|
|
|
|
GET IN THE GAME
Click here to submit your photos, story ideas or comments. |
|
Wednesday, 24 September 2008 |
 The Associated Press MSU head coach Sylvester Croom reacts to the Bulldogs’ 3-2 loss to Auburn, Saturday, Sept. 13. After a 1-3 start, Croom stressed the importance of breaking out of the unexpected slide and rekindling the same spirit that saw the Bulldogs go 8-5 a year ago. By AARON SEIDLITZ
Starkville Daily News
Sylvester Croom has had to address certain things this week about his football team that most coaches don’t want to talk about at this time of the year.
Mississippi State came into the 2008 season on the back of its successful 2007 campaign. Croom tried to balance the success the team had with a few of the realities facing the Bulldogs now that they have dropped three of their first four games.
The team raised expectations for itself after 2007 by the players and coaching staff saying they were ready to make a run at the SEC West and a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship. But coming into the season, Croom also knew that attitudes had to be tempered so the continued installation process of a grind-it-out work ethic could be completed.
So far, that is one thing that Croom believes is holding his club back. Describing the team’s attitude on the field last season as a “kill or be killed” mentality, the coach hasn’t seen that same type of intensity this year on a consistent basis.
And as the week preceding State’s game with LSU goes by, Croom is reminded of the team’s attitude last season because of how they played the eventual national champions despite losing 45-0 at home.
“The only thing I see different from you guys this year, is that I don’t think we’re playing with the same intensity. Even though we lost to LSU, we played with a mission, and I don’t know if we’re playing quite that way,” Croom said.
But for the team to not be playing with that same edge, Croom doesn’t blame the players. He blames himself.
The coach was adamant that he doesn’t look to others when things go wrong. He knows that because he is the head coach the attention – positive or negative – goes to him.
So when rumors start to circulate about the coaching staff or the players, Croom wants people to first look at him and not others. That is the case this year, with an offense that has struggled to the tune of being last in the SEC in points scored.
“I’m the offensive coordinator, I’m the bus driver, I’m the equipment man, I’m the lawn guy, I’m the secretary. I’m everything because whatever’s not going right, it’s me,” Croom said.
He also noted that changes will not being made at this time, because he doesn’t see the need to. Croom’s point being that his players and coaches would not prepare or coach well enough while also looking over their shoulder.
The time for any changes, he said, would be at the end of the season, but until that time the Bulldogs will try to right the ship with the personnel on board.
“Right now, I want our coaches and players to know that I have confidence in them,” Croom said. “I expect them to continue to fight on, continue to do their job day-by-day and do that with enthusiasm.
“It’s pretty hard to do those kind of things with enthusiasm, if the coaches and players are worried about me walking in and making a change with them.”
But the problems that have been presented to Croom and his coaching staff with his, so far, 1-3 ball club are not just stemming from on the field execution – although the coaches feel that is the biggest aspect to look at. It also starts with the team’s mentality.
Right now, that mentality is fueled by frustration.
“I think, as I’ve said, that our players are frustrated, our coaches are, I’m frustrated and I think our fans are,” Croom said. “As a matter of fact, I have no doubt about that. Our fans are frustrated, and I understand that because I think we all expected to be in a better situation than what we’re in right now.”
Part of the frustration in regards to the odd results from losses so far this season – such as the 3-2 loss to Auburn and the 38-7 loss at Georgia Tech – is that the team feels that solidity isn’t far off.
The team has moved the ball, but it has also turned the ball over. That offensive balance hasn’t been found yet.
“Offensively, I feel better about what we’re going then any other time we’ve been here, and that’s what’s frustrating about it because I know what we’re doing is the right thing,” Croom said. “We’re not getting it executed and we’re having a combination of things happening at different times.”
The other part of the frustration has been in recoiling the expectations now that the team has to fight upward from a poor start. Croom said that the players might have thought they were too good after the completion of last season, and some of those participants have expressed a similar belief.
Linebacker Dominic Douglas, a senior who leads the team in tackles and has been pinpointed as a team leader this season, has said the transition from last year to this year has been more difficult than expected.
He doesn’t see overconfidence, but he also doesn’t see the same dedication to the minor details of the game.
“(The transition) is not automatic,” Douglas said. “You always have to work on the same stuff every year. If you’re lacking in something, you have to push harder to perfect that. Going from year-to-year, it always starts with step 1.”
But from here on out, Croom has said that he needs to see his team be able to respond. That starts with the team’s mentality, which is shaken at the moment. Again, that word frustration was mentioned.
“It’s frustrating. This week I was kind of in the dumps, to be honest with you,” Douglas said. “I went and talked to coach Croom and talked to my linebacker coach (Louis Campbell) and then I talked to some of my family members, and they gave me confidence to help me keep my head up.
“Now I have to transfer that over to my teammates and help them keep their heads up.”
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 September 2008 )
|
|
|
|
