Sylvester Croom Quotes (61 Quotes)


    The defense did a great job of getting turnovers. The only thing disappointing to me about the defense is at times we were unable to stop the run.

    We've got to develop some mental toughness. It's why we don't have back-to-back good practices and why we can't win two games in a row. Right now, we're just not mentally tough enough. I'm disappointed because after a good day, we'll have a lackadaisical practice.

    We're still making mistakes and still not finishing in protections. We need to give Mike some time and he'll make plays.

    I'm not worried about him making it and doing well. It's just what round is he going to be taken in that's going to determine how much he's going to get paid. I want him to make as much money as possible.

    He is an intense competitor and he has a knack for making plays, even turning his mistakes into positives. I think he'll get even better as time goes on.


    We had curfew duty together in Green Bay. He's not going to play tricks. He knows my philosophy, and I know his.

    I expect us to get more opportunities offensively this year because our defense is going to give us the football. They do a great job of forcing turnovers. And we practice those things.

    I'll never be satisfied, but I like this team a whole lot better at this point than I did at this time last year. I know this team is willing to pay the price to be successful. I know that this team is in good shape. I know that they are physically tough, and that they will hit people. They have a will to win.

    It is my intent to discipline our players as if they were my own sons, my own flesh and blood. I believe this is the appropriate disciplinary action for the facts as we know them to be.

    (His ability) is no secret, ... (Georgia) figured that out the other night, holding him, grabbing him by the face-guard, making sure he didn't get off the line of scrimmage. They figured out real fast we're trying to get him the ball. We're always trying to get him the ball in a lot of different ways.

    The idea of not going to school in my house My dad would spank you raw. We had the value of education hammered into us at an early age. There was never any question we were going to college.

    I have a great deal of respect for people who stay in a program without the benefit of a scholarship and go through the grind every day, just hoping for that one time when they are able to put a uniform on and play in the college game. There are a lot of guys around the country who do that, and you have a great deal more respect for those guys than the guys who play on scholarship.

    I want him to make people afraid. I want to put fear into them. If he's hungry and plays with some attitude, ain't too many people who are going to deal with him. ...

    I want to hear what they think and what feelings they had through this process. They shared some things with the counselors, and I want them to share those with the rest of the team. I want the team to understand this reality that they are now in the spotlight more than ever. One bad choice can affect the rest of their lives.

    If we play like we did today, we could have won the last two games. This was the first time that the seniors stepped up and never gave up.

    Our kids won that game strictly on guts and heart. I've been telling them all year if they just believe, something like this will happen.

    We'd go to the local church in that recruit's town or just stand on the street corner and talk to whoever passes by. Background checks may be fine for some, but I don't plan to hire somebody when we can go out and do the same work ourselves. I'd have a hard time anyway trusting anybody other than my coaches.

    It's critical that you have to have sufficient-enough TV angles in every stadium to do that, ... And there's no way to get that done in college football. It's going to be different in every conference, every stadium. There's no way the technology is going to be equitable in every stadium.

    I think for college football, it is probably as good as you could come up with, ... It still gives the officials another tool to make good decisions with and it doesn't put a lot of pressure on our coaches. And it's probably the most economical way as well.

    We've been playing better defense. We understand the scheme better, we're pretty solid in the front seven and we're tackling better.

    Ultimately, I am responsible for their actions and I take full responsibility. But I want to stress that these are good kids who come from good families, who made a serious mistake in judgment.

    The legal system has worked, and our players have been penalized by the court.

    Templeton and university president Dr. J. Charles Lee traveled to Green Bay twice to visit with Croom. Going into the second meeting, I had made up my mind I wasn't going to take the job, ... I had never intended to coach anywhere in college but Alabama.

    Let me tell you something. That first game, they're going to be like a deer (in headlights), no matter what you do or how you calm them down. I remember the same way myself when I played. You can talk about it all you want to, but when you run out of that gate and that crowd starts yelling, it ain't high school any more, It's a whole different deal.

    From what I've seen, he's a phenomenal player. He didn't miss any assignments. It's obvious he's been paying attention at meetings and through the course of practices.

