Croom resigns at Miss St

From ESPN

JACKSON, Miss. — Sylvester Croom resigned from Mississippi State on Saturday, five years after becoming the Southeastern Conference’s first black head football coach.

Croom announced the decision after meeting with athletic director Greg Byrne. It came less than 24 hours after an embarrassing 45-0 loss to No. 25 Mississippi in the most lopsided Egg Bowl in 37 years.
Croom and Doom

Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom resigned Saturday, a day after his team lost 45-0 at Ole Miss, the Rebels’ second-biggest win ever in the rivalry. Croom was 21-38 in five seasons and lost eight-plus games in four of his five years. The major problem was offense. It simply never got better under Croom.

Mississippi State Offense
Under Croom, FBS Ranks Total Scoring
2008 105th 113th
2007 113th 96th
2006 103th 97th
2005 113th 113th
2004 107th T-114th

Croom, who took over the team while it was under NCAA sanctions, won 2007 SEC coach of the year honors after leading the Bulldogs to an 8-5 finish and the Liberty Bowl. He signed a contract extension in the offseason that paid him $1.7 million this year.

But he came under immediate pressure from fans after a season-opening loss to Louisiana Tech of the Western Athletic Conference, and the heat only intensified as the offensively inept Bulldogs stumbled to a 4-8 finish.

The coach was 21-38 overall. He did not immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press.

“Five years ago, Mississippi State gave me the unprecedented opportunity to be a head football coach in the Southeastern Conference and to build a program based upon a strong foundation,” Croom said in a statement.

“We have tried to build a program the right way that can compete for conference championships. I believe the foundation has been set for those goals to be reached under the leadership of someone else, and it was my decision to resign.”

Byrne was scheduled to meet with reporters later Saturday afternoon.

Calls for Croom to make changes to his coaching staff and run-first offensive philosophy dogged the Bulldogs. The team continued to have trouble at quarterback and Croom switched starters midway through the season.

A source familiar with Croom’s situation at Mississippi State told ESPN.com’s Pat Forde that the breaking point was not a refusal on Croom’s part to make staff changes; an important issue was the continuing ineptitude of the Bulldogs’ offense under Croom. In five years, Mississippi State has never ranked in the NCAA top 100 in total offense.

The Bulldogs were 11th in the SEC in scoring offense (16.6 points per game) and 10th in total offense (297.7 yards per game) through 11 games and lost badly at Georgia Tech (38-7) and Tennessee (34-3). Yet some optimism remained that Mississippi State could salvage a bit of pride and its promising recruiting class after a 31-28 win over Arkansas last week and with a good game against the revitalized Rebels.

Croom even got a vote of confidence from incoming Mississippi State president Mark Keenum.

But Mississippi State was outmatched from the start and looked poorly prepared against Ole Miss. The quarterbacks were hit hard on nine of their first 10 pass attempts as the Rebels put together a school-record 11 sacks and set another mark by holding the Bulldogs to minus-51 yards rushing.

Croom seemed stunned after the game.

“They came in here with the idea they were going to beat us bad, and they did from start to finish,” Croom said. “I don’t know why what happened today occurred. I’m sorry to say that it’s an absolute mystery to me.”

Byrne, a new hire who’s been on the job less than a year, wouldn’t comment on the speculation surrounding the football team during the season but said Saturday that a possible resignation was discussed in the morning meeting.

“We discussed the football program and many topics were addressed, including resignation,” Byrne said in a statement. “I want to thank Coach Croom for the leadership he has provided our football program over the last five years.”

While Croom wasn’t able to squeeze many wins out of his tenure, there’s little question he improved a Mississippi State program that was at its lowest ebb. The Bulldogs were hit with major sanctions following rules violations under previous coach Jackie Sherrill and had won just three games a season between 2001-03.

Hired Dec. 1, 2003, the Bear Bryant disciple who had been an all-American center at Alabama and an NFL assistant for 17 seasons inherited a team low on talent. Heavy sanctions and the SEC’s lowest budget made the challenge even steeper.

“We couldn’t even get recruits to visit campus,” Croom said this week while talking about his early recruiting efforts.

