Job well done in Auburn Coach Croom and Company! It's always great to see good people succeed in sports... and you'd be hard pressed to find a man who treats people better, runs his program with more integrity, and truly coaches his players at the collegiate level ON and OFF the field with more compassion then Sylvester Croom. He deserves to succeed in Starkville. Not just because he was the first African-American Head Coach in the SEC, nor because he's a journey-man assistant who finally got to be the top dog, and certainly not just because he's a good guy. Even though all of those are solid reasons.

He deserves to hoist the SEC Championship trophy because he is rebuilding a program (that was in shambles) the right way, with honesty and hard work, and he's taking the road less travelled as compared to most around the nation.

Sure you can look for the quick fix and cheat (Alabama, South Carolina, Illinois to name a few) or you can recruit kids with no interest in being students, who only get into school because they run fast or weigh 300 plus pounds and can block or rush the quarterback (Miami, Florida State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M) Seemingly the character of those athletes drives the team, and thus the institution to embarrassment (while the Head Coach looks the other way until he gets caught... see Bob Stoops). Don't get mad at me for saying it, I'm only reporting the facts here. Do your homework.

And Larry Templeton deserves some credit as well. He could have gone ahead and hired the next "hot assistant" and then sat back and watched that crumble. Rick Neuheisel already destroyed two college programs and left them in shambles (am I right Washington and Colorado fans?) Thanks goodness he hasn't gotten a third shot at it. Croom was the right hire because he is the right man. Plain and Simple.

Sure it's not flashy, he's no Steve Spurrier. And no, it's not that entertaining to listen to his press conferences... he doesn't spit one-liners like Lou Holtz. And you're right... he's not going to wow you off your feet with his Bobby Bowden stories and personal nature at alumni functions...

But he is going to turn his boys into honorable young men with degrees.

And given time, he may bring home some hardware.

Christian