest hire processes we have ever had. Just really impressively done. Made Cohen look like amateur hour.

[Todd4State]

Bringing back LT, lol. Some of our money guys are mentally broken to think he was remotely a good AD. Favoring access over a functional competitive athletic department just fu<king baffles me.

I think a lot of the disconnect with them is they think the coaches and AD that are their friends are good at their coaching/athletic jobs.

[Pancho]

Lack of proper perspective is a program killer.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Ron Polk being upset about Cohen becoming the head coach is ironic because there was a time when it came down to Polk, Tom D'Armi, and Bragan for the head coaching job in 1974. D'Armi eliminated himself with some incidents that would make Cohen look like an Upward League baseball coach. I think they chose Bragan over Polk because Bragan had a background similar to Paul Gregory's and he had a pro baseball background and he was part of the Reds minor league system back when they were the Big Red Machine and this hire was when they were in their heyday. Bragan was probably our worst baseball coach ever rivaled only by Cann. Alex Grammas who played at MSU and was friends with Bragan helped MSU "save face" by hiring him as an assistant for the Brewers and we hired Polk away from Miami where he was an assistant. Truth is Bragan was a horrible recruiter and had split the team (being generous most greatly disliked him) and was basically about to be fired. D'Armi ended up at Duke as their head coach a few years later.

Who knows how many NC's we would have right now if we had let Polk walked and hired Augie Garrido, and then went from that to Paul Manieri and then to Cohen?

McMahon got tired of hearing about "what Ron Polk would have done." LT hiring Polk back was the most LT move ever. And the timing couldn't have been worse because that's when Ole Miss hired Bianco. Polk's recruiting killed the program as well as him being distracted with being the savior of college baseball while everyone else won games. And like someone said- thank God for the 2005 SEC baseball tournament where our pitchers had the games of their lives four days in a row and the 2007 SR. Polk 2 rarely even won the Governor's Cup so we didn't have that to potentially look forward to.

Hiring Cohen was probably the most controversial coaching search I have ever seen at MSU. It had to happen though. Yeah- you had some fans that wanted Raffo. But you also some other smaller factions like a few who wanted Steve Smith, some who wanted Brian Shoop, some who wanted us to go outside the MSU family- I remember some fans mentioning Brian O'Connor at the time which is very ironic now. I know Byrne talked to Pat Casey and Tim Corbin and both turned it down. Rumor was Polk called Casey and asked him to not take the job. Very difficult time for MSU in baseball but Cohen pushed through and got it done. Transfer portal would have been REALLY nice back then. MSU was at a crossroads at that time. Our choice was to become a National Superpower/Blueblood or become what Wichita State is now. Really glad we chose the blueblood route. But to do that Cohen had to do what he did and we had to break away from Ron Polk. And honestly, if we had hired Raffo I don't think it would have worked and we would have wasted another 3 years probably and then we would have still had the same confrontation with Polk and however long it would have lasted would have been a waste of time.

As far as Cann, in hindsight I wished we would have made Gary Henderson the interim and then did a proper search. I do wonder what would have happened if we hired Cann to be the hitting coach for a couple of years sort of like what Polk 1 did with Pat McMahon? We might have been able to pick up on some things to say the least.

Lemonis was kind of a risk when you think about it. Indiana baseball and MSU are completely polar opposites. And yeah he won at Indiana but it's not like Lemonis was taking them to Omaha and hosting SR's either. In hindsight if we had hired Schlossnagle odds are he would have left us for A&M or Texas as soon as he could. And Dan McDonnell really hasn't done much that's impressive lately either. He's a good coach but he's probably getting past his prime now.

Hiring BOC was probably one of the smoothest hire processes we have ever had. Just really impressively done. Made Cohen look like amateur hour.

Polk wasn't hired from Miami. He was at Ga Southern. He took them to Omaha in '73.

I think we would've hired McMahon in 92 had Polk actually stepped down. I do think Pat wins one though. I think he kind of lost that fire when he left Old Dominion to come back here and be the HCIW.

Bringing Polk back was as Poor Ole as it gets. Paul Mainieri would have crawled on broken glass to Starkville to take our job in 01. Rick Jones at Tulane would have been a good hire. I think DVH was probably holding out for the Arky job but I think he would've taken the call. I have always wondered if we could've coaxed Ray Tanner into the job. He was still early into his USCe run at that point and I think he would've moved. Saying all that, to Ron's credit he had revitalized UGA in very short order and had them in the CWS in Year 2. It was Poor Ole but no one batted an eye at it at that time because it looked like he had become revitalized at UGA.

The Cohen thing is still the wildest thing. To this day there's rumors that Larry Templeton was working behind the scenes with Polk to get Raffo the job. I know of 4 coaches (Corbin, Casey, Cohen, and Dave Serrano) that we were after that Polk personally called and asked them to not take the job. He said the fan support wouldn't be there for them. An interesting twist is that I know there was some initial interest with Dan McDonnell but he didn't want to coach against Bianco every year. That would've brought Lem here as an asst.

