Sylvester Croom award name change

http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0403/31/wrick.html

 

That is absolutely shameless. For that, I hope Miss. St. destroys Bama next season.

 

that is weak. how in the world could Shula be that insecure and take away some history....regardless if its another SEC school. he was a part of it before him. pathetic.

 

I'm in agreement with the rest of you. I cannot believe that they did that to Croom. Geaux State, beat the crap out of Bama!!

 

The entire country is going to jump on Bama for this one, what a poor decision by the staff, Shula especially.

 

Not that I really give a tinker's damn about either Croom or Shula BUT......

I continually read comments from various sources, in this case one of Croom's buddies, John Marshall, about just how friggin' more qualified Croom was to become a head coach in the SEC than Shula was. REALLY?

WHY? In Croom's years as an assistant coach in the NFL he was never more than a position coach. In Shula's case he had actually been a position coach and an NFL coordinator for Tampa Bay. Yes Croom may have had more years as an assistant but Shula had done more in a shorter time than Croom.

In my opinion, Croom has already made a key blunder at Mississippi State as their head coach and has shown a lack of good judgement in a key area.
When Croom was hired as State's new head coach, he came in and made his speech about how he was committed to do this and that but then jumped on a plane and headed back to Green Bay to remain on staff there as an assistant coach while KNOWING that Mississippi State had hired him to come in and turn things around. Croom wasted valuable time remaining in Green Bay as a running backs coach while he should have been in Starkville getting his staff selected so they could go out and RECRUIT. However, Croom selfishly placed his former job with Green Bay as an assistant ahead of his new position as head coach at Mississippi State. This move by Croom set him back in recruiting and almost certainly will make his first year or two at State a little harder than it had to be. i mean this is a guy who had never put a staff together before and has never recruited a single player for college ball, anywhere, much less in the SEC. Yet, he chose to do what he did?

That type of decision making certainly wouldn't have endeared him to LSU fans had he been selected as LSU's head coach. Perhaps the people at Bama knew more than is talked about publicly regarding Sylvester Croom.
It certainly appears that Croom took his job at State for grated almost immediately. JMO.

 

This may be a minor point, but MSU knew prior to hiring Croom that he was commited to GB for the remainder of the season. It was a condition of the deal. They chose to announce they had secured Croom's services to actually stengthen their position from a recruiting stanpoint (filled position versus vacant position).

And while Shula indeed held a higher position in the NFL than Croom (at which he failed miserably), you must admit that Shula's name, at least in the state of Florida, carried much more weight in terms of his candicacy for the coordinator position at TB.

 

O.K., not to split hairs BUT once again, what had Croom accomplished?

Croom accomplished exactly what that would make him such an outstanding candidate for a college head coaching position over Shula?

In fact, I never even heard Croom's name in ANY search for a college head coaching position until he interviewed at Bama, his alma-mater.

Regarding Croom's time in the NFL, Croom spent an awful lot of time a NFL staffs as an assistant without being ever promoted to Coordinator status.
you can't ignore that fact. There had to be a reason.

In addition, when you hire a new head coach during the prime recruiting period and the school needs a head coach to hire his staff and hit the
recruiting trail, I am not impressed with the new head coach being so commited to a job he just chose to leave. Does he want the new head coaching job or not? his actions didn't impress me at all and his 1st recruiting class demonstrates that his efforts at Green Bay didn't impress too many high school recruits either. The guy didn't even have his staff together at State but was worried about being a lame duck running backs coach at Green Bay. By doing what he did, Croom missed a window of opportunity to be the hot new kid on the block at State and wasted any early momentum he may have had.

Now, after this season he will be judged on his 1st year of actual coaching and I expect it to be a bad year for State. In my opinion, it was poor judgement by Croom and State needed all the help they could get.

 

This like comparing apples to oranges. Whatever Croom's qualifications or lack thereof for a head coaching position has nothing to do with his athletic contribution to Bama and the naming of an award after him. To do what Shula did is inexcusable and totally reprehensible. It's shameful and the sign of a small insecure man and I doubt Shula sr. would approve of it. I would hope that the players on Bama's team are mature enough to take note of this and see that it is NOT the way to act.


It just proves to me that Bama has nothing on the War Chickens!!

 

Totally agree.. the award was far his achievments on the field. i am too young to remember him, but i am assuming he was pretty good since he had an award named after him at Bama!!! No fricken tack