Failure Thy Name Is Croom

Another week and like clockwork another embarrassing loss. Its over folks, the results are in. Croom is a complete failure as a head coach and he has nobody but himself to blame. He is more loyal to his buddy, McCorvey, than he is to the school that took a chance on him and is paying him $1.7 million. He is too stubborn and prideful to admit that his offense is the worst in the country and doesn't have the humility to make the necessary changes. He refuses to admit his mistakes preferring to throw the players under the bus week after week. He would rather lose than admit that he may be wrong.

For all of these reasons I feel no remorse in calling him a failure. If he did his best and just came up short that would be one thing, that didn't happen here. His flaws are easily correctable, hire a innovative offensive coordinator and give him complete control of the offense, but his arrogance won't allow it. This thing isn't getting better until this man gone, I can promise you that. Today this team is only marginally better than it was five years ago, and that is due only to the fact that the players give more effort. No foundation has been laid, no improvements made, and the "right way" has been revealed to be a empty phrase that serves as nothing more than a red herring for his glaring shortcomings as a coach. The offense is far far worse than it was five years ago, players are poorly coached, QBs regress at an alarming rate due to being coached by a RB coach, a man that had never coached a single QB in his decades of experience (McCorvey), playcalling is predictable and never uses misdirection or formation to fool opponents, overall game management would make a 6th grade coach shake his head, and the list goes on and on.

Please put an end to the suffering Greg Byrne. Croom is a monumental failure and a monumental waste of money. Next year will be yet another embarrassment under this man so why wait any longer. I understand that there may be some pressure from certain organizations, but his record speaks for itself: 19-35, 35.1%, 107th, 113th, 103rd, and 113th in total offense which somehow leads to a raise for the offensive coordinator, followed up by 103rd in total offense this year (and dropping). He has won 35.1% of his games and gave a raise to the man in charge of one of the worst offenses in the country four years in a row. The evidence is overwhelming, Croom is out of touch with modern college football and should not be anywhere near a head coaching position.

I'm tired of holding my tongue and I'm tired of being civil. I hope there is a For Sale sign in his front yard and I hope he gets so mad or so discouraged that he resigns. If Croom had so much character he would resign tomorrow AND give back the 1.7 million that he has stolen from this university, because he sure as heck hasn't earned a single penny. My only comfort is that the clock is ticking for you Croom. I know that it is only a matter of time until you are fired and I never have to watch you piss away another game with your shockingly bad coaching.

This is harsh and I don't care. He may, and I emphasize may, be a good man but he isn't paid to be a good man. He is paid to win games, and he is incapable of doing so. I don't know when the day will come Croom but it is coming, and all I have to say is good riddance.

Mississippi State 17 Vanderbilt 14

Mississippi State got a win over #13 Vanderbilt this past weekend to keep slim bowl hopes alive. MSU played like they did last year: running the ball the vast majority of the time, not turning it over, and putting the rest of the game on the defense.

The win along with the solid performance against LSU has given some of us hope that this team is finally playing at the level we expected 2 months ago. If thats the case then their should be hope of getting to 6 wins against a weak remainder of the schedule. Unfortunately the win raised even more questions in my mind.

- MSU got back to running the ball down people's throats, in particular getting the ball to Dixon. Anthony Dixon had 27 carries for 107 yards, his first 100 yard game of the year. The fact this was his first 100 yard game is more than a little disturbing. Not only did the coaches finally decide to feed him the football, Anthony Dixon finally ran like we've all said he needed. The dancing behind the line of scrimmage was nearly non-existent. He ran north-south, and if there wasn't a hole he put his head down and made 3 yards moving the pile. When you are 240 pounds, you can get 3 or 4 yards whether there is a hole or not, and that is what Dixon should have been doing the last 2 1/2 years.

- Tyson Lee was impressive, but not because of his passing. He had only 81 yards passing, though that was partly play calling. Where he impressed was his running ability. There were a number of times when the play broke down and he got the first down on his own. I can remember three 3rd and longs that were converted solely because of his ability to escape the pocket and run for the 1st.

- The defense was great, though that is partly due to the fact that Vanderbilt is about as inept on offense as Mississippi State. Even so, the defense held them to 107 yards and thats outstanding.

