Anytime a team you pull for loses a Coach to greener pastures a fan is left with a choice. Be happy for the Coach in his new endeavor or openly root against him or her.
It turns out that my trip to the baseball diamond 💎 down in Durham over the weekend was a goodbye of sorts as Virginia announced that Coach Pollard would be the next head coach of the Cavaliers.
When Pollard left Appalachian State University to take over the program at Duke, it was a big get for the Blue Devils and then some. Baseball in Durham was something that you did in the Springtime but it wasn’t THE thing you did after Basketball season.
Pollard changed that, not with a quick fix or gimmicks. He also did it without a serious place to play his home games, even though the Park was fun with Murray State and their fans joining in the atmosphere.
Pollard built something that the Blue Devils Nation can be proud of and the chain ⛓ of command followed suit. Mississippi State plays on a Big Boy stage in the SEC and it turns out that their stage is as big as it gets. Mississippi State plucked the UVA Coach of 22 years ( and a Natty) so in turn UVA was able to do the same by grabbing the Duke Skipper.
Just like in the Circle of Life, you accept that unless you’re talking about Duke Men’s Basketball 🏀, head coaches in Durham are poachable. Mike Elko headed back to Texas A & M after proving he could win as a Head Coach in a Division 1 program. It’s harder to pull for Elko with the Aggies though because he was only in Durham for two seasons. The jury is still out on Coach Diaz as he enters season two.
I was skeptical about David Cutcliffe when Duke hired him after Ole Miss felt like winning nine games a year wasn’t enough. But Coach Cut stayed around for over a decade, even turning down the top spot at Tennessee along the way.
Pollard is going to a bigger stage, albeit its in the same Conference. He will still face tough admissions but there’s a culture in Hooville and its undeniable.
So its time to say Thank You to Coach Pollard and his family 👪, wishing them nothing but success up on the grounds! Just like Cutcliffe did at roughly the same time, Pollard took over a program that was beyond irrelevant and turned it into something folks could be proud of. Then he stayed longer than he had to because it was a good fit.
Back to that Elko thing for a minute, Coach football in Durham and win 9 games a season and they will build you a statue. Do the same thing in Aggie Land and they will hit you with a statue and drag you off the stage and say who is next ? Similar to what Chris Graham wrote about the job at Mississippi State being they just fired the guy that won them a Natty four years ago….
Being that the lifelong motto has always been Duke, UVA and where I stay in regards to who I support, it makes this poaching a bit easier to accept.
Go get ’em Coach Pollard !!
A.S.P.N on The Hill 