Sec storied on sylvester croom on sec now

[Mobile Bay]

I couldn't remember which Florida school he played for. You know damn well I didn't mean The University of Florida, I just didn't feel like looking it up.

 

[Mobile Bay]

I'd always heard that Carroll ignored Croom's play calls on the winning drive at the Liberty Bowl in 2007 against Central Florida. If true, that might have been the root cause of Croom not liking him.

It wouldn't surprise me if he did in the game at Auburn that year. As I remember it both teams had **** for offense. But for one drive we seemed to come alive and score the winning TD of the game. It was like we woke up for just a bit, and went back to sleep afterward.

 

[Mobile Bay]

not only that but LT and Pres Less literally begged him at least twice to take the job. Croom later stated that he finally accepted the job because his daughter encouraged him. He had sour grapes because the only job he ever wanted was the Alabama job and he was never ever going to get it anyway regardless of talk about him being a runner up to Shula

As I understand it Paul Bryant Jr. said, "No (insert highly offensive racial slur here) will ever have my daddy's job"

And that is why the word here in Alabama that Croom was a done deal for them went away.

 

[CoolDawg]

With all the other failed coaches that we have had, I can look back nostalgically at their tenure at MSU, except for Croom. There is absolutely nothing fondly I remember about him. Many of the reasons have already been mentioned. The one thing I can add is his stubborn insistence on having Woody McCorvey as offensive coordinator and the west coast offense.

 

[rustydawg2]

I think you're talking about Tyson Lee. Carroll was listed at 6'1" so he was probably 6ft. Lee was listed at 5'11" so he was probably shorter, that dude was a sprite for the SEC

Saw Tyson a few weeks ago in Memphis. He’s the lower school principal at ECS in Germantown. I’m 6’3” flat footed and he’s not a little guy. I’d guess he’s around 6 feet. Very impressive work he’s doing.

 

[was21]

and strangely enough, McCorvey had never run that offense as an OC. Croom simply gave the job to him because he was his friend.

 

[bullymcbullerson]

For some reason, one of my favorite Six Pack quotes that I remember reading on here...

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone cry as much as Croom while quoting himself.”

Or something to that effect. That’s what made me never want to watch the ESPN special, and I still haven’t.

 

[Todd4State]

Funny story from that time. Couple players relayed to me that Croom was so stubborn about the offense that he wouldn't let his best WR's just play. They had to be in an exact spot. Thus negating the speed and agility to get open. If it was a 5 yard drag, they couldn't run full out, they had to hit "the spot" he wanted. If that allowed the defender to keep up, oh well.

He was unwilling to modify routes so that guys could be at full speed.

I had a co-worker that was on the team during that time and he told me Croom would put in plays in practice like have Pegues in the wildcat and then never run them in a game.

 

[Msubulldogfan1]

This is a beautiful thread.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

I didn’t know we were specifically talking about 2007.

I think they both played in our daunting opening loss @ Louisiana Tech in 2008. Wes lead us to a bowl victory his Freshman year. And I’m not positive he actually started the LT game.

 

[PineGroveBully]

Carroll? He was only 1 pass attempt away from tying Mike Gundy’s record for most attempts to start a career, then threw a pick six at Alabama right on cue.

The thing about Croom that drove me so insane was he couldn’t do an interview without saying Mike Henig had the best arm he had ever saw.

 

[$altyDawg]

I didn't remember that about his start, but as a whole, in 2007 and 2008 he threw 14 INT's and 12 TD's. Henig threw 1 TD with 9 Int's. Wow, those were tough times to watch.

 

[00Dawg]

I had several opportunities to be around Coach Croom....

in a public setting and then in private. Honestly, I'd have loved to been on his team for a moment when he was giving a big speech. He could seriously turn on some gravitas.

On the down side he could be just as stubborn in person as in his team's offensive play calling and he could be borderline hostile when he wasn't getting what he wanted, even in little things. It did not surprise me that he wasn't a successful head coach at State. If he had turned control of the offense over to someone else besides Woody and hired some crackerjack recruiters, he would've won a lot more games, but I don't think his nature would let him do the former, and LT wasn't going to push him to do the latter.

We owe that 2007 season to the seniors on that team, who seized (and inspired others to seize) control of the team at critical junctures.