Free Republic

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Sylvester Croom is a baaad man. Bad in terms of 5 a.m. "detention" runs for Mississippi State players who miss class. Bad in terms of kicking players who don't tow a very sudden and very strict line off the team. Bad in terms of stopping the undisciplined, slap-ass sloppy Jackie Sherrill era dead in its tracks during the first team meeting. "One of the kids' cell phones went off," said athletic director Larry Templeton. "Sly went over there and stood in front of him and said, 'Son, when I talk, I expect every eye in this room...

<p>STARKVILLE — Sylvester Croom knew what he was looking for after coaching so many years in the National Football League: a small town full of passion for the game, a place he could get to know the fans on a first-name basis, a situation where criticism from the faithful is a good thing because it comes from the heart.</p>

<p>John Mitchell knows about breaking down doors of racism so others may enter. He knows about college football and Deep South mores and the collision between them.</p> <p>First African-American player at the University of Alabama. First African-American co-captain for the same Crimson Tide. First African-American assistant coach in the Southeastern Conference.</p>

<p>Sylvester Croom inherits a program that is 8-27 since 2001 with just three SEC victories.</p> <p>Other than Vandy, which makes a point of being woeful, no football program in the SEC struggles more than Mississippi State. The name of the town where the school is located pretty much says it all -- Starkville. Sounds like the name of one of the Coen brothers movies. Mississippi State is a second-class citizen in a universe that is made up of aristocrats like Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, Florida and so on. This is a program that has gotten used to the back of the bus, to sharecropping a hard-scrabble little farm and looking up at the fine plantations on the hill.</p>

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State made history today, hiring Green Bay Packers running backs coach Sylvester Croom as the school's first African-American head football coach. Croom, who succeeds the retired Jackie Sherrill, is also the first African-American head football coach in the history of the Southeastern Conference. Until today, the SEC was the only one of the six most powerful football-playing conferences in the country — the half-dozen that comprise the Bowl Championship Series — that had not had at least one black head football coach at one of its member institutions. State made the announcement in a 4 p.m. news...

Sylvester Croom became the first black football coach in the history of the Southestern Football Conference, accepting an offer Monday to take over Mississippi State.The school announced Croom's decision in a release posted on its website. A news conference will be held Tuesday to introduce him.Croom came close to landing the Alabama head football coaching job after Mike Price was abruptly dismissed in May.The Crimson Tide were crizicized by some, including civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, for hiring Mike Shula, who is white, over Croom, who has more experience.Every other Major Bowl Championship conference has had at least one black...

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State appears to have focused its search for a new coach on Green Bay Packers assistant Sylvester Croom. Athletic director Larry Templeton declined comment Saturday night when asked if he offered Croom the job and was now waiting for the 49-year-old coach to decide if he wanted to take it. "I'm comfortable with where we are in the process," said Templeton, who has said almost nothing publicly about the search. Templeton and university president Charles Lee flew to Green Bay on Friday, according to flight records reported by The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson on Saturday. Croom...