Dear Tommy Raffo...

[woofdwoof]

<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Tommy,

Please take the high road, show some class and ride off into the night with a good ole' fashion "no comment."

and DON'T EVER entertain the futile gall of another ex-coach who by his comments tonight has symbolically flashed us his privates, shown us his ***, regurgitated his threats and in one night has damaged and wiped away any fond memories of being a winner or champion by completely and utterly losing his [17] ing mind.
</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">
</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Sincerely,</p><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">WOOF !</span>

 

[Eureka Dog]

As much as he has criticized Byrne, today, Polk should have thought through his plan to publicly "force" MSU into hiring Raffo to succeed him.

Does anyone else suspect Polk knows, deep down in his heart, that he messed up by not resigning last year? He could have gone out on top and LT would have immediately named Raffo as the new HC.</p>

 

[woofdwoof]

By these comments tonight, Polk has "Woody Hayes-ed" the great memories straight down the crapper.

 

[VinceVega70]

If LT were still AD, Raffo would have the HC job. Polk had that sway over LT.
Years go by and Polk had the gall (no surprise) to promise Tommy the job when he retires. As long as LT is AD, it's a done deal. Polk's legend looms large and his ego grows. Delusions are born and flourish. He becomes marginalized by his own views and his own egotism.
Fast forward, Foglesong makes his masterful move and fires LT, and we get Greg Byrne, a man with experience in several athletic departments (as opposed to LT), who knows how to conduct a coaching hire and who has vision far beyond the smalltime politics of Polk and LT. Raffo really never has a shot at that point. The most qualified guy available is hired... John Cohen.

I feel sorry for Tommy, but in the end he has to know he doesn't have the resume for this job (yet) and Polk did him a grave disservice by not encouraging him to get a smaller HC job somewhere earlier in order to build his resume.

Another way Polk screwed him is by hanging around an extra year. If Polk retires last year, LT would have hired Tommy. No doubt.

 

[BewareOfMSUDawg]

Raffo screwed himself in this whole deal. He should've ventured out and established himself somewhere else. If he did that, then maybe it would be him being announced as our new HC today instead of Cohen.

Being his own man is much better than riding someone else's coattails.

 

[Todd4State]

didn't expect this "young AD who doesn't know anything about baseball" to stand up to him, is what it comes down to. I bet Polk probably figured that either the cigar boys would run Byrne off before he even started or that Byrne would just defer to LT or him to make the decision.

I think that Polk probably regrets not stepping down in some ways and in others he doesn't. Going to Omaha last year put him back in good graces with enough of our fans that he was safe from criticism. So he got his ego stroked all off season, and then I think what happened was the season started, and our pitching staff completely fell apart. About a week or two into the season, we have "practice gate" where the NCAA started investigating Polk. I think Ron at that point figured it was some of our fans trying to get him fired, and I think he also realized that our team was very, very bad. So, I think he made the decision to see what happened during the Ole Miss series. If we had won that series, I believe he might have been more inclined to not retire, because made enough sheep happy with him to stave off the critics for a little while. Of course, we lost, and aside from Bowen pitching a near no-hitter, looked horrible. So, I think Polk decided to go ahead and retire because he was afraid of possibly being fired. By retiring, he could still get gifts from people and he could try to keep his promise to Raffo. Retiring this year was the only way that he could possibly stay around and get his ego stroked, whereas if he tried to stick it out, he would go out a loser without a Buick.

But I think part of the reason why Polk is acting like an *** is several-fold. I think he kind of looks at Cohen as a little bit of an outsider because he played at Birmingham-Southern and then came in, plus I don't think Polk liked his competitive attitude. Ron wanted a bunch of Burke Masters, Jon Hardens, and Jeremy Jackson's. He always wanted clean-cut, nice players, and Cohen is MSU's version of Lenny Dykstra without the alcohol abuse. Then you have the fact that he was McMahon's staff at Florida, and I think Polk resents Pat because of how he left, and I think he lumps Cohen into the McMahon clan. I think Polk also doesn't like the way Cohen's teams play with emotion, and I think he really resents the fact that our fans like the way Cohen's teams play.

So, I really think Polk's antics have more to do with Cohen getting the job rather than Raffo not getting the job. He won't come out and say it, but it's probably the truth. I don't think he would be acting this way if Steve Smith were named the HC. </p>