Cohen the #1 choice?

[SanfordRJones]

If 2006 had never happened, would John Cohen's name even be mentioned in the coaching search? Or, if he hadn't gone to Mississippi State? While he has a decent record and had a major turnaround in '06, I'm not sure why he is the de facto #1 candidate, especially considering the threads about how we should be able to attract the best candidates in college baseball. Cohen is young, fiery, and is obviously a great hitting coach, but is he really the best choice to take over our program besides being an alum and the opposite of Polk with regard to age, passion, and hitting approach?

If we're really a school that can attract the best coaches in the nation, why wouldn't our list have Pat Murphy, George Horton, Pat Casey or Mike Fox at the top of it? All of these guys have been to the CWS multiple times, and Casey and Horton have won it. Is it delusional to think any of these guys would leave their current situations? Maybe so, but the worst they can do is say no. But if we really are a school that can attract anyone, I'd rather have one of these guys over a coach who's had one great season where his team got beat in the regional, followed by another decent year where his team didn't even go to a regional.

 

[maroonmania]

that would be interested in MSU to know for sure if he should be #1 but there is no question Cohen is a FAR superior candidate to Raffo in every way. Anyone who can win an SEC title at KY has done something pretty amazing. Pretty equivalent to Kentucky somehow winning an SEC football title. Polk himself hasn't won an SEC title at MSU since like 1989. The biggest knock to me on Raffo is that just giving him the job now means that MSU is satisfied with the present direction of the program and I believe the ONLY folks with that attitude are the ones with their heads so far up Ron Polk's rear that they will never see any fault in anything he's running anyway.

 

[patdog]

But even without 2006, he would be a good candidate. He had a lot of success at Northwestern State and then went to Florida and helped take them to the CWS (Pat M. got fired for what he did after Cohen left) and has been competitive in the SEC at Kentucky (the Vandy football analogy that keeps getting tossed around is right on the money). He's a very good coach. He may or may not be the best coach for us in 2009, but we could do a lot worse, even if we don't hire Raffo.

 

[SanfordRJones]

...wasn't anywhere in my post. I named what I think are the best candidates in America. Raffo has no business in this discussion, despite Polk's opinion. I'm asking why Cohen is the de facto #1 choice and not these guys, not whether Cohen is better than Raffo. Cohen won the SEC. Two of the 4 people I listed have won the CWS. All 4 of them have gotten 2 rounds farther than Cohen (i.e. the CWS) multiple times.

 

[maroonmania]

by saying I personally just don't know enough about each individual candidate out there to know if Cohen really should be our Number 1 target.

 

[SoxFan343]

LSU has a better pgrogram. They have more money, better history, building a brand new park, all that stuff. The got a quality coach, but the didn't get one of the top names in the nation. If LSU can't do it, MSU isn't going to do it either.

Horton not only turned down LSU, hes already signed with Oregon to be their coach next season. Hes not going to leave there before he ever coaches a game. As for Casey and Fox, if you think you're going to get the coaches of the two time defending national champs and the two time national runner up, then your dreaming. Murphy is being investigated by the NCAA, is a grade A ******* and has been at Arizona State for years. If I am not mistaken, he also turned down LSU. Tim Corbin even turned down LSU.

Cohen is a guy you could get. He is a good young coach who could come in and rebuild your program. He has a history with you school, so their is some loyalty there. Your not getting any of the 4 guys you mentioned. I'm sorry, your just not.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

so you have a point

 

[SanfordRJones]

...it might be delusional to think we can get them. Personally, I wouldn't put any money on being able to get any of them. However, to go from them to a guy who has never won a regional seems like a huge drop. My point is, why should we settle for someone who, as patdog said, we could do a lot worse than when the conventional wisdom is that MSU is one of the best jobs in college baseball?

I'm not disparaging Cohen. He is a good coach. But why is everyone in such a frenzy over him? I think it's because he's one of us and he's perceived as the opposite of Polk circa 2008. I don't think those are good enough reasons to automatically move him to the top of the list, and hopefully, we'll actually have a national search. If the conventional wisdom about being head coach at MSU is correct, I will be surprised if Cohen is the best candidate to come out of a true national search.

