i figured raffo would have surfaced by now

[bulldogcountry1]

having spoken to the media or taken another job. did he leave the country?

 

[bulldogcountry1]

having spoken to the media or taken another job. did he leave the country?

 

[Todd4State]

I hate piling onto the guy, but the way he has handled this situation affirms that we made the right decision to not hire him.

What would he have done when all of our fans are pissed off at him for not winning? Get in a closet and hide?

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

by talking to the media at this point. He probably has a better grasp of that fact than his ex-boss.

First of all, he probably is a good candidate for a good job out there somewhere. And keeping his cool and making sure he is sure of his words probably add to his resume at this point.

 

[Paper Dog]

There is nothing to say

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

Are you saying that his failure to offer a lot of commentary is bad? I would be the first one to say we shouldn't have hired Cohen. But, not saying something here would seem to be a feather in his cap to me.

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

beneficial he could say here. So, I agree with you.

 

[patdog]

he implies that he approves of them at least on some level. I think he should have just made a short statement to one of the reporters who called him saying that he's disappointed but that Cohen is a great coach and he wishes him and MSU well.

 

[Todd4State]

is after a week he should be able to say something like "I really wanted the MSU job, but I understand the business of the game and wish Coach Cohen well. In the meantime, I am actively seeking other employment opportunities."

From what I understand, he is still in hiding. If that's how he has to handle this situation, that's fine, but I would rather our HC be able to handle adversity a little bit better. I've always kind of felt that Raffo was too sensitive to be a HC, but he is a good follower. I really don't think he is suited to be a HC anywhere, if you want the honest truth. He may prove me wrong, but there are certainly some red flags there.

Maybe he will land the Arkansas State job now that Kessinger has left, who knows?</p>

 

[DerHntr]

i just don't see how he could distance himself from polk's words. polk was doing everything, albeit badly, he could to help raffo get the job. coming out and saying something against that isn't the right way to go in my opinion. now doing this... "saying that he's disappointed but that Cohen is a great coach and he wishes him and MSU well"..... i agree with and if this is what you meant by distancing himself then i agree.

i don't agree that his silence says he agrees with everything from polk. it says to me that he is getting on with the business of securing a job and giving the media a chance to twist his statements is not an option right now. speaking to the press will not help him but it could hurt him if taken wrong or if he says the wrong thing. i think once he lands a job then he will speak to the press about MSU and no sooner.

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

age has produced an environment where everyone with a microphone feels the need to say something. A lot of the time, no comment is a wise way to go.

 

[coursesuper]

not a damn thing. He wanted the gig really badly and now he is unemployed, I've been there and it sucks. So put yourself in his shoes just once.

 

[DerHntr]

there is definitely a time and place for everything. once he takes a job he will likely be in some sort of press conference situation (if it is a head coach job). someone will ask him about not getting the MSU job. i figure that is when everyone who is dying for a quote from the guy will get what they want.

 

[SnakePlissken]

he should simply say that he supports John and wishes him the best. He doesn't have to do a Q&A session but his lack of public support lends credence to the fact that he is having a hard time dealing with an adverse situation. I am beginning to think that it was more about him and not the program. Maybe he spent too much time around Polk and now he feels more important than the program itself?

If Raffo were some 'Joe" off the street I could care less if he never spoke up. But since he & John were best friends, and played together, you would think there should be some professional support from Raffo even if he was pissed that he didn't get the job. Cohen didn't offer the job to himself. What if the roles were reversed? Do you think Cohen would ignore Raffo and not have a supporting word for the media had he not been offered the job?

 

[DerHntr]

lends credence to the fact that he is having a hard time dealing with an adverse situation. I am beginning to think that it was more about him and not the program. Maybe he spent too much time around Polk and now he feels more important than the program itself?

you came up with all of this just by him not wanting to address the media?

What if the roles were reversed? Do you think Cohen would ignore Raffo and not have a supporting word for the media had he not been offered the job?

why in the world would Cohen have addressed the media about not getting a job offer from MSU when he was secure in his job at UK?

 

[patdog]

As long as Polk is running mouth like a raving lunatic to the press in Raffo's behalf and Raffo isn't saying one word, he implies that Polk is speaking for him since Polk is the only one who's speaking for him. I'm not suggesting he come out and publicly say that Polk is way out of line. But if he just says the simple things I suggested, that would show that Polk is speaking for Polk and Raffo is speaking for Raffo. And if what Raffo says isn't inflammatory, then that distances him from what Polk has said.

Edited to add that I'm in no way saying Raffo should have a press conference or anything. Just that I think he would have been wise to spend 2 minutes talking to one of the reporters who has called him.

 

[Todd4State]

that gambled and lost. I'm sure when the job was promised to him and LT was in charge, it was probably a pretty good gamble, but there were circumstances that he couldn't have predicted- namely MSU hiring an AD with the balls to stand up to Polk.

Plus, this is the coaching profession that we are talking about. If you get fired as a coach, it doesn't necessarily mean that you were bad, or did something very wrong or bad like, say an engineering job, it just means that the team that you were associated with wanted to go a different direction. The same thing applies here. It's the business, and of course MSU had been the exception to the rule because our people in charge always had this fascination with making sure that everyone was happy and left on good terms, and heck we even went as far as to make it look like people went out on their own terms even when they didn't- see Richard Williams and Jackie.

My uncle used to be a baseball coach, and he has been fired no fewer than three times, and he never took it personally. He always just moved on to a different organization. It was never really a big deal when it happened, and he usually had two or three teams trying to get him, and he just always understood that was the business and it wasn't personal.

