Mississippi State is, with exception to perhaps Vanderbilt, the toughest job in the conference. The facilities aren't bad, but they are sub-par in comparison to the SEC's elite schools. Starkville is a terrible location. The state has some decent football talent, but it is consistently cherry-picked by the likes of LSU, Alabama, Tennessee, etc. The school has very little tradition to build on in terms of football. Without a doubt it's a tough sell to potential recruits.
That being said, MSU can do better than Sly Croom. From what I witnessed during his tenure, his teams were consistently unprepared. They had a bad tendency to play to the level of their competition (see losses to Maine, UAB, Louisiana Tech, etc.). Croom tried repeatedly to run an offensive system that he clearly did not have the personnel to implement. His game management and clock management were questionable at best. The quarterback play was atrocious, which was as much a product of coaching as it was lack of talent. I refuse to believe that any scholarship QB playing for an SEC team is truly as bad as some of MSU's signal callers have been under Croom, especially with the talent they've had at receiver in recent seasons. Wesley Carroll actually regressed quite a bit this season. Croom and his staff did two things well: they developed running backs and their defense was respectable. He might be a "good guy" (although he certainly has been bitter and snide towards the University during his MSU tenure), but I don't have much respect for his coaching ability. I think it's shameful that we managed to lose to MSU twice while he was in Starkville.
MSU needs to go out and hire a young, innovative offensive coach. I really think that's their only shot for moderate success in this conference. JMO. RTR.
