Baseball coach conspiracy theory

[Todd4State]

Here's a thought- what if Cohen is really only a convenient distraction for someone else?

My theory: Byrne wants to hire Virginia's Brian O'Conner.

OK, here it goes- Cohen is an almost too obvious choice. Byrne has been around Polk long enough to know about his antics, and knew that if he said he was going to do the National Search thing, that Polk would pick Raffo and discourage Cohen.

Byrne has said that his list is derived from his "college baseball contacts". That could be anyone from Polk to Pat Casey. I suspect that he asked Pat Casey who he would recommend to build a program at an SEC school. Now, Oregon State has played Virginia twice in Regionals during O'Conner's career. O'Conner has a very impressive resume- he has won 40 games or more every year at Virginia. He has coached Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds there, and has also coached Brad Lidge at Notre Dame. He was the pitching coach at ND when Manieri brought his team to Starkville in 2000. So, he knows a little bit about us. He has built a very good program at Virginia in terms of attendance and things like that at an ACC school. I could definately see Casey recommending him to us, considering what he has done at Virginia in FOUR years.

So, while Polk is doing his run around with his boy Raffo and discouraging Cohen, Byrne might be trying to land O'Conner, who Polk would probably never suspect since he has no ties to him whatsoever. And I wouldn't be surprised if he comes if we offer.

 

[bulldogcountry1]

but i know enough to say he's yet another coach who is more qualified than raffo.

 

[cowbell9]

nm

 

[Stormrider81]

I really think hiring Byrne will end up being one of the best moves this athletic department has ever had.

 

[futaba.79]

wouldn't be please to lose his coach to the school that wouldn't sign his son. He might even throw in some change to keep it from happening.

 

[tossedoff]

Grisham might recommend O'Conner for just that reason. I hope Grisham was one of the first calls that Byrne made when he was named AD. Talk about a big money booster.

 

[8dog]

Patty Mac wouldn't sign his son so I don't know if that's all that relevant.

 

[futaba.79]

but if I had played a significant role in building a program from scratch, I might be inclined to help it keep its coach. </p>

And you're right, Mac wouldn't sign his kid, and LT wouldn't force him to - one of the stupidest moves in recent MSU sports history. The whole idiotic episode should be used in the Communication dept's PR Case Studies class. </p>

 

[studentdawg87]

never heard of this whats the deal

 

[8dog]

so he went to virginia and grisham gave a ton of money to help build a new stadium and get serious about baseball. They have now hosted regionals 3 of the last 4 years.

 

[graddawg]

give a boatload of money to UVA, he also pulled most of his support from our program. As someone said, biggest <17> up by our athletic department in recent memory, and that's saying a lot. Hell, all the kid wanted was a book scholly.

 

[Coastdog28]

3-4 million?? Seems like a fair deal to me. What a bunch of <17ing> idiots. I really think this board could run the athletic program better.

 

[MSUCostanza]

has some unintentional comedy in it.

I recall some posters absolutely livid that Stansbury would let Iupe walk-on because he wasn't any good.

 

[patdog]

I don't know the Iupe kid personally. But I do know he's from a good family, and a loyal MSU family for a long time. I never understood why some posters hated him so much, especially when it was pretty clear that the players liked him.</p>

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

wrong conclusion from your post, however, there is a huge difference between the Iupe kid and the Grisham kid when you dump both of them into the "let them be on the team because his family gives a lot of money." bucket.

Now, I don't have a problem at all with Iupe being on the team. The players like him, and he is there for practice purposes -- nothing else. But, I think everyone thinks that his Dad is a "cigar boy." Now, perhaps he has a lot of influence or something. But, they are not huge donors to the program. Their donor level would not place them in the elite group. So, there is a huge difference in those two kids in that regard.

 

[MSUCostanza]

Now, I don't have a problem at all with Iupe being on the team. The players like him, and he is there for practice purposes -- nothing else. But, I think everyone thinks that his Dad is a "cigar boy." Now, perhaps he has a lot of influence or something. But, they are not huge donors to the program.

No, but the argument posed on here was, "His daddy got him on the team! He sucks! He shouldn't have gotten a free walk-on! Somebody else should've gotten that spot that REALLY EARNED IT!" That's what I was alluding to, not necessarily the level of donations. It's comical that everyone on here now is ok with giving a ****** baseball player SCHOLARSHIP MONEY (not a walk-on) because Dad is wealthy, but when Stansbury gives a loyal MSU family kid a walk-on spot, some people freak out. I'm pretty sure ppl were freaking out because it was Stansbury doing it. That's what I'm hinting at.

Obviously, Grisham has a crapload more money to donate than the Iupe family. However, on that note, the Iupes are probably a lot more loyal a MSU family than John Grisham.

 

[patdog]

the Iupes are probably a lot more loyal a MSU family than John Grisham.

There ain't no doubt about that. I don't think Grisham is very loyal to MSU at all. And I don't think that started when his son didn't get the scholarship.</p>

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

with selling a scholarship for a lot of money, but not OK with giving a spot on the team to someone because their family used to sell maroon blazers. I don't know. I'm OK with both of them.

 

[studentdawg87]

you can go to the Sanderson Center and see a ton basketball players who are from loyal MSU families and are better at basketball than Iupe.

 

[williecunningham]

you can go to the Sanderson Center and see a ton basketball players who are from loyal MSU families and are better at basketball than Iupe.

</p>Not only that, if you look close enough you can see Bulldog Backer peeking around the corner taking roll.

 

[Todd4State]

If Grisham's son got shafted by Pat, that also means shafted by LT AND guess who was on Pat's staff at that time? That's right- Raffo.

Maybe a chance to screw LT and Raffo who was doing some of the recruiting for MSU at that time. What goes around comes around.

Maybe Grisham could write a book about all of this one day.