another croom artcile where he attempts to lay claim for our current success..

[RC3]

sorry if germans....guy is a joke. and this is insulting to our current staff. He may have kicked some kids off the team and instilled some discipline in the program, but for him to claim that he has something to do with why we are currently winning, kind of chaps me off and is an insult to what mullen and co have done since their arrival. he never could own that he was a bad coach. i am glad that he cheers for us, and am thankful for the ellis Johnson season in 07, but the rest of his career at msu was embarrassing. i mean his last game we lost 45-0, we were heading in the wrong direction, regardless of his discipline. great life coach. terrible football coach
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2..._back_wit.html



Sylvester Croom was exhausted. The running backs coach for the Tennessee Titans had spent the majority of the October day on at the team's football facility, studying film and preparing his players to take on the Cleveland Browns the following afternoon. Now, after driving through the dark streets of Nashville to his apartment, he collapsed onto his living room couch and turned on the television. He wanted to check on his old team.

Flipping the channels, he finally found what he was looking for: highlights of Mississippi State vs. Texas A&M, played earlier that day. What he saw caused him to go bug-eyed and gave him a full-body shiver of excitement: The Bulldogs, the team he coached from 2004 to '08, beat the Aggies 48-31 in a game that--at the time--was the most significant in school history. Watching his old school lay the wood to A&M left the 60-year-old overwhelmed with one feeling: pride.

"I still feel connected to Mississippi State because I feel like the things we did there helped build what is happening now," Croom says. "When I got to Starkville the program needed some major changes. We emphasized two things with our players: character and academics. That was how we were going to build. I told the players we recruited that it may take seven or eight years to get Mississippi State to a level where we could contend for an SEC championship and a national championship. We didn't it done when I was there. But it's extremely gratifying to see it is happening now. The fans in Mississippi deserve it."

Back when he was hired by Mississippi State, Croom, a native of Tuscaloosa who played for Bear Bryant at Alabama, became the first African-American head football coach in the SEC. When Mike Slive announced last week that he would step down as conference commissioner in 2015, he mentioned Croom's hiring as one of the proudest moments of his tenure.

In the midst of the current euphoria in Starkville, which is just giddy over its team national No. 1 ranking, it's easy to forget or dismiss where the journey to the top began. Croom inherited a program that was in the grip of NCAA sanctions, yet in his third season he led the Bulldogs to an 8-5 record and a victory in Liberty Bowl. He was named the SEC coach of the year--the first Mississippi State coach to win the award since Charlie Shira in 1970.

But things fell apart quickly: Just a year later, after the Bulldogs stumbled to a 4-8 record, Croom was asked to resign. In five years he was 21-38.

Yet even as he left, he sensed a sea change was coming. It was as if he whispered into the ear of his successor, Dan Mullen, the things he felt Mississippi State needed to do in order to flourish. "Upgrade the facilities, because they needed to build a place that was attractive enough to get out of state of kids," Croom says. "Keep Mississippi kids from leaving. I'm telling you, even when we weren't that good, Mississippi kids were tough physically--really, really tough. If you play Mississippi kids, you better bring your lunch pail, because they are going to hit you in mouth hard.

"Now you look at what Dan Mullin has done. They have as nice of facilities as anyone in the conference. They're getting those out of state kids and they're keeping kids in state from leaving. They are physically tough on defense and they have a heck of quarterback in Dak Prescott. That's how you win in the SEC."

Davis Wade Stadium, originally built in 1914 and the oldest stadium in the SEC, underwent a $75 million expansion that was completed in August and raised the seating capacity to 61,337. "The stadium is just perfect," Croom says. "It's big but not too big. It's a great fit for Starkville, because it feels homey, like you're among friends."

Croom receives text messages from former players nearly every day, telling him how connected they feel to this current Bulldog team. Though none of the players he personally recruited are on the roster--his last recruiting class graduated last year--Croom exudes a fatherly pride every time he watches the Bulldogs play. "The players I had made sacrifices that are now paying off," Croom says. "I'd like to think that the work ethic that we ingrained at Mississippi State is at the core of what helped build the program."

Now in the autumn of his professional career, Croom realizes that he'll most likely never again be a head coach. It's been a decade since he made history in the SEC, and the thank-yous still come his way, especially from young African American coaches. "At the time I was hired I understood the significance of being the first African American head coach in the SEC, but I didn't appreciate it because I was so focused on the job," Croom says. "But I now realize it meant a lot to a lot of people. You can look at me and say, 'If he can achieve his goal, so can I.' I'm so humbled by that. I'm grateful for the chance I got. I'll always be thankful to Mississippi State. A part of me will always be a Bulldog."

[bobcat91]

He makes me sick to my stomach. He lied to players, played favorites, and put friendships ahead of wining. Just go away and quit trying to act like you helped the program.