On Gary, he only came with the caveat that he would not be named interim. That was a nonstarter. He was tired of being a HC. The Kentucky thing had soured him on ever being a HC again. We just didn't have many options that late in the offseason and Cohen had pitched Cann the job in August. We had Cann hired before Cohen even got the AD job because he was done being the baseball coach. People still don't believe me when I say that but whether John Cohen got the AD job or not, he was not going to be our HC in 2017. There was some initial discussion with Butch but he had just gotten to Auburn and didn't want to leave that early.

Lemonis was pitched by Dan McDonnell after he turned us down the second time. He turned us down the first time, we zeroed in on Schloss and then had to reverse course and went back to Dan. That's when he pitched Lemonis. We had some early conversations with Tim Tadlock as well.

The O'Conner hiring process seems smooth because Selmon learned a lot from the Lebby hiring and our baseball people learned a lot of what not to do when Cohen hired Lemonis.

[Homedawg]

Polk wasn't hired from Miami. He was at Ga Southern. He took them to Omaha in '73.

I think we would've hired McMahon in 92 had Polk actually stepped down. I do think Pat wins one though. I think he kind of lost that fire when he left Old Dominion to come back here and be the HCIW.

Bringing Polk back was as Poor Ole as it gets. Paul Mainieri would have crawled on broken glass to Starkville to take our job in 01. Rick Jones at Tulane would have been a good hire. I think DVH was probably holding out for the Arky job but I think he would've taken the call. I have always wondered if we could've coaxed Ray Tanner into the job. He was still early into his USCe run at that point and I think he would've moved. Saying all that, to Ron's credit he had revitalized UGA in very short order and had them in the CWS in Year 2. It was Poor Ole but no one batted an eye at it at that time because it looked like he had become revitalized at UGA.

The Cohen thing is still the wildest thing. To this day there's rumors that Larry Templeton was working behind the scenes with Polk to get Raffo the job. I know of 4 coaches (Corbin, Casey, Cohen, and Dave Serrano) that we were after that Polk personally called and asked them to not take the job. He said the fan support wouldn't be there for them. An interesting twist is that I know there was some initial interest with Dan McDonnell but he didn't want to coach against Bianco every year. That would've brought Lem here as an asst.

On Gary, he only came with the caveat that he would not be named interim. That was a nonstarter. He was tired of being a HC. The Kentucky thing had soured him on ever being a HC again. We just didn't have many options that late in the offseason and Cohen had pitched Cann the job in August. We had Cann hired before Cohen even got the AD job because he was done being the baseball coach. People still don't believe me when I say that but whether John Cohen got the AD job or not, he was not going to be our HC in 2017. There was some initial discussion with Butch but he had just gotten to Auburn and didn't want to leave that early.

Lemonis was pitched by Dan McDonnell after he turned us down the second time. He turned us down the first time, we zeroed in on Schloss and then had to reverse course and went back to Dan. That's when he pitched Lemonis. We had some early conversations with Tim Tadlock as well.

The O'Conner hiring process seems smooth because Selmon learned a lot from the Lebby hiring and our baseball people learned a lot of what not to do when Cohen hired Lemonis.

The O'connor process went like it did for 2 reasons. 1, the president's office and others said we aren't going cheap in baseball. Otherwise, Selmon was absolutely going the cheap route, wo question. 2, perfect timing for oak to leave UVA, along w our job being a premeir job.
With all that said, Selmon still deserves some credit for actually closing on Oak. He did. So i'll give him his due.

[Todd4State]

Polk wasn't hired from Miami. He was at Ga Southern. He took them to Omaha in '73.

I think we would've hired McMahon in 92 had Polk actually stepped down. I do think Pat wins one though. I think he kind of lost that fire when he left Old Dominion to come back here and be the HCIW.

Bringing Polk back was as Poor Ole as it gets. Paul Mainieri would have crawled on broken glass to Starkville to take our job in 01. Rick Jones at Tulane would have been a good hire. I think DVH was probably holding out for the Arky job but I think he would've taken the call. I have always wondered if we could've coaxed Ray Tanner into the job. He was still early into his USCe run at that point and I think he would've moved. Saying all that, to Ron's credit he had revitalized UGA in very short order and had them in the CWS in Year 2. It was Poor Ole but no one batted an eye at it at that time because it looked like he had become revitalized at UGA.

The Cohen thing is still the wildest thing. To this day there's rumors that Larry Templeton was working behind the scenes with Polk to get Raffo the job. I know of 4 coaches (Corbin, Casey, Cohen, and Dave Serrano) that we were after that Polk personally called and asked them to not take the job. He said the fan support wouldn't be there for them. An interesting twist is that I know there was some initial interest with Dan McDonnell but he didn't want to coach against Bianco every year. That would've brought Lem here as an asst.

