Quote Originally Posted by smootness View Post
Hardly any of that addresses his initial candidacy.

Check out this link:http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/det/. Croom had one above-average year in Detroit, one slightly below-average year, and two average years offensively during his time at OC. It took 7 years after he left before they had an offense as good as his worst. They had a record of at least .500 3 out of his 4 years as OC there and made the playoffs twice. The next time they won as many as 8 or made the playoffs after Bobby Ross' staff left? 2011, 11 years later.

Barry Sanders had the best year of his career under Croom in 1997, and Sanders didn't play in 1999 or 2000. The team went 17-15 in those years, with Gus Frerotte and Charlie Batch at QB and James Stewart and Greg Hill as leading rushers. Bobby Ross resigned midway through the 2000 season, not due to performance. The new coach then cleaned house after that year. Croom then went to Green Bay, where Ahman Green had tons of success under him; GB was 23rd in the NFL in rushing in 2000, before Croom, then jumped to 21 in 2001, 12 in 2002, and finally 3rd in the NFL in 2003, with Ahman Green finishing 2nd in the league with almost 1,900 yards.

His offenses ranked 4th, 20th, 15th, and 22nd in points and 2nd, 14th, 21st, and 27 in yards in Detroit. Is that great? Of course not. I'm not about to argue that Croom is a great offensive mind or that he was phenomenal in Detroit. But pretending he was awful is crazy. This was his resume at the time we hired him. It's not a great resume, but it's certainly not terrible or crazy that he might be considered for a college HC job.
being a running Back Coach in the NFL is shitty credentials for being a head Coach in the SEC. It says nothing about your ability to recruit. Being able to recruit is way more important than Your ability to Coach an all-NFL running back
who was great before Croom came along. I guess being average and not knowing $hit about recruiting is an OK resume to be a HC in the SEC. They loved Him T-Town but they thought he wasn't as good as Shula . Not good for the Tide but just Jim ****ing Dandy for the Bulldogs.