[CadaverDawg]

I actually took the article as a good thing. I'm glad to know that Croom still pulls for us to succeed. Maybe I'm reading it the wrong way.

[quickstrike2]

I knew that he would feel like this, almost just ticks me off, but I am so glad that he is gone that it doesn't even really bother me. All I can say for Croom is that he was apparently a "good man" and I really only think people kept saying that because nothing else good could really be said.

[RC3]

I actually took the article as a good thing. I'm glad to know that Croom still pulls for us to succeed. Maybe I'm reading it the wrong way.

That's fine, but his "I told ya so" attitude is sickening. Does anyone think if he was still out coach we would be number 1 in the country right now? Even in the top 25? Hell nah

[Political Hack]

I like him more now than I did five minutes ago.

[CadaverDawg]

That's fine, but his "I told ya so" attitude is sickening. Does anyone think if he was still out coach we would be number 1 in the country right now? Even in the top 25? Hell nah

No, but I think when you become a head coach, you probably sink your entire everything into that program. So to expect someone to just cut ties and say "F em" after they're fired is not realistic. If he wants to feel like he's a part of this, I'm cool with it. I'd much rather him be a part of it from his couch in Nashville, than our sidelines.

But I agree with you that he had little if anything to do with our program getting to where it is now. He can claim helping us about as much as Torbush can at this point.

[RC3]

Well I'm a part of it too then. I paid for season tickets during his laughable tenure

[MSUDawg4Life]

I didn't read it that way.

I believe it's true that he changed the culture of the team from the end of the Sherrill years. Dan Mullen did not have to come in and change the attitude of the program like Charlie Strong is having to do at Texas. Coach Croom had already done that. Hard work, going to class and all of that stuff was already in place when Mullen got here. Mullen just had to teach the guys how to win and he's done that.

Let's not act like Croom played no role whatsoever in what we're seeing today. Sure, he didn't win. No, he can't take credit for Mullen teaching the guys how to win. But, the inmates did not run the asylum when Mullen got here and that credit goes to Croom. I believe even Dan will say that his job was easier in the beginning because of that.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

Funny how we started recruiting better when our coach stopped falling asleep on in home visits.

[1bigdawg]

He lost me when he said he "knew ahead of time" that we were going to lose to Maine. He is just too full of himself to ever admit that he is not the center of the world and that he knows everything.

[BeastMan]

He makes me sick to my stomach. He lied to players, played favorites, and put friendships ahead of wining. Just go away and quit trying to act like you helped the program.

I'm glad I'm not alone

[RC3]

Good for him. Hell I could go in to a program myself and kick thugs off of the team. That's nothing noteworthy IMO. Might have made ******* job easier but croom didn't do anything groundbreaking in that regard. Good life coach. Terrible football coach. We lost 45-0 his last game. The trajectory of out program was going down, not up.

[quickstrike2]

I respect the ones that can give him some credit, but I simply can not. Falling asleep on recruiting visits, expecting to lose to Maine, complete stubbornness on offense and assistant coaches, and driving around on a golf cart are things I can not get over. Maybe he did clean up some off the field stuff, and maybe he did teach hard work, but in my opinion some of the things he did exemplified laziness.

It was easier for Mullen to take over than it was for Croom, but it's not saying that much. Croom came in and did kick off some trouble makers that was a bad seed when Sherrill was here. Any coach would of done the same. Sherrill did many good things while he was here, Croom did little of nothing on the actual field.

[HereComesTheSpiral]

The look on his face at the 08 Egg Bowl should tell you where we would be if he was still here, lost.

[MSUDawg4Life]

Meh.

The guy had his faults like we all do. I just don't prescribe to the notion that EVERYTHING associated with his tenure here was bad. That's simply not true.

There's more to building a winning attitude and culture than just simply kicking the thugs off the team. Croom made some positive contributions to our program that helped his successor whether we admit it or not.

[bluelightstar]

Meh.

The guy had his faults like we all do. I just don't prescribe to the notion that EVERYTHING associated with his tenure here was bad. That's simply not true.

There's more to building a winning attitude and culture than just simply kicking the thugs off the team. Croom made some positive contributions to our program that helped his successor whether we admit it or not.

+1

[gtowndawg]

without Mike Shula. They owe that guy.

[drunkernhelldawg]

Meh.

The guy had his faults like we all do. I just don't prescribe to the notion that EVERYTHING associated with his tenure here was bad. That's simply not true.

There's more to building a winning attitude and culture than just simply kicking the thugs off the team. Croom made some positive contributions to our program that helped his successor whether we admit it or not.

from one dawg4life to another, I'm with you. It's pathetic the way we eat our dead. It's not impressive or admirable to denigrate the accomplishments of others (such as our only winning season of that decade).

[BLITZII]

from one dawg4life to another, I'm with you. It's pathetic the way we eat our dead. It's not impressive or admirable to denigrate the accomplishments of others (such as our only winning season of that decade).

+1