I remember how weird that winning season was. It’s kind of funny/sad to read the arrogance of the different parties here: https://sports.yahoo.com/dw-croomed111307.html
Anyone Remember This 2007 Croom Article?
- Thread starter ZombieKissinger
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“Doing it the right way” is a phrase I never want to hear again.
I remember feeling like we finally turned a corner reading the article back then. Ouch
"The No. 1 thing is there had to be a change in attitude within the entire program," Croom said. "Then a vast improvement in talent."
How the hell did he say this with a straight face?
How the hell did he say this with a straight face?
Because he truly believed it. His program clean up was bs too
I remember there were more legal incidents with Croom’s own players after he came here than Sherrill had before
My favorite was the player shooting a gun at the Budweiser car on campus. Classic.
He was a time traveler and knew what was going to happen with bud light this year
The response from the rest of the SEC when we fired him after ole miss beat us in a game where they had more points than we had TOTAL YARDS was also hilarious. They acted like we were crazy and he needed more time.
I feel like the national article should have talked more about how Alabama would never give croom the time of day for being their head coach. And even though he was a former player and even though Alabama used majority black players, they have and continue to refuse to even consider hiring a minority coach. Seems like a good touching point for a yahoo article.
We were pushed by the SEC to be the school to hire the first black head coach. Now we are the first SEC school to hire the first Latino head coach. Our ESG score should be through the roof, and we should be heavily compensated by Black Rock to help out our NIL.
That is happening all over the country. the northwestern scandal that turned out to be bs and now Fitz is going to get a 100 million dollar settlement. It’s cheaper for schools to run off coaches than it is to get their endowments penalized by ESG diversity requirements.
Although I don’t argue this to a degree, I still think it was more Templeton than the SEC
It was definitely a diversity hire. I don't know who all was pushing for it, but we certainly played up the angle in our response to the NCAA findings against Sherrill. "Please don't make things too hard for the SEC's first AA coach."
I'm not opposed to a diversity hire in an industry where minorities are under represented, but a Head Coach candidate should bring more to the table than "Bear Bryant loved me."
Always heard that’s why we hired Ray in 2012. Minority head coach softened the violations Stans may or may not have committed.
The deal with the Rick Ray hire was that Stricklin was tired of the AAU nonsense in basketball recruiting. Unfortunately, there weren't very many coaches willing to come to Starkville if they couldn't recruit via AAU. Im not sure how Stricklin found an assistant from Clemson to step up, but we are still suffering for it.
I know he was all in on getting Woody a head coaching job at any expense (namely our expense).
No we’re not. Howland had us as a consistent 20 win program and Jans had us in the tourney year 1 with improved fan support
The program is improving, but the fan support is still lagging. I was not a big fan of Stansbury, but until we are getting byes in the SEC tournament and get off the NCAA "bubble", we haven't recovered.
Stansbury kinda lived on the bubble too post-2004. After that year, we were never higher than an 8 seed again under him.
People can’t seperate Stans post 2005. Look at us 2005-12, very similar to Howland’s seven years here
The most relevant thing Croom had to offer about college football involved a coach who'd been dead almost longer than they guys he was recruiting had been alive. How anyone thought that would work never ceases to amaze me.
It was so clearly an NCAA-driven diversity hire, it should have said so on the t-shirts.
One of the key problems with the stories on Croom was built into how the reportage crossed the racial lines and brought non-sports reporters into the mix.
It's extraordinary how few non-sports journalists know enough about football to follow a game, much less report fairly on matters related to coaches.
A career NFL assistant would have had a hell of a time coming into the SEC and going to work, no matter what hue his skin, even in a lower assistant's role. Putting a career NFL assistant into an SEC HC job was an absolute dead duck, period.
That was the most We are M State-thing ever.
It was so clearly an NCAA-driven diversity hire, it should have said so on the t-shirts.
One of the key problems with the stories on Croom was built into how the reportage crossed the racial lines and brought non-sports reporters into the mix.
It's extraordinary how few non-sports journalists know enough about football to follow a game, much less report fairly on matters related to coaches.
A career NFL assistant would have had a hell of a time coming into the SEC and going to work, no matter what hue his skin, even in a lower assistant's role. Putting a career NFL assistant into an SEC HC job was an absolute dead duck, period.
That was the most We are M State-thing ever.
So is "Doing it the wrong way." Apparently, in 119 seasons we haven't figured out anything ~.500 (601-575-37 all time)
Better off betting black or red on a roulette wheel.
I love reading the revisionist history in this thread. The fact is, 99% of our fanbase was excited about Crooms when he was hired. There was a modicum of grumbling when he didn't start the job until the Packer's season was over, but folks were excited about the hire. That first home game was electric. (YES, the shine came off pretty quickly that year.)
I don't really recall this being the case; when Croom left, it was very clearly time for it. That said, it wouldn't surprise me at all - when other teams love your coach, more often than not it's cause he sucks.
And we nearly did it a second time with Joe Judge. We really are M State.
Guess me and my friends are 1%'ers after all then. I remember Templeton saying "People are going to say 'How did they get that guy?'". In realty, people said "Who is that guy?"
Maybe you indeed were. a part of that minuscule minority The time between the announcement of Croom and his first couple game, our fans were overwhelmingly pleased with the hire.
I thought the gun was just shot in the air bc Quinton Wessley and Mike Brown were beefing with somebody?
People cringe over the “Maroon is All That Matters” shirts now for obvious reasons (it is kinda weird to still be wearing a 20 year old Russell athletic t shirt for anything other than yard work). At the same time, I seem to recall our fans eating it up at the time and were absolutely excited going into the season. And we even won that Tulane game by three touchdowns so things got off to a good start.
How anyone could think more time was needed is beyond me.
Benching qb1 in game 1 coming off the only successful season. Failing to build off any momentum and completely regress in YEAR FIVE.
I think it was pretty clear that Croom just ain't a HC. Could be why no one else has given him an opportunity to do things the right way