I don't know why you'd want them to get Tubberville. He may be past his prime but he's still likely a much better coach than they would otherwise get. I'd prefer them keep Luke, or even better, go pay $3-4M a year to get Frank Wilson.
Croom contributed to the narrative that his firing was based on race when ESPN ran that doc on him. I wouldn't cheer but I wouldn't boo. I'd be completely indifferent.
I didn't take his statements like that at all. You're talking about the "Croom" SEC Storied feature, right? He said he "didn't feel like he had support". That's really all I can remember that may be construed to how you took it, tbh.
I remember just laughing at him for throwing us under the bus. My reaction: You didn't have support because you only had 1 lucky ass winning season in 4 years, your offenses were some of the worst in the nation, year in and year out, and you refused to make changes at the OC position (McCorvey). You made your bed, now sleep in it. Add in the fact Dan Mullen was out there for the taking.
Croom, or really any of our former coaches that I can think of, would be OK with me. But I can uderstand Tubberville not going over well at OM. He really put the screws to them, and lied to them big time.
What if Larry Templeton was on the video board?
i completely agree... Administration fumbled on the chance to do that... Croom deserves better...
I supported Croom and I liked a lot of his ideas- but it just seemed like he couldn't execute a lot of his own ideas. I think he was a victim of being unrealistic, stubborn, and not knowing quite what to do. I'm glad he gave us 2007.
I think if we brought Croom back to honor him or if he just showed up to a game I think most fans would applaud. We're the total opposite of Ole Miss when it comes to former coaches. They totally burn the bridge and literally try to ruin their career. Although it seems like most of them are still good with Freeze- which says a LOT about their fans and what they want and expect in a head coach. With us, if a coach is unsuccessful for about 5-7 years or so our fans may talk about how they're glad so and so is gone or whatever- but it's rarely vicious. After that period passes, normally our fans reflect on the good years and tend to remember that more than the bad outside of maybe a few really bad instances- Felker/Auburn game debacle, punting to Derek Abney over and over, and 3-2 against Auburn among others. I don't know of any coach that I would say would be unwelcome back- maybe Sirmon might be the closest to that. And honestly if Knox left and Dan wanted to hire Croom as the running backs coach, I don't think very many fans would have a problem with it. Not very many had a problem with Jackie bringing Felker back and I know certainly didn't even though I thought it was kind of unusual. And I would say with MSU fans- if Freeze was our coach and left us in the pickle that Ole Miss is in right now- that would be a situation where a lot of our fans wouldn't want him back. You're talking about a guy that is basically ruining their program and they just don't know it yet.
As far as bringing Croom back this year- he is still coaching in the NFL and I'm not sure that the timing would have worked out or not with that.
Honoring Croom and that 2007 team will be a great moment. I agree that the only reason it didn’t happen is because Croom is still in the NFL which is a testament of how he is perceived as a coach.
My only concern about bringing in Croom as a RB coach would be his ability to recruit. But he did have some nice RBs when he was here and I can only imagine how good they would be in Mullen’s offense where the QB is a running threat and can actually complete a forward pass from time to time.
Agree with Ari, Tubs was absolutely testing the waters. Maybe with Ole Miss?s complicity. The fans probably killed that pretty quickly though.
Crook would be well received here. Some people may laugh, but nobody would boo. That?s not who we are as a fan base and everyone understands what he inherited.
Hopefully he would be applauded. Regardless of how good of a job you think he did, the guy is a life long Bulldog (he was literally born on campus) who worked for our athletic department for over 40 years and served as our AD for 20+ of those years......it would be a really bad look if our fans were to boo him.