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From Brad Locke's blog
I spoke with athletics director Greg Byrne this afternoon. We discussed a few things, but mostly football. He was guarded in his comments, as you'd expect, but he answered the tough questions. The most interesting thing he said, in my opinion: "I will sit down with each head coach at the end of the season, and we'll talk about what we're doing well and what we need to do better. That will become a standard practice at the end of each season."</p>
So if you're wondering, that's how he plans on dealing with coach Sylvester Croom. If you're expecting something to "happen" before then, I wouldn't count on it.</p>
Byrne said he has heard from several fans. He said he's heard praise for the defense and, yes, criticism of the offense (he got no more specific than that). He said he understands MSU fans' "passion," as he called it. "After every game, there's always a lot of emotion. We'd much rather there be emotion and people caring than have apathy."</p>
As most of y'all know, Noxubee County WR Pat Patterson backed off his commitment to MSU. While Byrne can't talk specifically about that, he sees no reason to panic about the recruiting. "We have a lot of confidence in our coaches' abilities to recruit kids coming to Mississippi State, the kids that we want, and the kids that want to be here. … There's a lot of time between now and the first Wednesday in February (national signing day). Obviously the coaches are working on recruiting every single day."</p>
The theme Byrne drove home during the interview: Don't panic, be patient.</p>
"What we're going to focus on right now is doing everything we can to support our student-athletes and our coaches. We have a lot of football left."</p> </div>
