This article is in response to the article by Del Cox on Page A6 of the Oct. 13 of The Reflector.
Entering this football season, Mississippi State fans expected a complete turnaround this year, partially because coach Sylvester Croom promised us a better team than the ones in the past.
But I don’t think Croom fully realized the mess that he was getting into. People are continuing to back the proposition of firing coach Croom, but what they don’t realize is that this so-called “underachieving” is not his fault.
If you look at the schedule that our football team has endured this year, you will realize that we have played the toughest schedule in the entire nation. We have played No. 3-ranked Auburn team No. 6-ranked LSU and No. 4-ranked West Virginia, and we still have to play top 20-ranked Arkansas.
Can you find a team in the nation that will have to play good teams like that week in and week out? No, you can’t. You can throw out all the stats about the worst offense in the SEC, or coach Croom not getting the job done.
We are an average football team going up against nationally-ranked opponents almost every week. MSU is still overcast by the shadow that Jackie Sherrill left, and we are just a few years away from coming out of that shadow and Croom having complete control over the reasons that players come to Mississippi State.
If people haven’t noticed, Mississippi State is currently in the top 25 in recruiting and has been close to the Top 25 the two years previous to this one. Croom is getting high school players to come to Starkville and give MSU some actual consideration.
We have amazing young, prospective talent in the form of Anthony Dixon, Michael Henig and Tray Rutland. They are the future of the Mississippi State backfield. We have amazing young talent that have been recruited by coach Croom, and they will be active players in the future of State football.
Fans expected Tray Rutland to come in and perform like a Heisman candidate, not bearing in mind the fact that his first collegiate snaps came in the second quarter of a nationally-televised SEC game. By the way, he’s a freshman. We have young players that are being put into leading roles very early in their careers, and we expect them to excel right off the bat. Those are impossible expectations.
What Mississippi State fans need to do is give coach Croom the benefit of the doubt, and not put so much pressure on him to turn MSU into an SEC powerhouse in just two and a half years. That is not long enough to turn around a program that was left in shambles with recruiting violations at the end of the Sherrill era. He needs time to fully implement his strategies in the minds of our young players and turn this football team back into the prestigious program that it was meant to be.