I hear the stars are aligning for...
- Thread starter Xenomorph
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If this does happen, the key for Byrne would be to explain why - in detail - why Raffo was hired.
that could justify that hire. I mean, hell, if we are going to hire an asst, let's hire someone from a program that's worth a ****.
There is absolutely no justification I can think of that would satisfy me if we hired Raffo. I would simply have to think of new springtime hobbies.
No other univ in the country would even seriously consider Raffo if they were in our shoes.
There is absolutely no justification I can think of that would satisfy me if we hired Raffo. I would simply have to think of new springtime hobbies.
No other univ in the country would even seriously consider Raffo if they were in our shoes.
people would take the hire at face value and move on. With Raffo, I just see a lot of questions from our fanbase.
I agree DS....only the hiring of Raffo would completely melt away the support & fanbase that's still out there in limbo.
If practically anyone else is hired, he would get almost if not 100% backing. If it's Raffo, you will see tickets in the grandstand being available for purchase....Raffo is the one guy hardly anyone wants.
If practically anyone else is hired, he would get almost if not 100% backing. If it's Raffo, you will see tickets in the grandstand being available for purchase....Raffo is the one guy hardly anyone wants.
It continues to not sink in.......there are many people who support Tommy Raffo (including some money people, some faculty, some former players).....he has a lot of support from a lot of different areas
Personally, I don't want this hire......but he has a lot of people who matter on his side
Personally, I don't want this hire......but he has a lot of people who matter on his side
I am just shocked at Raffo having the percentage behind him that does
I thought it would be like less than 10 pct campus wide --- but I would put Raffo support in the 30 to 35 pct range, maybe higher
Again, not enough to make the hire - however, he has more support than I would have ever dreamed
I thought it would be like less than 10 pct campus wide --- but I would put Raffo support in the 30 to 35 pct range, maybe higher
Again, not enough to make the hire - however, he has more support than I would have ever dreamed
Not me. There are a lot of MSU fans who are just like LT. No initiative. No innovation. Protect our own no matter how incompetent they are. Perfectly happy with mediocre to bad results in athletics.Paper Dog said:
However, I believe there are also a lot of MSU fans who have been dying to see positive change in our athletic dept. This hire will go a long way towards seeing if that will happen.
fans are behind you, it's which fans are.
You get the right two or three in your corner and that trump the many that aren't. I think Raffo will get the job and he'll get all the support the admin can muster. And he'll get three years to produce. If by the third we aren't competing for SRs and such, we'll be debating who we should hire again.
You get the right two or three in your corner and that trump the many that aren't. I think Raffo will get the job and he'll get all the support the admin can muster. And he'll get three years to produce. If by the third we aren't competing for SRs and such, we'll be debating who we should hire again.
But I think the votes of the fans this year will go a long way to negate that. I'm sure that seeing only 2,000 fans on average for SEC baseball games this year has opened a lot of eyes. And the prospect of seeing 3 more years of the same has got to scare the crap of pretty much anybody.
If we hire Raffo, it will be because we get turned down by everyone else. As attractive as our program is, that could very well happen. Most people think that we revere Polk as a legend, and they don't know how most people feel.
Raffo would be similar to Orgeron in that no one would take the Ole Miss job, and they needed someone to be the coach. If they were completely honest with you, they would tell you that there was no way in hell that O was going to work out, but they needed someone, obviously.
Raffo similarly will fail, which again might be what it takes to wake up our dumbass fans, and then we will be going through this all over again.
Raffo would be similar to Orgeron in that no one would take the Ole Miss job, and they needed someone to be the coach. If they were completely honest with you, they would tell you that there was no way in hell that O was going to work out, but they needed someone, obviously.
Raffo similarly will fail, which again might be what it takes to wake up our dumbass fans, and then we will be going through this all over again.
Not to purposely turn this thread in a different direction or anything, but that isn't entirely true. Some of them were behind Orgeron. I never understood it. The same exact people that were behind Orgeron are the same exact people that say they don't pay attention to recruiting anymore. There are a few om posters on this board that don't pay attention to recruiting anymore, and they were enthralled by it 1 year ago.
