Blake Thompson daht NetI'm just saying….

During my absence I’ve been quite busy.

Yes, life has kept me on my toes with a few Christmas parties and family duties. But the main thing that has seemed to be on my mind was the coaching search at MSU. And after the “resigning” of Coach Croom the Satruday after Thanksgiving, the whole Bulldog Nation has been astir. But two days ago it seems we finally put the rumors and speculation to rest in the hire of Dan Mullen.

So maybe now my life can go back to semi-normal. I won’t have to be checking the message board and blogs and twitter feeds quite as religiously. It seemed I was a hawk for information, and a purveyor of it as well. I’d have people telling and asking info a lot. Now I guess we just figure out who the rest of the coaching staff and signees will be!

But that was partly to blame for the absence. The other parts were just staying busy with a family of five in the midst of holidays. Fun stuff. But I’m really looking forward to it. The tree is up, gifts are under the tree, some more gifts need to be bought, and weight is being put on I think.

But I’m back to blogging again. My wife checks here often and tells me “When are you going to post something new!?! (she asks the same of Pat‘s blog too), so I expect to flex the blogging muscles as we plow through the holidays and into a new year.

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I thought I’d found some nice tickets to the Egg Bowl. Then I found some even nicer ones (they were free).

I really didn’t think MSU had much of a chance of winning. And I knew that Ole Miss had been steadily improving. Heck, they beat LSU @ LSU last week. But I didn’t expect what happened.

Ole Miss scored. Then got the ball back and scored. Then intercepted us and scored. Then scored again. And like that it was 24-0 at the end of the first quarter. Ole Miss totally dominated MSU today. I left at the half. Glad I did. It got worse. Ended up 45-0.

Now the question is what sort of changes will happen with the MSU coaching staff. Many say a complete overhaul needs to happen. Some say the coordinators need to go at least. Croom has a pretty good recruiting class coming in. Some think if he goes they won’t come. Who knows? Does it matter who your recruits are if there is not good coaching to manage them? And lastly, some consider a buyout clause to be too expensive.

No matter all the debating, my opinion is something needs to change. And change quickly.

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From my former youth group in Clinton there were quite a few graduating seniors that went to Mississippi State. It made me smile a little because that’s where I graduated from too. I absoutely loved my time there. Sometimes I wish I could do it again. I was only there for 4 semesters. I don’t know that I’d want to give up my previous 5 semesters at Northeast CC and USM, but to think of a full 4.5 year experience at MSU makes me smile. Heck, it might not have taken 4.5!

But lots of things have changed. I was telling one of these freshman about it the other day. Here are a few notable things I told her:
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Butch Thompson has been named the new pitching coach on John Cohen‘s staff for Mississippi State Baseball. I think it’s a great hire. Butch has been the pitching coach at both the University of Georgia and Auburn University for the last 6 or 7 years. He’s produced 20 drafted pitchers and very highly rated recruiting classes.

Butch is from Amory like me, so I’ve kept up with he career a little. I was hoping Ron Polk would have brought him to Starkville when Ron came back a few years ago. But it took a little longer than that. But Butch is glad to be back closer to home since his dad has been recently diagnosed with some illnesses.

This is a great hire for the Bulldogs. [And there is no relation between Butch and me.]

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Here’s what I think happened and why things blew up:

Years ago Polk retired. He’d had an associate coach on his staff who he named as head coach: Pat McMahon. Polk went to a different office on campus and became an Asst. AD
A couple of years later Polk takes a head coaching job at the University of Georgia.
A couple of years after that McMahon get an offer from the University of Florida and takes it. He wants to bring long time MSU assistant Tommy Raffo with him
Raffo decides to go to Florida with McMahon.
Larry Templeton (the AD at MSU) hires Ron Polk to come back to Starkville as the head coach of MSU.
Ron Polk has a meeting with Tommy Raffo (who is planning to go to Florida with McMahon) and convinces him to stay in Starkville.
[And here is where I think the turning point is] I THINK that Polk promised Raffo if he would stay at MSU, then Polk would set him up to be the head coach of the MSU Bulldogs when Polk retired. Raffo said “okay.”
But then there’s a new AD. And then there’s a very sub par season. And then it doesn’t look like Polk is able to name his successor like he did before.
Someone else gets hired. And that made Ron Polk become very pissed.

Now who knows if that is really how it happened. But it makes perfect sense.

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The search ended a little earlier than some expected, but John Cohen is going to be the new head baseball coach at Mississippi State. He was a favorite candidate of lots of fans. But one who did not want to see him get the job was newly retired Ron Polk. He had made it clear months ago that he wanted current assistant coach Tommy Raffo to get the job. And when that didn’t happen he got pissed.

