Omarr Conner, Jerious Norwood, Fred Reid, Eric Butler, David Stewart,

[MedDawg]

Titus Brown, Willie Evans, Kevin Dockery, Quinton Culberson, and Ronald Fields were on our 2004 MSU team. Just pisses me off watching the replay of MSU vs Florida 2004 wondering why we couldn't do better with so many quality players. http://mississippistate.s...mp;csid=null&yr=2004<div>
</div><div>We were tied for 114th in the nation in scoring offense that year. Norwood scored 2 TD's against Florida....and only 5 the rest of the season.</div>

 

[thunderclap]

Jackie left the cupboard bare, and it was going to take at least 5 years, and winning and losing had nothing to do with it, and we were trying to build a foundation the right way, and we are, by God, going to run the West Coast offense, and so forth and so on....

 

[rugbdawg]

and foundation allowed Mullen to have the solid first year that he did. Hearing that makes me want to feed the Walrus donuts through his mouth and intravenously until his stomach bursts open internally. Eventually, he will die of internal bleeding or food poisoning. Throughout this painful death, I will force him to watch replays of the 45-0 thrashing.

 

[PBRME]

Don't forget we had returning starters at kicker and punter that Croom decided to bench in place of crap. That was a complete disaster from the start. His intent was to weed out the former players as quickly as possible, no pun intended. The problem with that theory was he decided to take a mulligan on hiring his staff and 1st recruiting class.

Lets see, you run off your depth, you skipyour first recruiting class, youbench the players that you try to run off that won't leave, you hire your inept friends to fill positions they have no businessfilling, andthen you install a complicated yet easy to defend offense that does not match the talent you have at any point in your tenure.I wish he would've gone with his first instinct, or indegestion, whatever it was, and turned down this offer. Croom along with Larry should've been tar and feathered and run out of town. Thanks for the 5 years of self imposed probation asswipes.

</p>

 

[Seinfeld]

There were two things that turned the Croom experiment into the mother of all college football disasters

1. Croom has a personality that essentially results in him never, under any circumstances, believing that anything is his fault. Call it being stubborn, being defensive, or just having shameful pride. Whatever the case, I don't think that he seriously ever believed that he made a bad decision and he coached that way. If a player needed some direction, get rid of him because it was Jackie's recruit. If a kid missed curfew, it was the parents' fault for poor parenting. If a play didn't work, the player's didn't execute. If he couldn't recruit, it was the state's fault for not having a better school system to provide enough eligible athletes. The list goes on and on but dammit, there wasn't a damn thing in 5 years of misery that was Sly's fault.

2. Croom came in knowing good and well that he was lock for 4-5 years. Hell, I think he was even promised by T that he'd have 4 years AFTER probation ended. But even after T was let go, Croom knew that MSU wasn't about to be the first to hire and immediately fire a black head coach in the SEC without an outstanding reason, so he came in coasting and never got out of it. If he had not come into the program with such a lazy *** attitude, I really think that he could have been successful in spite of his numerous flaws. There is absolutely no reason for Croom to have recruited as poorly as he did.

I dislike the man greatly for being such a failure as a coach at MSU, but I completely despise him for being even less of a person. For as much as that fat bastard loved to get up on a podium and preach, he had more despicable human traits than some of my most hated enemies.

 

[KurtRambis4]

tried to tell y'all...but got laughed at

 

[therightway]

It was only allowed by the college board for a 4 year contract. His contract was renewed to keep our part of the deal because he demanded I think an 8 year deal. This could only be done on a hand shake. Not to make this political but look at the comparison between Croom and Obama. Croom blamed Jackie for years telling us how bad the program was when he got here. Now contrast that to Mullen. His words were that we learned that we could get to Atlanta and we will be back. I cannot imagine the morale of the team when he was publicly talking about how they sucked.</p>

 

[JudgeMathis]

There were two things that turned the Croom experiment into the mother of all college football disasters

1. Croom has a personality that essentially results in him never, under any circumstances, believing that anything is his fault. Call it being stubborn, being defensive, or just having shameful pride. Whatever the case, I don't think that he seriously ever believed that he made a bad decision and he coached that way. If a player needed some direction, get rid of him because it was Jackie's recruit. If a kid missed curfew, it was the parents' fault for poor parenting. If a play didn't work, the player's didn't execute. If he couldn't recruit, it was the state's fault for not having a better school system to provide enough eligible athletes. The list goes on and on but dammit, there wasn't a damn thing in 5 years of misery that was Sly's fault.

