Why credit Byrne gets shouldn't be too excessive for the Cohen hire...

[Maroon Eagle]

One thing I've noticed in the past several days is that Greg Byrne's deservedly gotten loads of praise (and criticism from Coach Polk) regarding the hire of John Cohen. Many, many, many people are very happy with the hire and have praised Byrne for not being pressed enough to offer Tommy Raffo the job.

I just find it odd that Byrne's being called independent by some people when I've not seen any evidence of it in the hire. Byrne received his charge from Dr. Watson and made a good choice as far as offering the job to John Cohen who called the decision a "no-brainer."

I think what I've seen is continued evidence that MSU fans have low expectations <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">from</span> of people who are in charge. People expected what they perceived to be a bad hire, and when a bad hire didn't occur, Byrne was lauded big time.

He did his job. He did what he said he would do by performing a national search, and that's a good thing. I guess that officially means MSU's entered the 20th century. Hopefully we'll have a 21st century athletics program pretty soon.

 

[8dog]

an athl. dept the way it should be run and does their job will get praise from me all day.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

It's just that the praise I've seen has been sweeter than McAlister's Sweet Tea, and that tends to set off my detectors...

 

[TBonewannabe]

Well from past experience with the AD, everyone expected something bad. We aren't used to someone actually doing the best job possible. Nothing against Coach Croom but that was one pathetic head coaching search. LT just called Mal Moore and said who did you interview. There were no names mentioned besides Croom. Byrne interviewed at least 6 people even though most people wanted Cohen. Hell Byrne called Pat Casey and gauged interest.

We are MSU, we aren't accustomed to anything but cheap and halfassed from the Athletic Department. It will just take us a while to get used to a real AD.

 

[KurtRambis4]

you expect when we've been so used to being templetoned over and over and over and over</p>

 

[Shmuley]

put up a 7-5? He could have fisted every state fan's girlfriend with their blessing.

Why? When you suck that bad for that long, you tend to latch onto and laud anything that moves in a new direction. Once we started tasting wins, we started execting more out of jackie. He delivered in 98/99. Then he languished under the weight of what he created.

It'll be the same with Byrne. We'll get used to 20th/21st century athletic dept behavior and start expecting more. I fully expect mistakes, hiccups, trips, etc. It's bound to happen. But the course of progress is charted. Let's at least have a few months of excitement, dammit.

 

[DerHntr]

i believe in positive reinforcement. he needs hookers giving him reacharounds in the office 24/7 for a few weeks.

 

[lake3dawg]

Eagle, you were almost there until you said Byrne didn't make a bad hire which understates the quality of the Cohen hire. Reportedly Kentucky was prepared to offer him a contract among the top contracts in the nation and practically everyone agrees that hiring John Cohen is a great direction for MSU; MSU didn't settle for John Cohen; he was called home.

If you think that expectations weren't high from MSU fans for this hire then you have had your head up your *** for 2 months.

Much of the slobbering over the hire has been for one reason: the guy he hired wasn't Tommy Raffo or to translate, it wasn't the guy Polk wanted.

The anti-Raffo-now-anti-Polk hysteria has reached such a proportion that a subset of posters can't keep themselves from posting in every single Cohen, Byrne, or Polk thread because they have another smartass way to keep saying the same thing over and over.

 

[patdog]

If Polk had handled things differently, he'd have been able to cause Byrne a lot more grief over this hire than he has. In hindsight, we know that Polk self-destructed and lost all credibility among all but his most whacko supporters. But if Polk had been smart in how he handled it, he could have caused Byrne some problems.

 

[saddawg]

Hiring Jackie and Cohen were the only 2 times I've been surprised by State AD decisions. The others you could see coming a mile away. I was scared Byrne would be more of the same. He proved to me my fears were in vain. If he screws up, I'll get on him, but I give him major props so far.Mainly because he ain't "doing what we always have done."

I have a little hope now. God forbid, if Croom goes back to 3-9 the next couple of years, this guy will do what needs to be done. He showed guts.

 

[Todd4State]

I think the other thing here is this hire shows that the new guard of MSU fans and alumni are taking over for the defeatist well, we are MSU good ol' boys. That's one reason why I was so happy with the hire.