 

[SnakePlissken]

why in the world would Cohen have addressed the media about not getting a job offer from MSU when he was secure in his job at UK?

If the Kentucky or Mississippi media HAD asked him the question do you think he would have avoided it? From what I understand, Raffo has not been able to be found for the media to talk to him. Why do you think Raffo hasn't been available for comment?
</p>

 

[DerHntr]

he hasn't been available for comment because he probably doesn't feel the need to take a chance in making it worse (my opinion of course). Polk did enough talking for everyone involved. it was ugly, ridiculous, and in very very poor taste...to the point that it got national media attention.

the guy didn't get his dream job which I believe, along with many others, that he was promised. it has to be one hell of a hard pill to swallow. and i realize that he took the chance by being in an industry that has so much publicity but i agree with the idea that sometimes things are better left alone.

i think he went through 3 months of hell because of ron polk's dumb ***. his name was thrown around on national news websites. it had to be extremely embarrassing and i wouldn't want to talk to a reporter either. i think i am going to give him a pass on this one. i see your point and i understand it to an extent, but i just don't agree.

 

[Todd4State]

i think he went through 3 months of hell because of ron polk's dumb ***. his name was thrown around on national news websites. it had to be extremely embarrassing and i wouldn't want to talk to a reporter either.

That it didn't have to be that way. He could have stopped it, although I think the reason he didn't was because Raffo and Polk had an agenda and were trying to carry it out. Raffo should have at least seen it was a possibility that he wouldn't get hired as soon as Byrne announced that we were doing a national search. He had to have known that Byrne had ties to Casey and Cohen, among others. Raffo made the mistake of putting all of his chips on the cigar boys and Polk's croonies to carry him through, along with Polk sabotaging the search. What he should have done was at least have a back up plan in case Byrne was able to get someone else.

I think that one reason why he is being quiet is because he probably doesn't know what to do. There probably aren't any offers on the table, at least right now, although that could very well change. I wouldn't be shocked if Raffo is selling cars with DeLois Price or is working for some cigar boy in the PR dept. while giving the cigar boy's son private lessons on the weekend at this time next year. He is also probably upset at the MSU nation because we basically begged Cohen to come be our coach while we told him and Polk to take a hike. He did basically spend almost his entire baseball career at MSU, so I'm sure he feels like we are ungrateful for what he has done, which I'm sure he feels like is a lot in his mind- and he did do pretty well overall as a hitting coach. We could have certainly done worse, probably.

That said, we had to do what was best for us, which in my opinion was hire Cohen.

 

[DerHntr]

hiring cohen was clearly the best choice. raffo may not have stopped the bleeding because he was doing what he had been doing for years...listening to polk rather than speaking up.

didn't he come out and say in the press that a national search was a good idea? or something like that? i think it was the last thing we have heard from raffo.

either way we know have the best coach and i don't really care if i never hear raffo say anything about the situation. i wish him the best and am looking forward to seeing what cohen can do with our program.

 

[jwbigcreek]

but what was Raffo supposed to do (this year) after staying here so long? He should have considered the possibility of needing some HC experience a few years back. I say that at least he ain't been an *** like Polk. I'm hoping he gets a good asst. job at a big schoold or a HC job at a small school. If the Aubs were to hire Shoop, he might be in line for the UAB job. Anyone heard anything about who Aub might be looking at? A guy over on the pasture (who is usually pretty factual) said that the Troy coach claimed the job was his if he wanted it (but that was 2-3 weeks ago).</p>

 

[bulldogcountry1]

i'm not saying he should address polk's behavior. i would even advise against that. as hurt as i'm sure he was, a couple days after cohen accepted, all he had to do was say something like: "i want to wish john the best. i know he'll do a great job. i want to thank the bulldog family for many memorable years as a player and coach, and i look forward to starting a new chapter in my life." yeah, it would have been b.s., but that's what you have to do.

if i were an AD somewhere looking for a coach, that would a have went a long way with me. i'm sure there's much more going on that we will never know about, but some sort of classy public statement would have meant a lot more than just disappearing. i know he was upset, but you can't tell me he was all that surprised in the end.

poor advice cost him the msu job. he needs to listen to some different people befoer the hole gets deeper. i won't say this is why he shouldn't have got the job, but it's yet another reason why i don't think he had the stones to run our program.

 

[patdog]

he hasn't been available for comment because he probably doesn't feel the need to take a chance in making it worse (my opinion of course). Polk did enough talking for everyone involved. it was ugly, ridiculous, and in very very poor taste...to the point that it got national media attention.

How could telling a reporter that Cohen is a good coach and he wishes him well possibly make the situation worse? Right now, since no one else has spoken for Raffo, the only assumption we're left with is that Polk was speaking for Raffo. And that's not good. </p>

 

[Ford76]

I did not want to see Raffo get the job. Having said that, he is a fellow MSU alum and coached here for 15+ years. He obviously wanted this job very badly. He has had it snatched out from under him and has to start over somewhere. Not talking yet might be the best thing for him. As of right now, he is unemployed and has no idea where he will be come next February for the start of the baseball season or if he will have a position. So until that happens, it has to be the number one priority for him. I don't know how much an assistant makes for college baseball makes, but I am sure it isn't quite what one makes for the other two big sports. Which means, he might not be sitting on a huge pile of cash. If or when he gets a new job and has had time to get over being uprooted from a place that he has been for over two decades, he may be ready to comment on the new coach.