Huh? You forget about 1985, or maybe too young to have experienced it? CWS we were cruising vs Texas, Gene Morgan pitching a 1-hit shutout in the 5th when the infamous line drive hit his ankle and ruined him for the rest of the series. That, followed by a freak bad-bounce on what would have been a double-play inning-ender that led to a huge Texas rally put us in the loser's bracket where we faced eventual champion Miami. We had to pitch Brantley on just 3 days rest in the elimination game on a sweltering hot day. Still, had a 1-run lead with 2 outs in bottom of 9th, only to give up walk-off 2-run HR.
If Morgan had not been hit, we almost for sure win that Texas game and don't have to use Brantley until he had 5 days rest.
That one-out-away vs Miami would have put us in the CWS final anyway. It is widely believed our 1985 team was likely the best college baseball team ever. 4 future MLB stars and some damn good college players to boot. I'd say Polk had us sniffing and probably wins if not for crazy bad luck.
Also under Ron in 1979 we opened by beating the hell out of eventual champ Cal State-Fullerton. Lost to Texas, then once again an agonizing loss in extras to get eliminated.
1981 under Polk we were eliminated by 2 1-run losses, one of those to eventual champ ASU. Depending on your definition of "sniffing" we "sniffed at the very least once. If you think just getting to the CWS is sniffing, then Ron Polk took us there 7 times.
