ESPN College Football

Mississippi State football coach Sylvester Croom doesn't want the following things:

Your extended congratulations.

Raised eyebrows.

A parade.

Adoring fans waiting at an airport after a road victory.

For you to say "upset," "stunning," "David over Goliath" or "wow!"

The way Croom figures it, if you have a football program that thinks it can compete in the Southeastern Conference, when you win a game anywhere -- even if you've won just five SEC games as you enter your fourth season as coach -- it's no big deal.

Sorry Sly. Didn't mean to say "big deal."

That's why there hasn't been noticeable fallout around the Mississippi State football complex from State's 19-14 victory at Auburn, the Bulldogs' first in Jordan-Hare Stadium since 1999.

No, they aren't partying like it's 1999 in Starkville, Miss. Because if the Bulldogs, 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the SEC's Western Division, ever want to be somebody in the SEC race -- the last and only time they won the league was a few days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 -- they've got to believe they're somebody.

"Our players expected to win this game," Croom said of the Auburn victory. "The reason we won was because they expected to win. We're at a point now where our players expect to win games. Now, we've got to go out and get better. Now, we have to learn how to practice after winning a big game."

It hasn't been an easy ride for Croom, who is 11-26 overall and 5-21 in the SEC and learned much of his people skills from his college coach, Alabama's Paul (Bear) Bryant.

When Croom was hired at State in 2004 as the first African-American head football coach in SEC history, he took over a program that had skidded off the side of the mountain with three straight losing seasons and headed for NCAA probation with scholarship reductions. And immediately, he had to purge the slackers and the non-believers on his team who didn't see it his way from the very first team meeting when he walked in the room and commanded "everybody to sit up."

By the time he got to Year 2, 11 players quit. He just looked at that as part of the progress of building a program, and he still hasn't backed off that.

It's because of that type of integrity that Croom has a lot of fans and even media members who want to see him succeed. Even Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said after Saturday's loss he didn't mind losing to someone with as much class as Croom.

Even with a new athletic director expected to come aboard at State next year, Croom should get to coach the length of his five-year contract … unless the Bulldogs tank on Saturday against Division 1-AA Gardner-Webb and don't win another SEC game the rest of the season.

"It's taken time for Coach to get the team the way he wants," said Titus Brown, State's superb senior defensive end and one of the SEC's best pass rushers. "He wants all winners on his team. That's why he makes two-a-days every August really tough to weed out the ones that didn't want to be here. The guys that stuck around are here for a reason.

"Some of the people who left were surprises to some of us, but coach Croom had a good feel for who were winners and who weren't winners. He knew all along who would stay and who would leave. That's why he put us to the test."

Croom has also been a nonnegotiable recruiter. In a state that annually has the lowest average ACT scores in the nation, a place where the best academically qualified athletes flee for surrounding SEC glamour programs such as LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida, Croom draws a line in the sand.

For instance, this past February, running back Lee Chambers of Coffeyville (Miss.) High, who has committed to Mississippi State, decided to visit Miami. Croom said Chambers didn't return his phone calls after he visited Miami, so he yanked the scholarship offer.

"When a player visits here, I want to know if he's in or he's out," Croom said. "The young man [Chambers] told me he was in."

The way Croom sees it, if a guy is going to waffle on a commitment, he'd probably back up at fourth-and-1 on the goal line. Don't need his kind as a Bulldog, because the only way State can ever get this thing turned around is with everybody working and believing.

And just now, it might be happening. Even after the season opening 45-0 loss to second-ranked LSU, a Thursday night ESPN-televised disaster in which starting State quarterback Michael Henig threw six interceptions, Croom stood in a quiet State dressing room and told the depressed troops they still had a chance to be a good team this season.

Brown made it a point to stand up and say his piece. The heart of Brown's message: "Good teams don't finger point, they rally around their leaders and get things done," he said.

The Bulldogs already discovered last year during a 3-9 season that the line between winning and losing is even thinner than they thought.

State lost four games by three points each, despite losing three quarterbacks to injuries five times. But in the process of the heartbreakingly close calls in a league where nobody feels sorry for you, State's players discovered something.

They were a team. All for one, one for all, rah rah rah.

"In the past, we usually had some guys who want to play for themselves, guys who were worried about their stats, how they were doing in a game," State senior linebacker Gabe O'Neal said. "They weren't thinking about the team."

But it hasn't been that way this year. Even after the LSU debacle. And even on Saturday at Auburn, after Henig broke his throwing hand early in the game, and the Tigers came back to a take a 14-13 lead just before halftime.

"We didn't lose our poise, and on the road against a good football team, that could very easily happen," Croom said. "It's happened to us in the past, but it didn't happen this time."

Somehow, with an offense using two totally inexperienced backup quarterbacks, including true freshman Wesley Carroll, State rode its defense and its running game to victory. It might be the blueprint of how the Bulldogs need to play the rest of the season to get bowl eligible for the first time since 2000.

"We go in every game as a defense and tell the offense just to give us 17 to 20 points and don't turn the ball over," said Derek Pegues, State's All-SEC cornerback and the league's Defensive Player of the Week. "If that can be done, we feel like we can win the game."

Pegues is Exhibit A -- one of the blue-chip Mississippi recruits who stayed in state, turning down offers from Michigan, LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama and Ole Miss.

"I felt why go help a team out-of-state when I can help this team right here in my state that's struggling?" Pegues said. "If I come, maybe more talented players will come and we can change things."

Pegues, O'Neal and other homegrown Mississippi products have proven to be recruiting pied pipers.

State sophomore running back Anthony Dixon, who ranks seventh in the SEC averaging 87.7 yards rushing, is one of those in-state stars who has gulped the maroon-and-white Kool-Aid.

"I know what this program once was and I'm trying to get it back there," Dixon said. "I really wanted to rep my state, and I think I've got a bunch of guys on this team who are down with me."

Translation: State's players are buying what Croom is selling. Now Croom hopes more wins translates into more Magnolia State products' staying home.

"In order for us to move forward, we've got to be able to get the top players in the state of Mississippi," Croom said. "I think this [Saturday's win over Auburn and last season's win over Alabama] verifies that we're moving forward and getting on a competitive level with Alabama and Auburn and the other teams in our conference."

As proof, Croom revealed after the Auburn win he got a call from a key in-state recruit he'd been trying to track down.

"We had difficulty trying to get in touch with him," Croom said. "He finally called us."

Ah, the spoils of victory.

Don't let yourself enjoy it too much, Sylvester. This is the SEC. You never can put up your feet and rest.

Ron Higgins covers the Southeastern Conference for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.