Given we are MSU, the hiring of Raffo would not surprise me in the least. Only the fact we have a brand new AD gave me the hope that we might have the chance to actually hire someone with the qualifications and drive to inject some enthusiasm back into our baseball program anyway. A large majority of our fans are perfectly happy with mediocrity as long as a "nice", loyal MSU guy has the job. And several of the "money" guys are MUCH more concerned about the influence they have in who we hire than the quality of who we hire. Now even these fans aren't going to put up with seasons like this past one but winning 30+ games and just making the SEC and regional tournaments most years is plenty good enough. I personally will not spend any of my limited entertainment dollars on MSU baseball if Raffo is hired until he proves he is a competent coach. Right now he has no coaching track record and the area he was responsible for at MSU (hitting) has not exactly been a tremendous bright spot for most of the years he's been coaching. Also, if he's hired, I have to assume our recruiting will maintain about at its current level, since he does a large chunk of the recruiting now, which is absolutely not acceptable to me. No doubt this hire is going to tell us a lot about what kind of AD we've hired. Is he his own man or he just another agent for the MSU backroom power brokers? We may soon find out.
if no one takes the job? It's not his fault if no one will take it. He has done what we asked- a legit national search. Just because we do one doesn't mean that we will get who we want either.
where there is almost no way we will compete for Supers in 3 years. Next year will be a complete startover.
But in 3, 4, 5, 6 years when we go to look for a coach, Cohen will be entrenched in KY or somewhere else. I don't think this is Cohen's last shot at our job---its our last shot with him.
The program will be dead. But let's face reality--if we hire Tommy Raffo, he gets to stay as long as he wants. That's the MSU way.
But in 3, 4, 5, 6 years when we go to look for a coach, Cohen will be entrenched in KY or somewhere else. I don't think this is Cohen's last shot at our job---its our last shot with him.
The program will be dead. But let's face reality--if we hire Tommy Raffo, he gets to stay as long as he wants. That's the MSU way.
that the guys that we think are candidates may not come because of a variety of things. A lot of people thought that Bianco was a slam dunk to go to LSU a few years ago. I do think we have an attractive program, but the fact is a lot of people think that we revere Polk and they don't want to follow that- even though that perception is wrong.
Put it this way, would you rather follow Polk or Raffo as a coach, under the assumption that you think that people love Polk?
But to answer your question, yes, I definatly think we can do better than Raffo.
I can't wait for the good ol' boys to die.
Put it this way, would you rather follow Polk or Raffo as a coach, under the assumption that you think that people love Polk?
But to answer your question, yes, I definatly think we can do better than Raffo.
I can't wait for the good ol' boys to die.
that will take our job---an asst that has overseen a successful program. Not an asst that has overseen the demise and worst 7 year period in a storied program's history.
Here are coaches that were assts at good programs immediately before taking their current jobs:
Corbin, Cohen, Childers, Anderson, Horton (not current job but you get the point), O'Connor, McDonnell, O'Sullivan....
As I said above, no way we should have to hire an asst that has been an integral part of what can only be described, but for 2 weeks, as a disaster.
Here are coaches that were assts at good programs immediately before taking their current jobs:
Corbin, Cohen, Childers, Anderson, Horton (not current job but you get the point), O'Connor, McDonnell, O'Sullivan....
As I said above, no way we should have to hire an asst that has been an integral part of what can only be described, but for 2 weeks, as a disaster.
Hell, Cohen had Kentucky as a #1 seed and SEC champion in year 3. And as bad as MSU baseball is right now, it's better than Kentucky baseball was when Cohen took over.
As for Raffo staying as long as he wants if we hire him, I don't think that's true unless he can consistantly get us to a regional and win one every 5 years or so. However, if we do hire him and wind up firing him in 3-4 years, we'll be in a lot worse shape than we are now for finding the next coach. We won't be seen as that school with the great crowds. We'll be seen as that school that used to have great crowds. The baseball program won't be a revenue generator like it always has been and there won't be as much money to throw at a new coach.
