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1. Baseball- we were coming off of our golden decade, and Ole Miss and USM weren't even factors for the first seven years for the most part- although USM did have a couple of Regional teams in the early 90's. We had the #1 recruiting class in 1994, and that class made it to Omaha twice. Even then, Polk didn't have the fire to win a NC, but it was nowhere close to what it was this decade. I think the baseball program would have continued to have success, and probably even more had we simply not brought Polk back- whether we hired Manieri or not. I think baseball was a case of bringing in the wrong coach with the wrong attitude and LT using our laurels to rest on as far as the stadium. It was getting to the point where the only people showing up were the croonies and the loungers.

2. Football- Jackie took Rockey's recruits and won with them, because he's a good coach. When things started going down in the middle of the decade and Sherrill was starting to get on the hot seat, he brought in Joe Lee Dunn and really started to exploit the JUCO's, which was an untapped source of talent, and we used that combo to win the SEC West and go 10-2. In this decade, I think our problems were because Jackie didn't know when to quit, and we didn't have an AD that was willing to do what needed to be done. Then he made another poor hire with Croom.

3. Basketball- This sport was in the worst shape of the three in the 90's. Williams put together a really good team with Dampier, Dontae, and Super D, and they got hot and made it to the Final Four. Then that team basically left, graduated, or got arrested, and we struggled for a couple of years until Richard hooked up with a cheerleader/pom squad member and knocked her up. Then we brought in/promoted Rick who started to rebuild the team in the late 90's, and by the end of that decade, things were looking like they were headed in the right direction, and sure enough he has built a pretty solid program.

was that he was not Ron Polk. I really think that's why he left. He got tired of hearing about what Ron Polk would or wouldn't do.

I think the being closer to parents was a "nice" excuse for leaving, because it wouldn't be very tactful to come out and say, "Ya'll are a bunch of nuts. Here's Uncle Ron back, have fun. Oh, and you're welcome for the SR appearances and the 2001 SEC Tournament Championship".

Our fans are incredibly stupid to the point of pissing me off. We had to bring Polk back to kill the program so we could move forward. And hell, I'm sure there are at least a few that would take him back in a heartbeat.

but I don't think he had much to do with that class because he came back after the 1994 season, and those players signed in 1994, if my media guide is correct. I guess Steve Smith was the guy who was responsible for most of that group.

Steve Johnigan and Raffo probably helped some to.

McMahon may have helped bring in Van Johnson and I'm pretty sure he got Brett Wheeler to transfer in from Old Dominion, so he did have a little impact on that group.

That class was a combination of Mississippi having a really good year as far as baseball talent, UM and USM being down, and a bunch of players that wanted to play for "The Legend" before he bowed out. Word on the street even before he hired McMahon was that Polk was going to retire soon.