 

[nemsdawg]

coaches than say football or even an extent basketball. For example Les Miles wins a national championship at LSU, is he the best current coach, or even top 5, who knows. Is Croom a better coach than Miles, who knows, Croom will never have the players Miles has at LSU. In baseball I think it is easier to find the better coaches because of the number of games played, developing players, managing skills, and obviously running the foster parent program <sarcasm>. I do think Cohen is one of the top coaches in the nation. He did win the SEC a few years ago. In college baseball you cant "hide" your inability to coach with a running back or quarterback you actually have to develop these guys to perform. So when you are throwing the names Casey, Murphy, Horton, etc. those guys have been in the business a long time and have earned respect it will eventually happen for Cohen, I believe. I believe it is easier to win at almost any school in baseball than say football or basketball.

 

[Todd4State]

are West Coast guys. That as much as anything was a big reason why a lot of them didn't take the LSU job.

Fox is a UNC alum. I doubt he would leave for anyone.

 

[Todd4State]

Regardless of where Cohen went to school, he would be a great pick for us. He has won not just at UK, but also at Missouri, and Northwestern State. So, he has been able to win in two of the better baseball conferences in America, and Mizzou needed to be rebuilt, you've heard UK vs Vandy football analogies, and well, Northwestern State needs no explanation. He has also been a successful hitting coach in the SEC at UF as well.

He is one of the most respected coaches in the country right now. Also, if I recall he was a candidate last time, except for the fact that Polk demanded his job back, and Cohen would have been a great choice then, which was before UK and all that.

The fact that he went to MSU and played for Polk is more convenient than anything else. Fact is, we have some idiots who think that we have to hire Ron's boys to keep the program going. Exhibit A- KB21. Cohen would appease them which would give Byrne a few less headaches, and at the same time satisfy people who have a brain like us. Also, he is relatively young, energetic and is a pretty good recruiter.

There are a lot of good candidates that I think we could realistically get and should talk to, and most don't have ties to MSU or Polk- McDonnell, Rick Jones, Manieri, and Kinneson for example.</p>

 

[nemsdawg]

Why these idiots want to continue what we have going is beyond me. I could understand if we were coming off a couple 50 win seasons, national championship, hell even an SEC championship, or even a freaking West championship. What are we doing that is so great? It i time for a major overhaul. Cohen is arguably the hottest young coach in the country, MSU ties, he was here when being here was cool. </p>

 

[Todd4State]

is that Polk has successfully brainwashed some of our fans (keyword without a brain) into believing that just going to a Regional is good enough. You also have some fans that would support MSU baseball/football/whatever sport if we had Hitler at the helm going 0-56 while herding up Jews and killing them. These are the people that think they are somehow doing good (at least in their mind) by showing up to watch crap. They make themselves believe that our players are good, and our losses are flukes, i.e. "That's baseball". They only believe what they want to, and that's that we are still the elite program in the SEC, Dudy-Noble is still the elite college baseball stadium in America, that Polk can win a NC and knows more about baseball than any of us have forgotten, that we still dominate Ole Miss in baseball despite tangible on the field results, and that our players are all like Burke Masters, Jon Harden, and Jeremy Jackson- they have nice girlfriends, make straight A's, go to class, don't smoke, drink anything other than Coca-Cola, cuss, and don't miss Sunday School ever- despite tangible evidence in the form of Johnathan Papelbon and Will Clark, and quite frankly common knowledge of anyone else that doesn't live under a rock while at MSU. These are the same people that want to fight you at one of our HOME football games for saying something negative after the third INT has been thrown to Craig Steltz. They're just kids after all.

But I will say this- IF we hire Cohen or McDonnell or whoever, they will quickly shift their allegiances to whoever that is, and probably say a lot of the same things that we are saying now. Deep down, they know what's going on- that's why a lot of them had a hissy fit about Paps at the First Pitch Banquet- but since they don't like the "real world" they have created their own "fantasy world" and they somehow to try to make it fit into the real world. To us, they come across as fools, and quite frankly they are.

 

[SanfordRJones]

I'm just not sold on Cohen being as great as everyone says he is. I think it's obvious that he can get results at the plate. But he's never had any success in the post-season as a head coach. I would rather our hire be someone who's taken a team to Omaha.

 

[Stormrider81]

Our fanbase won't be after a coach's head for just making it to Omaha. Smoke made it a couple of times, but LSU fans were ticked off that he didn't win it. We've never won a national title, and typically finish in the 5-8 range at the CWS. You make it to Omaha regularly at State and you're set. That's a huge difference in the attitude and expectations of both fanbases and would lead me to believe that us getting a coach is probably easier than LSU. A huge portion of their success is tied to one coach. We've been successful with several coaches at the helm over a long period of time.</p>

 

[SanfordRJones]

We also don't smell like corndogs.

...Sorry, couldn't resist.