As for Raffo staying as long as he wants if we hire him, I don't think that's true unless he can consistantly get us to a regional and win one every 5 years or so. However, if we do hire him and wind up firing him in 3-4 years, we'll be in a lot worse shape than we are now for finding the next coach. We won't be seen as that school with the great crowds. We'll be seen as that school that used to have great crowds. The baseball program won't be a revenue generator like it always has been and there won't be as much money to throw at a new coach.
I know there are other factors involved, but given the lengthy laundry list of qualified coaches that we've even knocked around here, I would find it hard to believe that you couldn't convince ANY of them to take the HC job at the school with the most rabid college baseball fanbase in the country. Heck, I'd rather have Mike Kinnison than Raffo and you are telling me he wouldn't take want to take a shot with MSU from over at Delta State?
Nobody can hire any coach they want to. But we can damn sure hire a good proven coach if we want to. To use your Bianco to LSU example, no LSU couldn't hire him even though they wanted to. But they were able to hire Manieri. If Raffo is hired, it won't be because we got turned down by everybody we went after. Because there are good, proven coaches out there who won't turn us down.
in another thread and was disagreed with but that's also the MSU I've come to know. If Raffo gets the job we will have to be an absolute bottom feeder in the SEC for several years before he would likely be on any kind of a hotseat. As you said, its the MSU way. We've always got a laundry list of excuses for any of our athletic programs ready to go if they underperform. Even in what's suppose to be OUR sport, baseball, the current inequities in scholarships has given our fans and athletic administrations a ready-made permanent excuse as to why we can't excel anymore. I also agree that even if Raffo doesn't pan out and in 3-4 years we are looking for a coach again that our attractiveness will be definitely be even that much more diminished for proven coaches because our glory days will be that much further behind us.
....and that's what scares me more than his lack of head coaching experience combined with past performances of teams he was the assistant on.
If we hire Raffo, I'll go to every game I can next year but unlike any other coaches coming in from outside, he would have next year and next year only to turn it around in my book.
If we hire Raffo, I'll go to every game I can next year but unlike any other coaches coming in from outside, he would have next year and next year only to turn it around in my book.
I've already heard second-hand that McNickle said we were going to be loaded. Now, is that fodder to be used later if he and Raffo aren't kept on and the new coach fails next year? I'm thinking that is exactly why it was said.
Yep and not only with Cohen. If we keep spiraling downward, to hell with facilities, fan support and tradition. The polish comes off the turd and all we'll be able to do is to hire an unproven assistant coach. Right now is the time to hire a premium coach of our choice. We can always promote one of the graduate assistants to head coach after Raffo retires in 15 years.
[b said:
A team doesn't go from 9-21 to "loaded" by losing its only legitimate pro prospect and All-American caliber player and signing a very average 5 player recruiting class. I think rumors of us being loaded for next year are a desparate attempt to keep Raffo as head coach and the other current assistants in place.</p>
it would have been done already. However, Byrne promised a national search. So far, he's interviewed Raffo and Smith and called Casey.
If Raffo is named, Bryne can say with a straight face that he conducted a search and the best candidate was a couple of buildings over.
And about Cohen. If we made an offer that UK matched, I don't think he'd take our job. The guys that Polk coached are pretty loyal to one another, those that were teammates even moreso. Cohen may be a jerk, but I don't think he wants to be percieved by the "Polk family" as the guy that screwed over Raffo. Him and Tommy being friends makes it worse.
I could be all wrong about everything I've posted. However, I'm basing all this on what a really good source has told me.
If Raffo is named, Bryne can say with a straight face that he conducted a search and the best candidate was a couple of buildings over.
And about Cohen. If we made an offer that UK matched, I don't think he'd take our job. The guys that Polk coached are pretty loyal to one another, those that were teammates even moreso. Cohen may be a jerk, but I don't think he wants to be percieved by the "Polk family" as the guy that screwed over Raffo. Him and Tommy being friends makes it worse.
I could be all wrong about everything I've posted. However, I'm basing all this on what a really good source has told me.
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