    I'm not worried about him. If he was a freshman, maybe. But he's kicked in games.

    The penalties are always on the same people. It's a lack of discipline. At some point you have to play with pride and play for yourself. I can't put faith in their hearts or courage in their minds.

    And it's going to be tough to do because he went almost 11 years without losing a conference game. That's not going to happen now. The times have changed and I think it was probably a period that will never be duplicated in this conference again.

    I had several scouts say to me at the Senior Bowl (in Mobile, Ala.) that the way he practiced is far above some of the other guys. That's what made him a good football player, and that's what is going to make him a good pro.

    We need to get in a rhythm. It's hard to throw all the time.

    I thought we got better every day defensively. And we made improvement offensively. We had some big guns out most of the spring.

    The offense has made up a lot of ground this spring. We're better off there than we've been at any time. We've gotten a lot of improvement on the offensive line. We've moved Brian Anderson back to right guard and when (junior college transfer) J.D. Hamilton gets here, we should be solid at offensive tackle.

    What's that Visa commercial Priceless. Every single day, Coach Bryant and my dad, I think about them a couple of times a day because they are the two men that impacted my life more than anyone else and there isn't a day that goes by when I don't think about them.

    The most impressive thing about our team right now is that we understand our schemes. We've been in it two years now, and the younger guys have grown up in our systems, and they understand what we're doing from a technique standpoint on offense, defense and in the kicking game. One big emphasis of the spring was that we really wanted to pay attention to details and do the little things right. We continued to work on being physically and mentally tough and on being a team that finishes plays and plays physical football. I think you saw that out there today.

    We thought (Johnson) was an outstanding player in last year's class. He will be a great asset to us in the secondary.

    Last February, one of the first major decisions he had to make as coach was determining the fate of leading returning rusher Nick Turner , whohadstruggled academically and had plead guilty to passing counterfeit money. Croom ultimately dismissed Turner from the team but allowed him to keep his scholarship for the spring semester so he could leave the school in good academic standing. If a kid doesn't get that degree, it's going to affect him, his family, the kids he's going to have, ... That's a heavy burden to have. I agonized over that decision for a week.

    Today was disappointing. We wanted to see how (the players) would focus, and we came out here with no concentration.

    We understand our schemes. We've been in it for two years now, and the young guys have grown up in our system.

    I looked out there in the fourth quarter and there wasn't a single player on the field who had ever played in a college football game before. I'm sure they made some mistakes, but overall they performed well.

    The key to our defense will be our defensive line. Last year, we held our own against some very good football teams. I think we gained some confidence. Titus has really made some plays in the spring.

    We are a football team, and we will play as a football team this year. I'm not going to make any predictions, but we go into the season this year feeling like we can play with anybody on our schedule and have a chance to win.

    We were sloppy today. We got another great effort out of our defense. They're making plays and getting turnovers. Loose balls, tipped balls, they're making plays.

    Special teams have been good all the time. We just had a calamity in one game. Like anything else, we just need to be poised in crucial situations.

    We are talking about one of the premier teams in the country,

    I don't want a Mississippi State player to play four years for us and not be capable of supporting his family. Twenty years from now, they won't remember the scores. But they'll have kids, they'll have mortgages, they'll have car payments. If they're capable of dealing with that because of what we went through during this time, then it's all worthwhile.

    There's nobody around (in college football) like that now,

    I'm disappointed that the players have put themselves in a very embarrassing situation and did not use good judgment. I'm just hopeful that lessons have been learned. As these young men move into mature adulthood ... they must learn to either defuse the situation or walk away from it.

    I think the good Lord is testing me more than he's testing them, ... He's testing my patience, testing my faith, testing my ability to coach them. I'm going to pass the test. But right now, I got to check myself more than anybody else.

    They were already out there throwing. This time last year it was difficult to get (players) to do that. It signifies a change in attitude and realization that a lot has to be done on their own in order for us to have a chance to be a championship football team.

    The defense has to get off the field. They did play hard and were on the field for a long time. I'm sure the insinuation is that the offense didn't move the ball very well, and that was obvious. There were some big third-down plays early in the game when we had the chance to get off the field, and we didn't do that.


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