On Gary, he only came with the caveat that he would not be named interim. That was a nonstarter. He was tired of being a HC. The Kentucky thing had soured him on ever being a HC again. We just didn't have many options that late in the offseason and Cohen had pitched Cann the job in August. We had Cann hired before Cohen even got the AD job because he was done being the baseball coach. People still don't believe me when I say that but whether John Cohen got the AD job or not, he was not going to be our HC in 2017. There was some initial discussion with Butch but he had just gotten to Auburn and didn't want to leave that early.

Lemonis was pitched by Dan McDonnell after he turned us down the second time. He turned us down the first time, we zeroed in on Schloss and then had to reverse course and went back to Dan. That's when he pitched Lemonis. We had some early conversations with Tim Tadlock as well.

The O'Conner hiring process seems smooth because Selmon learned a lot from the Lebby hiring and our baseball people learned a lot of what not to do when Cohen hired Lemonis.

Polk was at Miami for an offseason. What happened was he left Georgia Southern at the end of 1975 because they weren't willing to support the program even though he took them to Omaha. We still had Bragan at that point. Polk takes an assistant job at Miami with Ron Fraser after the 1975 season ended. Bragan takes a job with the Brewers I think in October or November of that year and after he left we hired Ron Polk from Miami.

I disagree about Pat McMahon winning a NC here. But that's just a personal opinion. It's interesting because Raffo was the hitting coach when he was at MSU but when he was at Florida he had Gary Henderson as his pitching coach who was elite at that time and he had John Cohen as his hitting coach. I feel like Pat was too focused on pitching when it comes to recruiting and it hurt us offensively some but at the same time he probably was stuck with Raffo who honestly never really impressed me as a hitting coach under McMahon and Polk.

One thing that pissed me off about the whole Polk 2 hire was LT basically acted like bringing Polk back was the only real option. Polk was never going to be as focused as he needed to be to win a NC at MSU when he came back. He was already trying to focus on saving college baseball and that happened even before he came back to MSU. I think Manieri and Rick Jones would have taken the job. Ray Tanner? I doubt it. South Carolina is a borderline blueblood and he had everything he needed and was on the cusp of winning National Titles there. Would have been an impressive pull. I'm not sure but they may have had Founder's Park on the docket around that time as well. South Carolina should be much better than they are right now in baseball. They've literally made four bad hires in a row.

[Todd4State]

The O'connor process went like it did for 2 reasons. 1, the president's office and others said we aren't going cheap in baseball. Otherwise, Selmon was absolutely going the cheap route, wo question. 2, perfect timing for oak to leave UVA, along w our job being a premeir job.
With all that said, Selmon still deserves some credit for actually closing on Oak. He did. So i'll give him his due.

It really was a perfect storm. BOC had turned down A&M a year or two before we offered. And in hindsight we should have maybe hired Vitello, but his profile was way too similar to Cann's. No way we would have taken the chance on that. And it would have been interesting to see how our fans would have reacted to our players acting like Tennessee.

The other interesting thing is we still may have ended up with BOC anyway because Vitello would have gone to MLB and we would have had an opening. Or we would be going with Elander right now.

[Todd4State]

And then BOC will retire. It's just our luck...

I'd be surprised. He is 54 right now and if this works out like I think it will- I suspect he will be at MSU at least 10 years if not more. Right now he is essentially in his prime as a coach.

But as we have seen anything can happen.

[StarkVegasSteve]

It really was a perfect storm. BOC had turned down A&M a year or two before we offered. And in hindsight we should have maybe hired Vitello, but his profile was way too similar to Cann's. No way we would have taken the chance on that. And it would have been interesting to see how our fans would have reacted to our players acting like Tennessee.

The other interesting thing is we still may have ended up with BOC anyway because Vitello would have gone to MLB and we would have had an opening. Or we would be going with Elander right now.

There's a Vitello story for another time. We probably could've had him had we wanted him. But Cohen had his eyes set on Cannizarro. And honestly, we made the right choice FOR THAT TIME. Cann took a team with very little talent and a ton of injuries to the Supers. He and Vitello would've been fun to watch coach against each other. There would've been some altercations if I had to guess.

[Coach34]

The other interesting thing is we still may have ended up with BOC anyway because Vitello would have gone to MLB and we would have had an opening. Or we would be going with Elander right now.

Word been leaking out that one of the reasons Vitello left was because of money Tenn was funneling to girl's basketball instead of baseball.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Word been leaking out that one of the reasons Vitello left was because of money Tenn was funneling to girl's basketball instead of baseball.

And those reports are correct. Vitello went to Danny White multiple times asking for more money. He'd be promised it and then he'd never get it. It's a little similar to O'Conner and how we got him. Unfulfilled promises.