Sylvester Croom Sylvester Croom , Jr . ( born September 25 , 1954 ) is an American football coach . He is currently the running backs coach for the NFL ' s Tennessee Titans . He was the head coach at Mississippi State University from 2004 to 2008 , and the first African American head football coach in the Southeastern Conference . His father , Sylvester Croom , Sr . , was himself an All - American football player at Alabama A & M , later the team chaplain at the University of Alabama , and has been recognized by that school as one of the state ' s 40 pioneers of civil rights . Since his time at Mississippi State , Croom , Jr . has served as running backs coach for several teams in the National Football League . Playing career . Croom , a native of Tuscaloosa , Alabama , starred at Tuscaloosa High School as a linebacker and tight end . He was named Outstanding Player his senior year ( 1971 ) . He then played those same positions before settling in at center for Paul " Bear " Bryant at the University of Alabama , where in 1974 he was a senior captain , earned the Jacobs Blocking Trophy , and like his father years earlier earned Kodak All - American honors . During his playing career there , Alabama garnered three SEC championship s from 1972 to 1974 and a national title in 1973 . He played one season in the National Football League for the New Orleans Saints before returning to the University of Alabama to begin his coaching career . Coaching career . Before coaching at Mississippi State , Croom was an assistant at Alabama for 11 seasons , one as a graduate assistant coach and ten more variably as inside and outside linebackers coach . During this eleven - year period on the Alabama staff Croom participated in ten bowl games , two national championships in 1978 and 1979 , and he coached four eventual NFL first - round draft picks , including Cornelius Bennett and Derrick Thomas . He then spent 17 years in the professional ranks as running backs coach at Tampa Bay , Indianapolis , San Diego , and Green Bay . Before going to Green Bay he served as offensive coordinator for Detroit from 1997 to 2000 , and during his tenure in San Diego was on the Chargers ' staff for Super Bowl XXIX . He was a finalist for the head coach position at the University of Alabama in 2003 , but the job ultimately went to Mike Shula . In March 2004 , Alabama ' s Sylvester Croom Commitment to Excellence Award , given annually for 16 years to outstanding players , was changed to the Bart Starr , supposedly because Shula did not want an award named for a rival coach . After complaints by alumni and fans , the award was changed back to its original name . When Croom was hired at Mississippi State , he inherited a program that was riddled with NCAA sanctions and had not won consistently since the 1990s . After the 2007 season , during which his team won eight games , including the Liberty Bowl , Croom garnered Coach of the Year awards from three organizations . On December 4 , 2007 , Croom was named coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association for region two . The AFCA has five regional coaches of the year and announces a national coach of the year each January . That same year , on December 5 , Croom was named SEC Coach of the Year twice , once as voted by the other SEC coaches and once as voted by The Associated Press . It was the first time a Mississippi State coach received the AP honor since Charley Shira in 1970 and the first time a Mississippi State coach received the coaches award since Wade Walker in 1957 . After a 4 – 8 record in 2008 , culminating with a 45 – 0 loss to rival Mississippi , Croom was asked by school officials to resign as the coach of the Bulldogs . On February 2 , 2009 , St . Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo announced that he hired Croom to his coaching staff to be the team ' s running backs coach . Croom and the entire coaching staff were fired following the 2011 season in which the team posted a 2 – 14 record . Education . Croom earned a Bachelor of Science degree in history with a minor in biology from the University of Alabama in 1975 at the age of twenty and while a graduate student and coach there earned a master ' s degree in educational administration in 1977 . First African - American head football coach in the SEC . Responses . Croom has consistently downplayed the personal significance of his status as the first African - American to be the head coach of an SEC football team . A characteristic response has been that while he is proud of his African - American heritage , the most important part for him is " the head coach part " and the ability to pursue a dream he has held for all of his adult life , stating notably at a press conference upon his acceptance of the position " I am the first African - American coach in the SEC , but there ain ' t but one color that matters here , and that color is maroon . " Elsewhere , in an interview shortly before his first season as a head coach , when asked if as the first African - American coach in the SEC he considered himself " a trailblazer , " Croom responded " I ' m just a guy trying to do the best job he can . It just happens that the timing of my hiring puts me in that position . I don ' t see myself that way . If other people perceive that , so be it . I ' m just trying to do the best I can here . " However , the initial response to his hiring was lauded by many as a moment of relative cultural significance . An article published in USA Today on the day that Croom was hired listed a few responses from members of the political , cultural , and athletic communities . In it Julian Bond , chairman of the NAACP , noting that the hire was in Mississippi , a state often regarded as having the poorest civil rights record , said that " For Mississippi State to place the fortunes of its team in black hands is more than welcome , however long it has