There was a LOT more to this than just a coaching search and a disgruntled coach. This was about the next generation vs. the good ol' boys, and the next generation won. In the past, it would have gone something like this: "We are saddened that legendary head coach Ron Polk, who invented baseball and MSU baseball, is stepping down at season's end. He has recommended Tommy Raffo to replace him, and we will go ahead and affirm those wishes, after all, how do you question someone like Ron Polk when it comes to baseball and MSU baseball? He knows what is best for us and our players. Forunately, Ron Polk will still be around as a special assistant to the baseball team and Coach Raffinocchio, uh, Raffo."

 

[lake3dawg]

There was no generational line; it seemed no collection of people wanted Polk's pick.

You do have to agree though that getting rid of the good ole boys, whatever that means, would be awesome as our fan base could be young and our athletic department both innovative and poor as hell; poor even by our standards.

 

[Woof Man Jack]

You must be a young dude who hasn't been around MSU athletics very long. We have effed up "no brainers" for decades...it's refreshing to see an AD who makes moves that seem to be right, not moves that meet the least resistance.

 

[Todd4State]

would we be as poor if we were more innovative? I do think that Byrne is doing some things better as far as fundraising and things like that, but it's going to take time to get better financially. I think as a fan base we have a lot of potential. Look at the Liberty Bowl- there were a LOT of people there that weren't season ticket holders, but obviously were willing to watch us play if we were good. Those are the people we need to get to buy season tickets along with the current people. Also look at our SR last year- with a little bit of promotion and an exciting team, we should be able to draw 8,000 for an SEC weekend.

The good ol' boys were content with MSU being 1969 MSU.

As far as people wanting Polk's pick, Polk had/has a lot of croonies and connections with people in power that could have very easily infuenced our coaching hire, despite the fact that the majority of fans and alumni didn't want his pick. That's why it was key that Byrne not have a search committee. The people that stood up to Polk, so to speak, were not the cigar boys or his croonies, it was regular people like you and me e-mailing Cohen and begging him to come, as well as letting Byrne know what we wanted and Byrne listening to us. </p>

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I was in grad school at MSU at the time and near about froze at the Liberty Bowl that year.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Eagle, you were almost there until you said Byrne didn't make a bad hire which understates the quality of the Cohen hire. Reportedly Kentucky was prepared to offer him a contract among the top contracts in the nation and practically everyone agrees that hiring John Cohen is a great direction for MSU; MSU didn't settle for John Cohen; he was called home.

If you think that expectations weren't high from MSU fans for this hire then you have had your head up your *** for 2 months.

Much of the slobbering over the hire has been for one reason: the guy he hired wasn't Tommy Raffo or to translate, it wasn't the guy Polk wanted.

The anti-Raffo-now-anti-Polk hysteria has reached such a proportion that a subset of posters can't keep themselves from posting in every single Cohen, Byrne, or Polk thread because they have another smartass way to keep saying the same thing over and over.

You must not have read the first paragraph of what I wrote:

One thing I've noticed in the past several days is that Greg Byrne's deservedly gotten loads of praise (and criticism from Coach Polk) regarding the hire of John Cohen. Many, many, many people are very happy with the hire and have praised Byrne for not being pressed enough to offer Tommy Raffo the job.

You misunderstand. I believe expectations were high, but also believe that the likelihood of dashed expectations were also high because of the perception that athletics leadership failed to lead well-- hence my third paragraph statement:

I think what I've seen is continued evidence that MSU fans have low expectations <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">from</span> of people who are in charge. People expected what they perceived to be a bad hire, and when a bad hire didn't occur, Byrne was lauded big time.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

You must be a young dude who hasn't been around MSU athletics very long. We have effed up "no brainers" for decades...it's refreshing to see an AD who makes moves that seem to be right, not moves that meet the least resistance.

Nah, not young. I'm a member of the Class of '89, and my father had been a longtime supporter of MSU athletics-- he was part of the MSU party who attended Jackie Parker's CFHOF induction ceremony in New York some 30 years ago.
</p>

I suppose what I'm getting at is that Byrne shouldn't be canonized for doing his job when predecessors were perceived as not doing theirs to the best of their abilities. </p>

 

[lake3dawg]

I agree.

 

[lake3dawg]

Nah, you were clear, I agree that MSU fans have low expectations but also believe that using the baseball search/hire as an example is incorrect for the reasons stated; in fact, the opposite could be argued but I really don't give a ****, I'm just waiting for football and killing time.

I do appreciate you following up though.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

tirade ********.If not for Polk, most would just be quiet, the "silent majority".