Can someone remind me again how Croom came to be an SEC head coaching candidate?

[Taog Redloh]

His resume from Wiki:

Alabama (GA/C, 1976)
Alabama (ILB, 1977?1981)
Alabama (OLB, 1982?1983)
Alabama (ILB, 1984?1986)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (RB, 1987?1990)
Indianapolis Colts (RB, 1991)
San Diego Chargers (RB, 1992?1996)
Detroit Lions (OC, 1997?2000)
Green Bay Packers (RB, 2001?2003)


How exactly does a resume like that, knowing what we know now, lend itself to make one an SEC head coaching candidate?

[starkvegasdawg]

Without getting this thread thrown to the political board I think the SEC office was trying to make a statement and it was our turn to bat. I've heard rumors that we were told that if we played ball that it would be taken into consideration by the NCAA when it came sanction time. Not sure that was true but our sanctions weren't that bad for what they were trying to accuse us of.

[#660000]

I seem to recall that the Alabama AD, Mal Moore, (who also was responsible for the Mike Shula hire) put Croom's name into LTs ear.

[Liverpooldawg]

Croom accomplished the #1 thing he was hired to do. Once he had done that he failed to accomplish mission #2, which was win football games.

[ScoobaDawg]

I seem to recall that the Alabama AD, Mal Moore, (who also was responsible for the Mike Shula hire) put Croom's name into LTs ear.

Sorta... Mal gave him a courtesy interview to appease the black coaches association whatever it is called. LT saw he was good enough for an interview with Bama and thus we got Croom instead of Jimbo.

[smootness]

His resume from Wiki:

Alabama (GA/C, 1976)
Alabama (ILB, 1977?1981)
Alabama (OLB, 1982?1983)
Alabama (ILB, 1984?1986)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (RB, 1987?1990)
Indianapolis Colts (RB, 1991)
San Diego Chargers (RB, 1992?1996)
Detroit Lions (OC, 1997?2000)
Green Bay Packers (RB, 2001?2003)


How exactly does a resume like that, knowing what we know now, lend itself to make one an SEC head coaching candidate?

A resume that includes a decade as an assistant at one of the top programs in college football, followed by 17 years as an NFL coach, including 4 years as an NFL OC?

Seriously?

How did Mike Shula become an SEC HC candidate? How about Phil Fulmer? Ed Orgeron?

Croom coached Barry Sanders to the best year of his career and led Ahman Green to multiple 1,200 yard seasons, including almost 1,900 yards the year before we hired him. I'm not saying he was the most obvious candidate there's been, but he was no less qualified than plenty of coaches who have been hired, especially at a school like State and especially over a decade ago.

Why would what we know now play into it?

[smootness]

Sorta... Mal gave him a courtesy interview to appease the black coaches association whatever it is called. LT saw he was good enough for an interview with Bama and thus we got Croom instead of Jimbo.

This is part of it, too. Once a guy is established as a legitimate candidate for another job, especially a job like Bama, he becomes a legitimate candidate for other jobs by default. That's just how it works.

It's funny, though, that people would question why Croom was qualified (and acknowledge he was just a courtesy candidate for the Bama job) while not questioning why Shula was qualified.

[ScoobaDawg]

This is part of it, too. Once a guy is established as a legitimate candidate for another job, especially a job like Bama, he becomes a legitimate candidate for other jobs by default. That's just how it works.

It's funny, though, that people would question why Croom was qualified (and acknowledge he was just a courtesy candidate for the Bama job) while not questioning why Shula was qualified.

Because Bama hiring a mistake who was the son of a coaching legend after the Roll Bama Roll Price incident didn't effect MSU. Its great they hired an idiot or two. Moore fixed it next time.

[drunkernhelldawg]

He was an OC in the NFL. What is being suggested here?

[smootness]

Because Bama hiring a mistake who was the son of a coaching legend after the Roll Bama Roll Price incident didn't effect MSU. Its great they hired an idiot or two. Moore fixed it next time.

But the question is how Croom came to be an SEC head coaching candidate. My point is that there have been plenty of SEC head coaches who were hired with no better track record than Croom. So why would we single Croom out?

I get this is a State message board, so we're going to talk about State coaches. A question about why we thought he was the best candidate is fine. But a question about how he came to be a candidate for an SEC HC job necessitates a look at other SEC coaching hires. When doing that, it doesn't stand out as particularly bad.

[smootness]

He was an OC in the NFL. What is being suggested here?

Exactly.

[scottycameron]

His resume from Wiki:

Alabama (GA/C, 1976)
Alabama (ILB, 1977?1981)
Alabama (OLB, 1982?1983)
Alabama (ILB, 1984?1986)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (RB, 1987?1990)
Indianapolis Colts (RB, 1991)
San Diego Chargers (RB, 1992?1996)
Detroit Lions (OC, 1997?2000)
Green Bay Packers (RB, 2001?2003)


How exactly does a resume like that, knowing what we know now, lend itself to make one an SEC head coaching candidate?

Do you really need to have that explained to you?

BTW, there's a new med out for non twenty four.

On another note, i think Crooms is the RB coach for the worst running team in the NFL. Shocker.

