With permission - Paul Jones's first "biscuit" from this morning...
- Thread starter dawgstudent
- Start date
I struggle to explain or imagine how Croom could have been so awful at special teams - not playing the best kicker on the team, not recruiting kickers, not recruiting kickers to replace guys that clearly couldn't win a job on most decent high school teams.
He told us he was attempting to win, obviously he wasn't. Thank God those days are gone where I wished we had the kicker from the punt, pass, and kick halftime contest.
I went to USM for a year and vividly remember two of the coaches coming out to one of our flag football practices because they heard a guy on our team could kick the leather off the ball. They asked him to kick a few for them right then and there, which he did and they offered him a spot on the team because the current kicker wasn't cutting it. Ultimately he turned them down because he was a senior and didn't want to do all the traveling etc., but damn it was just that easy. Go to hell Croom.
Crooms and company for so long. and it makes me want fo 17 ***** slap anyone who says or still says "Croom was doing it the right way and cleaning up the program."
I need a pepcid.
I need a pepcid.
Don't forget he benched the returning starting punter and kicker in 04. I believe it was Cook and Westerfield. I don't remember who he replaced them with, I just remember our kicking game was horrible that season along with 05, 06, & 08. Yes, the blind squirrell finally found his nut in 07.
When it came to special teams Croom has no clue at all, or he just didn't care
1. Making no attempts find better options than Carlson or McAdams
2. Telling Pegues to run straight ahead into the backs of his blockers on kick returns
3. Punting from the 30, and going for it from the 40
4. Pooch kicking the ball to the 30 which usually resulted in a 15-20 yard return thus giving the other team midfield starting position
We could probably make a page long thread of Croom's special team blunders.
When it came to special teams Croom has no clue at all, or he just didn't care
1. Making no attempts find better options than Carlson or McAdams
2. Telling Pegues to run straight ahead into the backs of his blockers on kick returns
3. Punting from the 30, and going for it from the 40
4. Pooch kicking the ball to the 30 which usually resulted in a 15-20 yard return thus giving the other team midfield starting position
We could probably make a page long thread of Croom's special team blunders.
As someone above said, that's the Crxxm era in a nutshell. And just think, if dubmass would've let Depasquele kick, we win two more games in '08 and we've never heard of Dan Mullen. Let that soak in.</p>
Players are not allowed to have phones on the field.
"ANd I must also clarify on DePasquale and thats my mistake. I meant to
say he got a friend standing on the sidelines to text his mom. My bad
and that did sound bad."
"ANd I must also clarify on DePasquale and thats my mistake. I meant to
say he got a friend standing on the sidelines to text his mom. My bad
and that did sound bad."
Posts about how Crooms was a giant Charlie Foxtrot will still get our blood boiling in 10 years.
and he said that he did not know anything about kicking a football. He just let them do their thing. This was our SPECIAL TEAMS coach during the Croom era. That is all you need to hear to see why we were unsuccessful. Croom had incompetent people in positions that they had no business being in.
As stated above, if we made the missed field goal in 3-2 game and made the missed field goal and extra point against Kentucky in 08, Crxxms would have put us in back to back bowl games and probably be named SEC coach of the year again.
No Mullen. More Gulf Coast offense.
Not singing DePasquale in 08 might have been the best thing to ever happen to State.
No Mullen. More Gulf Coast offense.
Not singing DePasquale in 08 might have been the best thing to ever happen to State.
I was sitting withmy wife in a luxury box on the east side of the stadium near the north end zone. We are sitting about even with the goal line. We are playing Arkansas. I don't remember what year and I am too lazy to look it up, but I know Jerious Norwood was on the team.
We are driving to try and score before halftime. We get down inside the 5 yard line (on the end where we are sitting)but have used all of our timeouts and time is running out. Now I am one of those people who likes to try and educate my wife on football so she can understand strategy, and she actually likes to learn. I explained that with no timeouts, we will pass the ball. The quarterback will be instructed to throw the ball where it will be a touchdown or an incompletion. In other words, if the guy is open for a touchdown you will throw it to him. If not, you will throw it into the stands behind the endzone. This will stop the clock and allow for the field goal team to come onto the field and us get 3 needed points in a close game. I even explained that often times coaches call for the quarterback to roll out. This gets him outside of the tackle box which allows him to throw the ball away without worrying about the dreaded intentional grounding call. It also allows him to run it into the endzone for a touchdown if it is wide open. However, you can't take a sack or get tackled in the field of play because the clock will keep running. We will not have time to run another play. Therefore I told my wife emphatically, "there is no way any coach will run the ball here".
Well, Croom called a running play. Arkansas stopped us. Arkansas then took forever to get off of the pile (as well coached teams will do). We were unable to get the field goal team on the field or run another play before half because the clock expired, and we didn't get 3 or 7 points.
We are driving to try and score before halftime. We get down inside the 5 yard line (on the end where we are sitting)but have used all of our timeouts and time is running out. Now I am one of those people who likes to try and educate my wife on football so she can understand strategy, and she actually likes to learn. I explained that with no timeouts, we will pass the ball. The quarterback will be instructed to throw the ball where it will be a touchdown or an incompletion. In other words, if the guy is open for a touchdown you will throw it to him. If not, you will throw it into the stands behind the endzone. This will stop the clock and allow for the field goal team to come onto the field and us get 3 needed points in a close game. I even explained that often times coaches call for the quarterback to roll out. This gets him outside of the tackle box which allows him to throw the ball away without worrying about the dreaded intentional grounding call. It also allows him to run it into the endzone for a touchdown if it is wide open. However, you can't take a sack or get tackled in the field of play because the clock will keep running. We will not have time to run another play. Therefore I told my wife emphatically, "there is no way any coach will run the ball here".
Well, Croom called a running play. Arkansas stopped us. Arkansas then took forever to get off of the pile (as well coached teams will do). We were unable to get the field goal team on the field or run another play before half because the clock expired, and we didn't get 3 or 7 points.
Stringer flat told Croom he knew nothing about kicking and punting. He did tell Croom however, that he could handle the covering and returning aspects. This was still done poorly. However, Croom dictated to him how he wanted it done and what personnel to use. For instance, I know for a fact that Stringer told Croom he wasn't comfortable with Wade Bonner returning kicks due to ball security issues. Stringer wanted to use someone else. Croom insisted that Bonner return kicks, and thenBonner fumbled away the kickoff in the opener versus LaTech.