But Croom upgraded the talent enough that the Bulldogs were competitive in the nation’s toughest conference and they earned their first winning season since 2000 last year, capping it with a 10-3 win over Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl.

He also was having success off the field, drawing commitments from several top recruits, including a quarterback.

A spokesman said players would not be available Saturday, but some defended Croom following Friday’s loss.

“I think it is unfair,” wide receiver Delmon Robinson said of the criticism. “When it’s man-to-man coverage, it’s the receiver against the [defensive back]. If the receiver doesn’t win, it’s not the coach’s fault that he didn’t win. It’s all about the players. We’ve got to win and we’ve got to go out there and execute coach’s plays.”

It was the second straight season an embarrassing loss in the Egg Bowl led to a coaching change. Coach Ed Orgeron was fired a day after the Rebels collapsed in a 17-14 loss. Ole Miss led 14-0 going into the fourth quarter, but Orgeron went for it on fourth down at midfield. The Bulldogs stopped the play, went on to score and finished with 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

Byrne said Croom’s assistants remain under contract and will work until a new coach is hired. He told Forde that Mississippi State’s search for a successor begins immediately and will be national in scope. He declined to discuss any specific potential candidates but said he wanted a “passionate leader who is capable of helping us win in the SEC. We have a lot of talent here in this state, and a very supportive fan base. We can win here.”

Among the coaches Mississippi State might target to replace Croom are Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables, East Carolina coach Skip Holtz and TCU coach Gary Patterson.

“Looking forward I plan to work closely with athletic director Greg Byrne to move quickly, but with due deliberation, to find a new head football coach with high energy and a commitment to compete for championships and bowl opportunities in the best conference in America,” Keenum said.

There likely will be several candidates for a coveted SEC job, but Mississippi State’s new coach shouldn’t get comfortable. There have been coaching changes at five of six SEC West schools in the past five years, with only Tommy Tuberville at Auburn lasting through that time. And even he’s facing criticism in a losing season.

The Rebels’ new coach, Houston Nutt, had been at Arkansas for 10 years before resigning after last season and moving to Ole Miss. But he believes tenures like that could be a thing of the past because fans and boosters have little patience for losing.

“It’s sad, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Nutt said. “It’s the way of the world in college football right now.”

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3733168

Latest SEC Rankings

1. Alabama: Alabama may not be the flashest team in the SEC but they have proved they are one of the best teams in the nation.

2. Florida: Better than Alabama maybe. The SEC championship will prove that one way or the other.

3. Georgia: 3rd best in the SEC yes able to win the ACC probably. 2nd best in the PAC 10 on way.

4. LSU: Beating Troy St with unanswered points good enough to rate them 4th in the SEC.

5. South Carolina: The ol ball coach thought he had a contender but South Carolina has had enough offensive problems to keep them in the middle of the pack.

6. Vanderbilt: Bowl elegable for the first time since 82 and finally living up to their first five games. Should be favoried over Tennessee.

9. Old Miss: Have the next SEC quarterback star and would probably rank in the top 6 in the ACC or Big East.

8. Kentucky: Banged up and no offensive but the defense even giving up 30+ points in the last few games still makes them better than the bottom of the SEC.

9. Arkansas: Who to rank 9th took some thought but not to much. Better than Auburn, Tennesee and Miss St.

10. Auburn: What

11. Tennessee: Whats keeping Tennesee out of the cellar? Mississippi St

12. Mississippi State: The worst offence in the SEC and a defense thats not living up to what is expected of them.

Curse be Gone

Robbie McAtee used a can of Curse be Gone on receiver Eldred King at the one yard line as time expired and Kentucky held on for a 20-14 victory over Middle Tennessee.

McAtee’s game-saving ankle tackle came after Middle Tennessee quarterback Joe Craddock heaved a desperation pass 61 yards in what appeared to be a last-second victory for the Blue Raiders. Instead, McAtee’s tackle kept Kentucky undefeated (3-0) and prevented the Blue Raiders (1-2) from a second straight win over a major conference foe, having beaten Maryland a week earlier.

