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Croom punishes players by taking jersey numbers
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:46 pm
by webfoot
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) -- Call it Sylvester Croom's version of a numbers game at Mississippi State.
Some Bulldogs players began spring practice Monday wearing jerseys without uniform numbers after Croom said they didn't work hard enough during the team's offseason conditioning program.
"Some guys haven't earned their numbers," Croom said. "If they don't work hard, some guys might not get their numbers back this fall."

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 7:36 am
by bigwater
billy brewer ol um coach... he tried the same stunt back in the early 80's.. just a little twist to this one... when um opened the season there was a lot of hype being place on the offense... in a motivational ploy, Brewer decided to not have the names of the players on defense placed on the jerseys... he said they'd have to earn their names being placed on the back of UM's jersey's..
so how did it work.. like chit.... they lost a bunch of games especailly early in the year by scores of like 13-10, 17-14, 14-3..
their offense wasn't carrying their load while the no name defense wuz pullin there weight for sure...
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:45 am
by webbmaster
Pssst, bigdumber.....he's pulling off the NUMBERS, not names on the jerseys.
Keep up.
But I can see your comparison is similar in some aspects. Croom is adopting a similar tradition to that of Brewer. I guess when your schools ONLY tradition is the ringing of cowbells, its only natural of Croom to find something that might actually motivate the players. God knows they need it.
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:26 pm
by Po Monkey Lounger
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:20 pm
by Don Miller