A Round of Goff
Josh Goff

Mississippi State finally did something right.

Something cutting-edge going on at Starkville? Surely not.

Strange as it may be, in the podunk cesspool known mostly for its inordinate amount of cowbells and backwards thinking, they’re taking a giant step forward.

Longtime MSU coach Jackie Sherrill retired at the end of the season, leaving the school’s administration the unenviable task of finding somebody to take over a program mired in the SEC West cellar three years running.

Not many established, creditable coaches are going to beat down your door when you’ve won a total of eight games (three in conference) over a three-year span. The list gets smaller when they realize your door is in Starkville, Miss.

In what has been a dark time for the Bulldogs, they seem to have found a silver lining.

And it’s black.

To be more accurate, he’s black.

Enter Sylvester Croom, 49, who played under the legendary Bear Bryant and has coached in the NFL since 1986. Croom, who has served as running backs coach for the Green Bay Packers since 2001, has never served as a head coach.

This is un-chartered territory for him.

And the SEC.

The hiring of Croom marks the first time in the long, illustrious history of SEC football that a black man has been named head coach.

Wasting no time in offering the job to Croom was the best thing MSU could have done.

The Bulldogs have gotten accustomed to losing, but with this move they win on so many levels.

By hiring a black man as head coach (only four of 117 Division I-A football schools employed black head coaches this season), you instantly make yourself a media darling. By breaking a long-standing barrier and having the first black head coach in SEC football history, you just increased the affection tenfold.

Personally, I don’t care whether a coach is black, white, yellow, periwinkle or chartreuse. Just so long as he isn’t green.

Some people, on the other hand, do. Many folks feel that black coaches should be given special consideration, no matter if a perfectly suitable white candidate is available. The NFL fined the Detroit Lions for not giving enough consideration to black coaches before hiring Steve Mariucci. The SEC provides lists of potential black head coaching candidates to its member institutions’ athletic directors. Jesse Jackson rants and raves in every outlet he can when a white man is chosen over a black man, credentials be damned.

By hiring yourself a black head coach, you’ve just endeared yourself to a huge segment of the population and won a major public relations battle. You can’t buy press like that, and it helps recruiting tremendously.

Croom himself will also be a big selling point on the recruiting trail. How many young black athletes who would have had no desire to play at MSU will at least listen now? How many black athletes want to play for a black head coach, the first black head football coach ever in the SEC? He’ll get in homes never thought possible in the Sherrill regime, and with that will come more talent.

With more talented players it’s reasonable to expect favorable on-field results, but the coach has to do something with the players once he gets them on campus.

And herein is the main reason Croom is a good hire for MSU.

Not because he’s black, but because the man is, by all accounts, a fine coach.

He’s been an assistant in the NFL for 18 seasons, and success has followed him. Most recently, Ahman Green seems to have done OK for himself under Croom’s tutelage.

MSU could’ve gone out and gotten itself a decent upstart white coach, but the rebuilding process would likely be slower. No white coach who would consider MSU is going to have as big an intrinsic advantage as Croom brings.

The Bulldogs, most importantly, hired a good coach. The fringe benefits associated with the coach’s race are a big bonus.

Everybody associated with MSU should be happy, civil rights activists should be happy, and Croom should be happy.

In this situation, everybody wins.

Except the Rebels.