2. Croom came in knowing good and well that he was lock for 4-5 years. Hell, I think he was even promised by T that he'd have 4 years AFTER probation ended. But even after T was let go, Croom knew that MSU wasn't about to be the first to hire and immediately fire a black head coach in the SEC without an outstanding reason, so he came in coasting and never got out of it. If he had not come into the program with such a lazy *** attitude, I really think that he could have been successful in spite of his numerous flaws. There is absolutely no reason for Croom to have recruited as poorly as he did.

I dislike the man greatly for being such a failure as a coach at MSU, but I completely despise him for being even less of a person. For as much as that fat bastard loved to get up on a podium and preach, he had more despicable human traits than some of my most hated enemies.

Slow clap.

 

[Todd4State]

First of all, let's not forget the schedule that we had that year. We should have been bowling.

We lost to:

UAB
Vanderbilt
A bad Ole Miss team
And then there's someone else I'm forgetting- oh yeah! 17ing Maine

We beat Tulane, Florida (WTF? Just being honest, even though it was Zook), and Kentucky.

A bad below average coach with below average talent could have easily beaten at least three out of four between UAB, Vandy, Maine and Ole Miss. We should have been no worse than a five win team, and probably should have won seven. That was a fairly easy schedule.

Second of all- about the seven year grace period- If someone comes up to you and says you have seven years guaranteed to be a coach, you're pretty ****** if you say, well, I'll just milk it for all it's worth. If we told Dan that he had seven years free, do you think he would sit back and chill out, or do you think he would bust his ***. Anyone with balls would try to do the best that they could just out of sheer pride.

Next- I believe Croom not knowing the recruiting game killed him. He assumed it would be like Alabama where the Bear had the whole state brainwashed and good kids would flock over to Starkville to play for him. Unfortunately, Croom didn't realize that only happens at Alabama and that Mississippi State people are sane.


Bottom line- he was a bad coach that was in over his head in the SEC. He should have started out somewhere smaller like Louisiana-Monroe and learned the ropes.

 

[paindonthurt_]

did croom suck? An astounding yes, but he did leave us some talent.

 

[thunderclap]

if you don't count the offensive side of the ball, or depth everywhere.

 

[boomboommsu]

I hate that piss-poor coach as much as the next bastard, but i've got to disagree on 'coasting'. I only ever saw Croom up close one time. I was leaving a baseball game one night, and had parked in the lot by the athletic office building. Croom was parked near me and was leaving at the same time. Don't remember how late it was, but it was dark and after a game, so 9 to 10 is a good guess. Anyone who works that late should not be accused of coasting.

 

[rugbdawg]

else we were horrible. Even our linebackers and and D-line were probably below average for the SEC. He left the program worst than when he got here, no doubt.

 

[GloryDawg]

I hate that piss-poor coach as much as the next bastard, but i've got to disagree on 'coasting'. I only ever saw Croom up close one time. I was leaving a baseball game one night, and had parked in the lot by the athletic office building. Croom was parked near me and was leaving at the same time. Don't remember how late it was, but it was dark and after a game, so 9 to 10 is a good guess. Anyone who works that late should not be accused of coasting.

Maybehe waswaiting at the office until everyone had left so that he could raid the office refrigerator.A coach of a D-1 programe should have his *** in shape to set the example. That goes for any coach at any level.

 

[paindonthurt_]

our front 7 is very good on d.
our whole starting secondary was recruited by him with the exception of maybe 1 (supposed to be decent this year).

our whole o-line was recruited by him
we have several running backs with potential.

was the guy great at anything? no. but you don't compete in the SEC the way we did last year without some talent. It just doesn't happen. Crooms problem is he couldn't coach for ****. Therefore his talent always looked terrible.