Sylvester Croom's retirement and the audacity of MSU

First, let me state that I grew up a University of Alabama fan, attended, and recieved a graduate degree from the University of Alabama. My father is a huge Bama fan, and my childhood memories include watching the games with my dad on Saturday mornings during football season. This is all relevant to this post, because for the past 5 years I have been a Mississippi State fan because of thier now former coach, Sylvester Croom.

Brad and I started dating in May 2000, and he took me to my first Mississippi State game in August of that year. Jackie Sherrill was the coach at that time. In the beginning, I was not really fired up about MSU, but did enjoy tailgating before and after the games. I am also a person who enjoys new experiences, and being on the MSU campus was a completely different world from the Uof A campus where I had gone to college. I was in awe of the tailgaters, and the fans over all committment to a team that never seemed to win a game. Being used to Alabama fans, who run in the other direction after the second loss of the season, I was impressed by the stamina the State fans had in dealing with continual losses. In the year 2000 State was actually a very impressive football team. They had a player, with the last name Smoot, who wore the number 2 jersey, and was AWESOME. He had personality, and spunk, speed, and attitude, all of which was very entertaining to watch. He now plays for the Washington Redskins, unless he has been traded this past year. In the year 2000 found myself learing the names of the football players as the season progressed, and I can still remember Pig Prather. By the end of the year, I had decided that cheering for MSU would be a lot of fun, and supportive of my then boyfriend. However, I was by no means a "Fan". Until 5 years ago when they hired Croom.

Sylvester Croom is an outstanding man. As an outsider of the MSU family, I can honestly say that Sly Croom turned the MSU football program around from the inside out. He walked into a locker room filled with hoods who would walk out on the football field and break every rule in the book, because they had absolutely no discipline. Those same hoods would not go to class and flunk every semester but would somehow manage to play football for a university. The team was like a field containing a rotten crop that would no longer produce. Slowly Coach Croom tilled and weeded the field until it started to produce upstanding individuals who made thier priorities right. Those priorities are God, Family, school, and Football. Coach Croom did not just care about how those boys played the game on a football field, he wanted to make sure that these kids could play in the game called life. He was a model father figure for those boys who had no father figure in the home. He and his wife served as a safe haven for kids that came from bad neighborhoods, or rough families. Most of all, Coach Croom did not take any crap, and the players who really wanted to play at MSU, wanted to play for Croom because they respected him. Sylvester Croom changed the public image of Missippi State from that of a joke of a team made up of roughians, to a university with a football team that was regarded as well mannered and disciplined.

Now, MSU has "let" Coach Croom resign. In my mind, this is the biggest screw up in the history of the SEC, and somebody's head should roll. Somehow, this new guy they have in the athletic director's seat has the audacity to think that he is going to find a better coach for this second rate University and its third rate football program. It isn't a secret that MSU has the worst athletic facilities of any other university in the SEC. Five years ago, the campus looked like crap, with old buildings standing on the corners of streets filled with potholes and cracked sidewalks. The university has prospered more during the years of Croom than it had in all of the years that Sherrill was coach. If a person with common sense and the ability to read a spreadsheet, were to look over the records of alumni giving to MSU, they would see that wealthy alums believed in Croom, and the future of the football program, so they donated money. How do you think that they got that huge scoreboard with the screen that you can see from Columbus? The new buildings all over campus, and the beautiful sidewalks and landscaping? Money from an alumni who was obviously proud of their football team and the future for MSU, in which Croom was the coach.
Yes, there is no doubt that State had a really bad year this year. However, I think that universities are so hypocritical when they judge a season and a coach to be detrimental while forgetting that that same coach led them to the Liberty Bowl the year before. My question to this new idiot they have running the athletic department is: "Who in the hell do you think you are going to get to replace Coach Croom?" He acts as if he has all of these great prospects. Yeah right. Your prospects just went out the door, and they are closing it in your face.

Saturday was a sad day in our house. I was stunned when Brad told me that Croom had resigned. My son Tucker, cried when I told him. I can't cheer for State anymore, because now I see that the leaders of that university are audacious and stupid, which when combined make a lethal combination. My alliance will fall back to the Tide, who has a winning season, but a jerk for a coach. I will not even want to attend many games at State next year, because if they do manage to win a game, I won't know who to give the credit to.

My favorite image of Coach Croom is that of the first Egg Bowl win for State after he became the coach. I can't remember the year, all I remember is watching a grown man, father, and grandfather grab his players and cry with joy over a win that was hard fought and very much deserved. Brad and I had gone to the basketball game following the game that same night, and to our surprise, Coach Croom ran into the collesium, onto the gym floor, at half time, carrying the Egg above his head with gratitude on his face instead of pride. I will tell you that I cried with happiness for him, and what he represented as a person to the university and the south. He is a man of substance, a true leader, and foremost, a good person.

Mississippi State, you deserve what you get in the upcoming year. I am sure your fans will still come to the games, because they are loyal. Loyalty on the MSU campus seems to end with the fans as far as I can see.

Good luck to you Coach Croom. I know that I will be a fan of yours from here on out. Wherever you go, and whatever you do, God will bless you, as you have blessed others.