Here’s the latest from Starkville.  Our take on the situation is at the bottom of the page:

No one can argue that Sylvester Croom cleaned up the State program, instilled discipline back to the team, and left MSU with a much more solid foundation than when he arrived on campus. 

Former State head coach Rockey Felker, who’s been an assistant on Croom’s staff, is stepping in as interim head coach during the recruiting process and coaching search.  He’s also the Bulldogs’ recruiting coordinator which should help MSU hang on to the guys who’ve already given them commitments.

Athletic director Greg Byrne has told a pair of top-tier recruits that a priority in the coaching search is to find a man who can build an exciting offense.

Want to know more about Chuck Neinas, the man who’s search firm will be leading State’s process?  Click here.  Obviously, he’ll be told to find someone with a history of producing A-1 offense.

As is usually the case when a coach leaves (is asked to leave), the fans and boosters are split over the move.

UPDATE: Tommy Hicks of The Mobile Press-Register believes it will be tough to replace Croom in terms of leadership, dedication and discipline.



Our take on all this?  If Croom was given the opportunity to make staff changes and chose to resign instead, as is believed to be the case, then Mississippi State had no choice but to accept his decision and move forward.

State’s offense has been DOA since Croom stepped on campus.  If he was unwilling to make changes to fix that, then the university had to act in the best interests of the program.

That said, this once again shines a positive light on Croom.  He ranked loyalty to his assistants above all else and that is to be commended. 

So, from a personal standpoint, kudos to Croom for his stance.  But from a business standpoint, MSU needs a head coach whose loyalty lies with the maroon and white, not to his comrades.

As stated earlier in the post, no one can deny that Croom has improved the status of State football.  It may not have shown up on the field this year, but the Bulldogs aren’t in danger of being thrown back into the NCAA hoosegow.  And that’s a pretty good legacy.



So who’s next?  Once again, here is a very early list of names that have been mentioned in connection with the MSU job:

Brian Kelly of Cincinnati (I don’t see this one happening at all… the man can stay at UC for another year and await a bigger job IF he doesn’t wind up with the Notre Dame gig this year)

Gary Patterson of TCU (Is State a better job than TCU?  They would need to pay him enough to lure him to the West Division’s equivalent of Vanderbilt)

Brent Venables of Oklahoma (If Byrne is talking offense, it’s hard to imagine him bringing in a defensive coordinator)

Gary Crowton of LSU (At least he’s an offensive coordinator with head coaching experience… this one seems more legit than the others, if you ask me.)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 8:02 am and is filed under Homepage, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.