Considering Bama's backs were against the wall after the Mike Price debacle, I think Croom was as serious a candidate for them as anyone. They hired Mike Shula, who had no better a resume than Croom...and Croom actually played for and coached with Bryant which still carried weight in Tuscaloosa back then.No doubt. And I think it’s fair to say he was a courtesy interview at Bama as a former player who had no real shot at the job. So while LT I’m sure used “he was a finalist at Bama” to sell it, he wasn't a true competitor.
And while we’re here, for the same reasons we hired him, we were scared to death to fire him. He should have been gone, lucked up the Liberty bowl year, and bought another year. We didn’t want to be viewed as not giving him a fair shake.
But that was no reason to hire him at State, and certainly no reason to literally beg him to be State's HC.