the G sides

Original post is here.

Some cool comments:

Travis said:

You want Croom? You can have him.

signed the Mississippi State fanbase.

Heath:

Croom? Have you lost your ever-loving mind?

Geez…

I was responding to those comments and it became a book, so I decided to just post on it.

One point of clarification – I didn’t say I wanted Croom NOW. I was trying to communicate that given the 2 choices 4 years ago – I’d taken Croom for reasons I’ll explain later.

But before that, the part of the post where MSU fans get ape mad…:)

No one has ever won at MSU – save Jackie Sherrill and he had to cheat to do it. (Although I loved the castrating a bull incident.) Facilities, talent, location – the list just goes on as to their obstacles but no coach is ever going to turn MSU into a powerhouse especially with their current AD and facilities.

Could have something to do with the state in general.

Please, MSU fans – relax. No hate toward you at all…just stating the obvious.

Now back to the earlier comment of given the choice between Shula and Croom 4 years ago- I’d taken Croom.

Here’s why – experience and statement.

At that time ‘Bama had 3 major coaches say NO – Spurrier, Saban, and Davis. Everyone knew that it would take 3 to 4 years to rebuild and they didn’t want to do it with NCAA sanctions. Given their track records, who could blame them. That left Alabama in a bind both public relations wise as well as the football side of things. A coach REJECTING an offer from the Mighty Alabama Crimson Tide? Well – it happened so now what?

Now you’ve got a freaking mess – a program on probation, playing bad football, not with a lot of depth or talent. So if you are going to go into survival mode until 2007, might as well do it while making a statement – hire the first black head football coach in SEC history.

It’s not like it was a “poster” hire – Croom has/had a better resume than Shula. He just didn’t have the last name Shula and he wasn’t white.

Seriously, does much change at ‘Bama this past 4 years if Croom is the coach? Nothing except maybe the recruiting improves and the school gets a MAJOR face lift in the public relations department.

It’s pretty obvious that Shula is NOT a great game day coach. It’s obvious that he leaves a ton of points on the field and he’s not exactly the most motivating presence in the world. He’s a younger Houston Nutt. (Which, by the way Arkansas fans – what a bittersweet year for you. Great year but now you’re stuck with Nutt one more year…ala ‘Bama was with Shula last year. Eerie, ain’t it?)

Which leads me to this – if Shula was just one 6-6 season away from being fired, why the extension and the hoopla from Moore and Whitt last year? Everyone knew this year was going to be brutal – loss of key leaders on offense, most of the defense, playing LSU, Tennessee, Florida on the road, and the upswing of SEC schools in top 10 this year.

I just don’t want Alabama in their quest to rejoin the “college football elite” to become Miami University to do it. And gauging by the decisions of these two men over the last few years, I think they’ve lost the forest for the trees.

[tags]Alabama football, Mike Shula, Mal Moore, Robert E. Whitt, Sylvester Croom, MSU[/tags]