Sylvester Croom is a good man but not a very good head football coach.
That was the sentiment of many Greenwood Mississippi State fans Saturday who were glad to see Croom step down five seasons after becoming the Southeastern Conference's first black head football coach.
Croom was 21-38 with four losing seasons. He led the Bulldogs to an 8-5 campaign last year and a win in the Liberty Bowl.
But that success was short-lived after another disappointing season in 2008. The Bulldogs' woes started with an embarrassing loss to Louisiana Tech and ended at 4-8 after a humiliating 45-0 loss to archrival Ole Miss on Friday.
John Carl Taylor said the Bulldogs looked so pitiful against Ole Miss that he wasn't surprised by the coach's resignation.
"His team was out-coached and out-played and looked ill prepared to face Ole Miss. You can't be there five years and only have one winning season and then lose to your bitter rival 45-0," Taylor said. "Stepping down was the only option he had.
"I wanted him to succeed because he's a great man of character, but the program needed a change. Things were too fragmented."
Much of Taylor's criticism of Croom's teams was a lack of imagination on offense and the inability to recruit a top-notch quarterback.
"You've got to have a good quarterback in the SEC. Look at what's happened to LSU this year," Taylor explained.
Paul Lyon agrees: "He's a good man, but it was time for a change. The offense never got going in five years under Croom.
"The stat that jumps out at me is that out of 119 schools in Division I-A, State's offense has been ranked over 100 each year Croom has been here."
Former Bulldog offensive lineman Michael Fair, the head football coach at Pillow Academy, said it was time for a change in Starkville because it's "obvious what we had wasn't working."
"I know how hard the coaching profession can be, and I hate to see folks have to pack up their families and leave. But some times that's what's best for the program," said Fair, who played at State under Jackie Sherrill.
Diehard MSU fan Beth Leflore was somewhat shocked at her reaction to Croom's resignation.
"It's kind of strange because I wanted a change at the top, but I felt sorry for him on a personal basis when it finally happened. … But something had to change."
But there are local fans who still supported Croom and would have liked to see him as their head coach next season.
Hal Coleman, a Schlater farmer, happens to be one of those people.
"I thought he deserved another year with all the injuries and off-the-field problems that cost him some of his best players and the strong recruiting class he had committed," Coleman said. "I think he was close to turning the corner. … But there is something wrong when after five years the best quarterback you have is a walk-on."
Former Bulldog standout center Kent Hull would have liked to see Croom stay but make some changes at the assistant level.
"If he had been fired rather than resign, I wouldn't be happy with the situation at all. But coach Croom probably did what he felt was best for the program," said Hull, who played for the Bulldogs from 1979-1982 before going onto a successful professional career in football.
"Like most coaches, he was very loyal to his assistants, and that might have been the difference in his staying or going."
Croom had been under heavy pressure from the fan base the last few years to fire offensive coordinator Woody McCorvey.
That pressure intensified after MSU lost 97 yards on 11 sacks and was held to minus-51 yards rushing in Friday's Egg Bowl loss to Ole Miss.
