Sylvester Croom is Cool With Losing

If there is one thing I think we should all be happy about, it's that we don't wait to hear after a hard fought loss that we played good. Or that we gave good effort. It's nice to be past that point with the WVU program. It really is all about winning. It's expected. And when we don't we lose our freaking minds and burn the coach in effigy. Or at least question the way he ties his shoes until we win again.

The same can't be said for Mississippi St. and head coach Sylvester Croom. I'm not really knocking it as much as I am looking back on the last few years of Nehlen and the first couple with RRod. I don't really like moral victories. It might make me a better person if I did, but I don't and I'm not. But anyway, from going down to Starkville last year I was able to get a feel for how much longer Croom will be the coach of the Bulldogs. And that would be not much longer. However, given the situation, he seems to be holding things together as best he can.

"I'm as proud of this football team as I've been since I've been here," Croom, the MSU coach, said. "I think we probably played as good as we could play today."

So it wasn't a win.

So it wasn't the program-building, momentum-infusing, fan-exhilarating victory that the maroon-wearers among the 50,217 at Scott Field had gathered to see.

So what? On this beautiful sunny Saturday, No. 25 Tennessee was simply the better team, Croom said.

It's kind of sad considering he took over a program that was on probation and without much of a history of winning. But still winning is everything and maybe being more like Jackie Sherrill wouldn't be such a bad thing until you got on your feet.

Sherrill also achieved notoriety by castrating a bull during a team practice as a motivational technique prior to a game versus Texas. It worked, as unranked Mississippi State beat the #13 ranked Longhorns.

He finished with winning records against the Texas Longhorns and Mississippi Rebels. Sherrill retired after the 2003 season from Misssissippi State, which was followed by the NCAA levying probation for four years on the program. Mississippi State was not found guilty of any major violations, and Sherrill was never personally found guilty of any NCAA rules violations at either Mississippi State or Texas A&M.

My trip to Starkville was great! If you do anything, welcome Bulldog fans to Morgantown if you see them. They really did treat myself and every Mountaineer fan I saw like we were gold. It was also a great trip if for no other reason than my single best digital camera moment. Yeah cheerleaders!

Girl's got some up's!