[scottycameron]

If you want to know the truth when Shula was hired (quickly) by Bama the Black coaches assoc went nuts because Bama basically told them to eat a ****. Slive got grilled on espn radio and basically promised the next sec coach would be black. I remember thinking oh **** listening to it, I still remember exactly where I was. We were up next and that was all she wrote. We were in no position to disagree with probation hanging over us, and we were cut a deal/break for "doin' the right thang". A lot of MSU losses and a lot of fired SEC coaches followed in the wake, LOL.
But it's all good now.

[PSYCHO(thesis)DEFENSE]

On another note, i think Crooms is the RB coach for the worst running team in the NFL. Shocker.

can't blame that on Croom. I'd rather have MSU's o-line than the Titans', and the RB our UMiss alum general manager took as the 1st overall RB in the 2014 draft has lost his job to an undrafted free agent we signed out of the same draft class. And the next best RB is don't text & drive McCluster. That said, w/ our HC being fired yesterday, I don't see anybody from the current offensive staff being retained next year. Croom is bound to land on his feet w/ that resume though.

[Jarius]

Croom had the resume to be a head coach. The problem was giving him so long to win football games. I guess we were scared to death of being labeled racists or something if we fired him too quickly, but it was painfully obvious after year 2 that he was never going to work out. We gave ourself the death penalty by hiring him. We just didn't know it yet.

[TrapGame]

Croom had the resume to be a head coach. The problem was giving him so long to win football games. I guess we were scared to death of being labeled racists or something if we fired him too quickly, but it was painfully obvious after year 2 that he was never going to work out. We gave ourself the death penalty by hiring him. We just didn't know it yet.

So, we screwed ourselves worse than anything the NCAA could have handed down as punishment for our violations. I guess the ultimate punishment by the NCAA/SEC was hiring Croom.

[smootness]

Croom had the resume to be a head coach. The problem was giving him so long to win football games. I guess we were scared to death of being labeled racists or something if we fired him too quickly, but it was painfully obvious after year 2 that he was never going to work out. We gave ourself the death penalty by hiring him. We just didn't know it yet.

There was no way we could have fired him after 2 years, especially given what he inherited. That just wasn't going to happen, no matter the race. You can make the argument we should have let him go after 3 years, but that's the only point at which we could have fired him before we did. If I remember correctly, I remember the fan base being restless after year 3, but I don't remember an overwhelming push for him to go.

We beat Alabama that year, we almost beat Georgia, we played a tough schedule that included a great WV team non-conference, and it would have still been difficult to let him go at that point. Things weren't quite as cut-throat in coaching even then as they are now, and 4 of our losses came by a combined 12 points. Everyone seemed to be at least ok with giving him the 4th year, and after we went to a bowl and he won COY that year, obviously he was getting year 5.

[Taog Redloh]

A resume that includes a decade as an assistant at one of the top programs in college football, followed by 17 years as an NFL coach, including 4 years as an NFL OC?

Seriously?

Explain going from the Lions' OC to the Packers' RB coach.

[Jarius]

There was no way we could have fired him after 2 years, especially given what he inherited. That just wasn't going to happen, no matter the race. You can make the argument we should have let him go after 3 years, but that's the only point at which we could have fired him before we did. If I remember correctly, I remember the fan base being restless after year 3, but I don't remember an overwhelming push for him to go.

We beat Alabama that year, we almost beat Georgia, we played a tough schedule that included a great WV team non-conference, and it would have still been difficult to let him go at that point. Things weren't quite as cut-throat in coaching even then as they are now, and 4 of our losses came by a combined 12 points. Everyone seemed to be at least ok with giving him the 4th year, and after we went to a bowl and he won COY that year, obviously he was getting year 5.

He should have been fired immediately after losing to Maine. That's when it was pretty obvious that he would never be a long term solution. He wasn't fired after 2 years because, like you said, coaching wasn't near as cut-throat back then. If Mullen got us on probation, got fired, and then his replacement had 2 years like Croom did in his first 2, I would hope that he would get fired. We didn't fire him because it "wasn't acceptable" to fire someone that quickly when in reality it should have been very acceptable to fire someone that clueless. Also, he inherited a lot more than what he ended up starting with. He kicked everyone off the team that was worth a damn in the name of "doing it the right way". I mean the guy had a ten year plan. Any AD that allows a coach to have a ten year plan to get a program turned around is just absolutely crazy.

[Taog Redloh]

If you want to know the truth when Shula was hired (quickly) by Bama the Black coaches assoc went nuts because Bama basically told them to eat a ****. Slive got grilled on espn radio and basically promised the next sec coach would be black. I remember thinking oh **** listening to it, I still remember exactly where I was. We were up next and that was all she wrote. We were in no position to disagree with probation hanging over us, and we were cut a deal/break for "doin' the right thang". A lot of MSU losses and a lot of fired SEC coaches followed in the wake, LOL.
But it's all good now.

I know why we hired him. My question is why he became a head coaching candidate.

Even if LT/Slive internally decided that we wanted a black coach, we could have done much better. Why was Croom the BCA's/SEC's pet? Why not Charlie Strong? Or countless others. Guys who had AT LEAST been successful college coordinators. How does Croom go from NFL demotion to college darling?