Sylvester Croom is trying to pick up the pieces in what’s quickly becoming a shattered football season.  Last year’s “kill or be killed” mentality seems to be long gone.  And that’s the first issue that Croom hopes to fix.

“The only thing I see different from you guys this year, is that I don’t think we’re playing with the same intensity.  Even though we lost to LSU, we played with a mission, and I don’t know if we’re playing quite that way (this year).”

Croom takes full responsibility for what’s going on in Starkville.  “I’m the offensive coordinator, I’m the bus driver, I’m the equipment man, the lawn guy, I’m the secretary.  I’m everything.  Because whatever’s not going right, it’s me.”

That’s how a coach maintains fan support in the face of tough times and heavy criticism.  Tell me you’re not more in this guy’s corner after reading that? 

Croom also feels for the fans.  “Our players are frustrated, our coaches are.  I’m frustrated.  And I think our fans are — in fact, I have no doubt about that.  Our fans are frustrated.  And I understand that.  Because I think we all expected to be in a better situation than where we are right now.”

Now doesn’t that play a little bit better than, oh, I don’t know… “95% of our fans never played football.”  Yeah, I think it does.



There’s another difference between last year’s MSU team and this year’s, by the way.  This year’s squad can’t sneak up on anybody.  “We knew that coming into the season,” Croom said.  You have a good season like that last year, nobody’s going to take you for granted, there’s not going to be any cheapos.”

In this notes column, it’s reported that Robert Elliott has moved past Christian Ducre into the second-string tailback job, behind Anthony Dixon.  Elliott had nine carries and three catches for 70 yards versus Georgia Tech last week.

Finally, for a struggling MSU team, return man Trindon Holliday and the rest of the LSU Tigers will present a pretty stiff challenge… in Baton Rouge… this weekend.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 10:05 am and is filed under Homepage, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.