College Sports

Ron Polk, the outgoing coach at Mississippi State, may be one of the top coaches in the collegiate ranks, but that isn’t stopping him from acting like a spoiled two-year old.

Unhappy that new athletic director Greg Byrne passed over Polk’s assistant coach Tommy Raffo, Polk has said he wants his name off the stadium at MSU, and is taking the University out of his will.

Now keep in mind that the 36 year old Byrne, who officially takes over for outgoing A.D. Larry Templeton in July, hired a proven winner. John Cohen has spent the last five seasons taking perennial last place Kentucky and turned them into winners, taking the SEC title in 2006 along with Coach-of-the-Year honors. The Cats posted a couple of 44 win seasons and a mark of 175-113-1 during his tenure.

The Wildcats were ranked most of the 2008 season, and missed out on a Super Regional berth by one game.

And he’s a graduate of Mississippi State, where he played baseball for Ron Polk from 1987-1990.

Now here is the unbelievable part (as if the first part isn’t unbelievable enough!). Polk asked Cohen not to take the MSU job, so that Raffo (Cohen’s former teammate at MSU) could have a shot at it. Polk went so far as to tell Cohen that he would “actively work to dismantle key components” of the program that he built.

In athe AP interview, Polk said, “I’m not totally ticked off at John… John felt like if he didn’t take it, someone else would. I told John everything I was going to do and he still took the job. Boy, he must’ve really wanted it bad.”

What a jerk! One of the greatest coaches in collegiate baseball history, who stands 7th all-time in wins, is in the process of trashing the school that gave him the opportunity in the first place. He may have built the program, but he has forgotten one of the most important tenets of sports… you play (or coach) for the name on the front of the uniform, not the name on the back. He coached at Mississippi State, and MSU has a right to hire the coach that they feel will take them back to the College World Series.

So I say let him take MSU out of his will. Guess what? In 25 years the players on the MSU team won’t even care who Ron Polk is, he will simply be a name on a stadium. Oh yeah, he won’t even be the name on the stadium!

MSU and it’s baseball program will be here long after Ron Polk has taken his ball and gone home. Kudos to Greg Byrne for not buckling under to an overgrown bully.

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