taken . " In the same article Bennie Thompson , the lone black member of Mississippi ' s U . S . congressional delegation , said that the hiring " speaks well of Mississippi State . Mississippi State alumni and friends are more concerned about winning than the color of the coach . There ' s still a lot of work to be done by other schools . " On February 12 , 2007 in observance of Black History Month President George W . Bush , at a gathering of African - American leaders and dignitaries where Croom was present , recognized the efforts and achievements of NFL football coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith , both acquaintances of Croom and a friend in Dungy ' s case . The President went on to state that he was " proud to be [ there ] with another football coach who deserves a lot of credit , Sylvester Croom , who is the head football coach from Mississippi State University . His achievement is the first African American coach in the Southeastern Football League - - Southeastern Conference . He was picked because he ' s a strong leader and a fine man . And I thank you for blazing trails . " In February 2008 Croom was featured in a half - hour segment of " Say it Loud , " ESPN ' s documentary celebration of Black History Month . In it are featured interviews with Croom along with coaches and players , among others . Relevant to the topic he speaks generally in this documentary on his decision to accept Mississippi State ' s offer for the head coaching position and on his race and the history of race relations in the region being major contributing factors . Likewise , in a 2009 interview focusing on his work with the St . Louis Rams , Croom spoke to his relevance to racial and cultural integration , saying " It ' s just worked out in my career where I ' ve had that opportunity to be the first African - American in a lot of situations . " He continued to say that " . . . it was never anything that was planned . It ' s just the way this life has gone for me , and the opportunities that I ' ve been blessed with . In retrospect , I do take some pride in it , and some sacrifices that I ' ve had to make along this way . But so does everybody else . " Position at Alabama . Croom ' s own position on African - American coaches in college football has not always been so apolitical , however . In an interview with Black Athlete Sports Network in July , 2003 , after losing out to Mike Shula in the head coach vacancy for the University of Alabama Croom speculated that race was more of a factor in that hiring process than University of Alabama athletic director Mal Moore let on and that he lost the job because of it . " I have a real problem there , " he said . " A lot of those [ SEC ] schools , guys are good enough to play for them , good enough to be assistant coaches and not good enough to be in the positions of decision making and the positions of high financial reward . And they ' re qualified . " In that same interview with Black Athlete Sports Croom acknowledged that he " had great support from the former players and the fans there and even some people within the administration , " but that " Somewhere in the final process , somebody made another decision . " His initial impression of the interview with Alabama was that it was fair and was so positive that he considered himself to be the lead candidate afterwards , which was why he was so surprised when the offer was given to Shula , a coach with over ten fewer years of coaching experience . Afterwards the Rev . Jesse Jackson got involved , calling for an investigation into the hiring practices at Alabama and all SEC schools . Croom ' s response to Jackson ' s intervention was that " Rev . Jackson did his job . Because quite often , inside the business you can ' t draw attention to things . He is a voice for a great mass , for a lot of people who don ' t have a voice . " On the question of Croom ' s timing in his response to this issue being given only after Jackson ' s call for investigation , he continued by saying that " in this particular case , I felt I could speak for myself . I chose not to say anything at that particular time because there was just too much emotion . " Legacy of segregation . Elsewhere Croom has treated his status as the first African - American head football coach in the SEC with the complexity he sees befitting the situation of a person so deeply connected to the American South . In a 2004 interview with The Washington Post Croom said of his situation in Mississippi that " There ' s much more at stake here than football . The fact that I ' m African American , that I ' m the State football coach - - well , I think it will have a positive impact on race relations in the state of Mississippi , and how the rest of the country views Mississippi . The place has changed a great deal . I don ' t know how many people outside here understand that . But they ' re about to find out . " A 2003 article from the " Milwaukee Journal Sentinel " recalls his experiences of integration as a middle - schooler in Tuscaloosa , the near - lynching of his father years before in a case of mistaken identity , and segregated restrooms , an institution which he said “ bothered me [ then ] , and it still does to this day . ” In that article and elsewhere like the article in the Washington Post Croom and his family have communicated a cultural and historical connection to the South and an insistence that genuine progress has been made in race relations there . His younger brother Kelvin Croom , a pastor and assistant principal of Paul Bryant High School in Tuscaloosa , said in the Journal Sentinel interview of their experiences in the segregated South that " We chose not to be intimidated . We chose to be motivated and hoped that one day we would make a difference . And we have made a difference , because the crosses have been taken down and the ropes have been put away . "