Mike Hartline threw the first two touchdown passes of his Kentucky career. What was expected to be a timeshare at quarterback for the Wildcats ended up being Hartline’s job alone, at least for one week, as freshman speedster Randall Cobb hurt an ankle on a special teams play in the first quarter and didn’t return.

There was no immediate word on the extent of Cobb’s injury.

Twice Hartline led Kentucky’s offense into the end zone after the Blue Raiders had gained the lead.

The Wildcats took the lead for good, 17-14, early in the fourth quarter on a 6-yard toss from Hartline to Derrick Locke. The play was set up by three Hartline passes of 10 yards or longer — one preserved by an acrobatic one-handed catch from Dicky Lyons Jr.

Hartline was 28-for-47 with 254 yards 2tds and no interceptions.

Week 2 SEC rankings

Other than moving Georgia to the top our SEC ranking dont show much in the way of change. We should get a clearer picture of who the bottom dwellers in the SEC are after the Georgia-South Carolina and Auburn-Mississippi St games.

1. Georgia — Ok now the Dawgs start getting to the meat of their schedule rather than chewing on bones thrown to them. South Carolinas defense should prove more of a challenge to the Dawgs but their offense will kill SC. Its hard not to rank them at the top of the SEC right now.

2. Florida — Miami made the Gators look beatable. Tim Tebow kept them in the game with his running but the offense didnt look all that great. The Gators defense is looking much better than they did last year.

3. LSU — They didnt play Saturday but the Tigers are still better than the rest of the SEC.

4. Auburn — The Tigers look like they are gelling at the quarterback position and learning the offense. Playing a suddenly bad looking Mississippi St. team even at the Bulldogs home shouldnt be a problem for the Tigers.

5. Alabama — Alabama looked like they decided to take a nap against Tulane. Nap this week against Western Kentucky and people will begin to wonder if their first win wasnt a fluke.

6. Vanderbilt — Ranking Vandy this high might be a stretch but they are in the 6 to 8 range.

7. Kentucky — Their defense is the real deal, having given up only three points in the first two games. Randall Cobb made the offense look much better and baring a loss to a capable Middle Tennessee team and the Cats should be 4-0 going into the Alabama game.

8. Ole Miss — Even though the Rebels lost they are still a good team and if their defense can manage to improve they will be a team to recon with in the SEC west. Their offense looks solid and will continue to improve.

9. Tennessee — Im moving the Vols up only because South Carolina looked so bad against Vandy. They could easily be 2-4 to start the season.

10. Miss. State — The Bulldogs won against won easily against Southeastern Louisiana but are going to have to do better if they want to move up next week.

11. South Carolina — Is there a offence for the gamecocks. The game this weekend is either a make or brake game for the Gamecocks. If the coaching staff cant manage to get them to rise to the occasion against the Dawgs.

12. Arkansas — 2-0 to start the season and ranked last. Texas will be the first to show how weak the Hogs really are.

BCS Busters

Utah survived 25-23 over Michigan to remain in contention as a BCS Buster. They put up 313 yards in the first half and held on to beat Michigan. Utah dual purpose kicker Louie Sakoda had field goals of 28, 43, 41 and 53 and punted six times for 283 yds.

East Carolina defeated Virginia Tech 27-22 when T.J. Lee returned his own blocked punt 27 yards for a touchdown with 1:52 left.

Boise St had no problem in beating Idaho St 49-7. Boise St had 352 yds passing and 230 yds rushing in their blow out. They could have scored in the last few seconds but did the right thing.

BYU beat Northern Iowa 41-17. Max Hall threw for 486 yards and two touchdowns and Dennis Pitta had a career-best 213 receiving yards for the Cougars as they extended the longest winning streak in the nation to 11.

TCU had no problem in beating New Mexico 26-3. Quarterback Andy Dalton ran for two touchdowns as TCU took advantage of New Mexico’s first-half mistakes and went on to a 26-3 win Saturday in the season-opener for both teams.

After a slow first half Fresno St dominated the second half with 166 yds rushing by Ryan Mathews. The final score was Fresno St 24 Rutgers 7. Next up Fresno St has on Wisconson on saturday at Fresno.

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