What Rick said

Polk's harsh opposition unfair to Byrne, Cohen

John Cohen has accepted his dream job, the one he always has wanted.

Nothing wrong with that. Who wouldn't?

Greg Byrne did what he was charged to do: Hire the best baseball coach possible at Mississippi State. Certainly nothing wrong with that. From here, it looks like Byrne belted a grand slam.

But Ron Polk threw Byrne and Cohen, his former player, under the bus, tarnishing nearly a lifetime of splendid service to college baseball. Polk had publicly supported his assistant (and Cohen's former teammate) Tommy Raffo for the job. Byrne hired Cohen, a former National Coach of the Year, instead.

Longtime readers of this column know of my respect for Polk and all he has achieved. This time, however, he is wrong, wrong, wrong.

To their credit, Byrne and Cohen Saturday stayed above the fray. They chose not to get down in the mud with Polk. Both received loud, prolonged ovations from a huge crowd of State supporters at a news conference at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Interestingly, cheers for Byrne were every bit as loud as those for Cohen.

Doing his job

Cohen was especially eloquent where Polk is concerned.

"I want to publicly say that I'm not standing here right now accepting this job if it were not for what I learned from Ron Polk," Cohen said. "I told him that yesterday when I talked to him. He said, 'John, I love you, but. . . '"

Cohen also made it a point to praise Raffo as "one of my best friends, an outstanding assistant coach and a guy who has given his life to Mississippi State."

Byrne said only that he was doing his job, hiring the man he thought was "far and away" the best choice to succeed Polk.

Asked specifically about Polk's comments Byrne had no clue what he was doing, Byrne replied, "You know, I just don't think I want to say anything more about that."

Good for him.

Polk said a lot more than that. He said he will take State out of his will and he will demand that his name be taken off Polk-Dement Stadium "until (Byrne) gets fired or somebody runs him off."

Interestingly, Byrne couldn't do that even he wanted. It would take an act of the state College Board to change the name of the stadium that got its name because of a $1 million gift from the family of the late Gordon DeMent of Indianola. Ironically, Dement, a huge Mississippi State baseball fan, was a great admirer of Polk.

A 'no-brainer'

Cohen was a dogged, driven player and has the reputation of being the same sort of coach. Byrne was part of the committee that hired him at Kentucky, where Cohen turned the program around, winning the first SEC Championship in 102 years of Kentucky baseball. Byrne believes Cohen will bring the same fiery passion to State.

Cohen Saturday did nothing to lessen the expectations.

"My vision is real simple," Cohen said. "I want to win a a national championship at Mississippi State."

Polk, he said, paved the way. "I want to continue that legacy by taking a team to Omaha and winning a national championship. . . . It can be done and it will be done."

Cohen promised a team that will "fight, scrap and get after it every single day."

Cohen obviously has the support of Mississippi State fans. It will be interesting to see whether or not a close-knit group of former players (most of them Polk's) will rally around him as well.

Jay Powell, who played for Polk before going on to win the seventh game of a World Series in the Major Leagues, believes they will. Powell, a smart guy who dearly loves his school, called Cohen's hiring "a no-brainer."

"Look what he's done at Kentucky," Powell said. "I think he's going to do an unbelievable job for us."

Like most of Polk's former players, Powell has remained close to his former coach.

"I love Coach Polk and I respect everything he has done," Powell said, "but I'll tell you the same thing I told him yesterday. I don't agree with what he's doing. This is about what's best for Mississippi State. It's about John Cohen. It's not about Ron Polk. Again, I love Coach Polk but what he's doing isn't good for the program and I don't think it's been fair to John Cohen or to Greg Byrne."

I asked Powell if he thinks time can heal the wounds Polk has opened in the Bulldog baseball family.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't really know, but I hope so."

That's all I have to say about that.