-Now comes the questions. The team gets one win and all of a sudden Croom has this to say about the offense.

"Not any different at all," Sylvester Croom, the Mississippi State coach, said Wednesday of his offensive approach. "We're just executing better. When I said earlier in the season we weren't executing and missing assignments, I wasn't joking. We're executing better now."

MSU only had 247 yards of offense. That is terrible, and he says this is executing the offense? See this is the problem with Croom. If this was a loss with all the same stats, he would have inevitably said the offense just didn't execute. MSU only scored 17 points, and they needed an interception returned to the 7 yard line just to get that, otherwise it is 10 points. This is Croom's idea of executing? Mind boggling.

-Secondly, Vanderbilt had 107 yards of offense and was -2 in the turnover battle. MSU won by 3. Think about that folks. 107 yards and 2 turnovers, any team with that kind of production loses by 20 points minimum 99% of the time. That 1% of the time is when they play MSU. Why could MSU only win by 3 you ask? Because the offense is terrible. Even with this 107 yard effort, this still would have been a loss had the defense not won the game again, returning an interception to the 7, virtually guaranteeing a TD. Yet this is the offense that is executing according to Croom?

-Can we get a punter? Please.



Bottomline folks, the offense is almost completely incapable of winning a game, save for the occasional fluke. The defense has to get every win from here on out either by scoring points themselves or putting the offense in such great field position they can't help but score. Thats all their is to it.


You know what though? They just may be able to do it. The next 6 games are littered with one inept offense after another. It starts with Tennessee. This is the definition of a must win game. If MSU wins, they still have a chance at a bowl, maybe even a decent chance. If they lose the season is almost certainly over. Make no mistake, this game is very winnable. Tennessee is downright bad. They have a good defense, but their offense may be even worse than ours.

Schedule Changes and Facilities

Jackson St. has replaced La Tech. as the first game of 2009. The home game against La Tech has been moved to 2012. Brilliant move as far as I'm concerned. You keep 7 home games in 2009, you are now playing a I-AA in '09 where you weren't before (and as far as I'm concerned MSU should be playing a I-AA every year), and presumably you are set up to have 7 home games in 2012. I wonder if LT would have had the foresight to do something like this? LT always made it sound like scheduling was the most difficult job on Earth and cobbling together 12 games was a minor miracle. Man I'm glad that guy is gone.

If you look you can find some fluff pieces about how this is a "historic day" what with Jackson St. being a HBS. I'm not linking it because all I see is "blah blah blah". Its a game against a I-AA, not a big deal. If you want to hear about how historic it is, google is your friend.


The second thing I want to mention is according to Veazy, its only a matter of time before there is a practice infield for baseball and a practice facility for basketball. They're still a ways off but the first step has been taken.

An Absolute Must Read

This article comes from ESPN affiliated BulldawgJunction.com. Its a Mississippi State site in the mold of the Rivals or Scout affiliates with the major difference being Bulldawg Junction is far better. They tell it like it is, a welcome sight to those sick of the constant sunshine peddled by other sites, regardless if a MSU team is 5-0 or a putrid 1-4.

Enough of that though. On to the real reason for this post, to direct you to an article from Bulldawg Junction, "What's The Difference?". Follow the link, read it now.

Done? Good. I think it hits the proverbial nail on the head and it is about time somebody mainstream had the guts to publish something like this. My hats off to you guys at the junction.

If you enjoyed this article, I highly recommend you subscribe to the site. Yes, a large part of it is recruiting, but even if recruiting isn't your thing the articles alone might be worth it. This is the sort of article you get. Enough promotion from me though.

I've been writing a post detailing the dismal failure that has been Croom's tenure here at MSU. The post is essentially complete but is being delayed in the off chance that Croom is able to salvage a bowl game out of this season. I haven't decided yet if I'll put it up when/if MSU is officially eliminated from bowl contention or at the conclusion of the Egg Bowl. If Croom gets to a bowl the post will obviously be scrapped. Otherwise, stay tuned.

Basketball Schedule Released

You can check it out over in the sidebar or follow the link.