Polk threw a fit like that guy telling people to leave Britney Spears alone. Here are some of his words taken from Gregg Ellis’ blog:

Unfortunately, our new athletic director slapped me in face and punched me in the stomach. He also slapped Tommy Raffo in the face and punched him in the stomach after 15 years of loyalty to Mississippi State.

I want my name taken off the stadium and in the concourse until Greg Byrne is fired. And if they don’t do it, I will. And as soon as I get back to Starkville, I’m going to make sure the MSU Foundation is taken out of my will. And that’s a lot of money. I’m going to ask former players who give to quit.

Greg Byrne [new athletics director] doesn’t know anything. Well, he’s about to find out what my name means.

I love John, he’s a former player, but he knew how I felt. And when he walks into his new office, there will only be a desk and chair. No papers on the players or anything.

With this hire, Greg Byrne has thrown 15 years away of Tommy’s coaching life and the four years he has played here. Is he the best candidate, I don’t know. I say give him four years. If he doesn’t get the job done, then fire him.

Wow, does that not sound like someone with some major anger issues? Ron Polk has done tons for MSU Baseball and College Baseball in general. But I’m afraid of what this is going to do to his legacy.

But on the other hand, I’m excited about Cohan. Are you? Is it a good hire?

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So, yet another weekend is done for. Here’s a little of what took place:

• Set up a new blog for a friend. Emily Witt is teaching school in Columbia and chasing after Jesus. Make sure you stop in and tell her hello and encourage her in her writing. You want her to write so you can read it. It’s good stuff.
• Talked to a builder about a house he’s building in Oxford.  Building would be nice, but it would be at least a handful of months until we could move in. Ugh! We close on our Clinton house this Friday. So it’s time to start looking hard.
• Got library cards in Oxford. So now we have a PO Box, bank account, and library cards. Are we citizens?
• Got a membership at Blockbuster in Oxford. Later I’ll tell you how much I think I’m going to hate that Blockbuster.
• Slept late twice. Got up early once.
• Watched Mississippi State basketball stage an incredible last minute heroic comeback. Ben Hansbrough is the man. Totally. Oh, and Phil Turner too.  MSU has a decent shot at the Big Dance now. (Here is a nice article about Ben and his bro.)
• Ate w/ the inlaw at Harvey’s. Not sure what I had, but it had steak, grits, onion rings, shrimp, and lots of BBQ sauce.
• Drove to Oxford twice for church. Addison likes to go early and help with setup. Both services were good today. Got to meet some new people and reconnect with some old.

So, there it is. Now it’s time to go to bed… How was your weekend?

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After burning up the roads a little this past week/weekend I’m back in Oxford living out of my big Nike bag. I’m amazed at what all I can fit in there. But I really don’t mind living out of it. It’s not ideal, of course. But it’s where I am right now.

I pack it up each morning and usually don’t know til late afternoon or early evening where I’ll be unpacking it for the night. I guess there’s a sense of adventure to it all that way, huh?

But I think we’ve found a buyer for our house. Signed contract and all. There are a few things that a handy man needs to straighten up on the house before it is all said and done, but it is so amazing to be able to say we’ve got a bona fide buyer.

School is starting back up here at the University. So it should make things more interesting around town and campus. There were definitely more college students at church last night. Restaurants will be more crowded and traffic more clogged. But I look forward to it as well. It’s part of the character of the town. Yes, it’s Red and Blue. But that’s okay

I did get to go to Starkville on Saturday with The Fam. Got go to see a MSU basketball game. Man, I miss being able to see every home game. We won, but played pretty sloppy. But a win is a win.

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Very nice game capsule of the Egg Bowl. I’ve not really said anything about it, but it was an awesome win. We really didn’t play very awesome until the last few minutes though.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzyGG8KE2sM[/youtube]

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Well, today is the day after Thanksgiving. We hit the ground running or the road rolling or whatever yesterday. But we made it to a big lunch and a big supper. It worked out well to where supper was just a few big pots of soup. That way we didn’t have TWO traditional Thanksgiving dinners w/in 8 hours.

It was good to see a lot of family. Everyone was excited that we’ll be back closer in the coming months. I am thinking I look forward to being able to see them some more too. Being close to family wasn’t a determining factor with the decision to move and shift into a new job/place. But I’m sure it will be a definite added benefit.

We stayed at my mom’s new house last night. First time we’ve done that. It slept pretty well, but shortly we’re going to head up to my dad’s for some lunch and to watch the Egg Bowl. I’m a little nervous about the game. Mississippi State should win. All indicators point to that. But you never know with this game…

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