Here’s some Earth-Shattering Breaking News of Monumental Proportions for you: Less than 24 hours after his team’s horrendous 45-0 loss to Mississippi in the “most lopsided Egg Bowl in 37 years”, Sylvester Croom is stepping down from his head coaching position at Mississippi State. Guess Mississippi State fans can take something positive out of the loss.

(C’mon, Sylvester! Turn that frown upside-down!)

Croom, who five years ago got inducted into the race relations history books by becoming the SEC’s first black head football coach, leaves behind him a legacy of, well, not being very good. Let’s take a look at his five-year reign after the jump.

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When the going gets tough, you can always turn to family to offer some much-needed words of encouragement. Unless you’re Tommy Bowden, in which case you just have your brother Terry tell the world that your recently-fired (OK, “resigned”) behind got what it deserved. That’s what you get for telling Mom about the secret fort when you were eight.

It’s not all so heartless, as Terry Bowden does talk at length about how close he and his brother are. But it just goes to show how cruel the coaching profession can be. In his weekly column for YAHOO! SPORTS, Terry spends most of his time talking about how puzzled he is that Tommy couldn’t manage to get Clemson in position to win an ACC title, and that the university was right to try and find someone else who might be able to.

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• Vince McMahon wants his wrestlers to make it more realistic when they fight. Too bad Mick Foley isn’t wrestling for WWE anymore: I’d like to see how one “realistically” gets a sweat sock shoved in his mouth.



• What can Big Brown do for you? Apparently have sex with a lot of fillies, as the Kentucky Derby winner has been injured and put out to stud.
• The Rays can’t compete with the playoff-honed experience of the Red Sox when it comes to idiotic fan behavior.
• A 19-year-old top prospect of the Rangers’ dies during a game in Russia, and it might be from a blow accidentally delivered by his teammate Jaromir Jagr.
• Holy Cross football player allegedly stabs teammate at party following win - no word if a Crown of Thorns was the weapon of choice.
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Remember the beginning of the season, when Clemson was ranked in the top 10 and people thought this was the year they broke free in the ACC? Yes, well, about that… No.

Clemson’s slide back to the familiar territory of mediocrity started in week 1, when Alabama throttled them in front of a stunned Atlanta crowd, 34-10. Any hopes of a resurgence were dashed over the past two weeks, when the Tigers dropped consecutive contests to godawful Maryland and godawful-until-three-years-ago Wake Forest. That’s apparently all the AD needed to see, as according to WYFF in Greenville, SC, Clemson fired head coach Tommy Bowden today:

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• Yeah, I like you too, Rays, but let’s not start counting our chickens before they hatch now. HOME RUN DERBY points out that this is an officially licensed shirt, not some fan creation selling on the street. Just what we need: a bunch of entitled a-hole Rays fans running around.

• CAGE POTATO reports that former UFC fighter Joe Son has been linked to a 1990 gang rape via DNA testing.

• FANHOUSE informs us that the Titans will lose a fifth-round pick to the Cowboys if the cornerback formerly known as Pacman gets himself arrested and/or suspended. In other words, the Titans are losing a fifth-round pick to the Cowboys.

• Charlie Manuel’s mother died this morning, but he’ll manage today’s Game 2 of the NLCS, says MLB.COM.

• On the day The Express opens, THAT MINORITY THING has some words about Ernie Davis.

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That low rumble you heard in Los Angeles last night wasn’t an earthquake - it was the sound of one million Dodger mini-flags being ripped off of cars simultaneously. The team didn’t have a total collapse like the Cubs, but a sixth-inning mini-meltdown of one bad throw and two lousy pitches undid the rest of the night and equaled a 3-2 defeat.

Dodger fans throughout LA have one question: when does the Lakers season start? That, and if Joe Torre should have lifted Derek Lowe after Chase Utley deposited a ball into the bleachers in right center to tie the game. I agree with the LA TIMES’ BLUE NOTES that you have to leave Lowe in: he had been cruising along until then. If you want to find a goat, look at Rafael Furcal going 0-4 at the top of the line-up and making a lousy throw. Or the 6-7-8 hitters for the Dodgers, who went 1-11.

And speaking of finger-pointing: Clemson Tigers, meet your fans! If you thought that the fans were hard on you after your loss to Maryland, you probably want to schedule some extra sessions with the team therapist to deal with the fallout from your 12-7 loss to Wake Forest and practically Auburn-like offense. Perhaps it’s just karma for taking away Ray Ray McElrathbey’s scholarship in the off-season.

Here’s some more news to ponder while watching the Dow Jones Index go down another hundred points. Wait, make it two hundred! Three hundred! Wow, I didn’t even know it could go into negative numbers…

• YAHOO! SPORTS weighs in that MMA sensation Gina Carano is putting her career - and health - in danger by having to continually struggle to make weight.
• So who is throwing out the first pitch for the Rays before Game 1 of the ALCS? The TAMPA TRIBUNE says that it will be 11 original season ticket holders. Dick Vitale will have to wait until Game 2.
• The CANTON REPOSITORY says that if Romeo Crennel had a vote, his players would keep their politics to themselves after Brady Quinn introduced John McCain at a local rally and Willie McGinnest publicly backed Barack Obama.
• Maybe McCain’s campaign should hire Don Cherry to yell at him for motivation: after the Maple Leaf’s management was ripped by the blustery Canadian broadcasting legend, Toronto went out and beat the defending Stanley Cup champions Detroit Red Wings during the NHL Opening Night Except for Games Played in Europe.
• While his brother might be taking the high road about the New York Yankees, Frank Torre isn’t, gloating to the USA TODAY about the Yankees’ misfortune this season.
• NASCAR drivers acting like idiots, and neither of them are named Tony Stewart? The CHARLOTTE OBSERVER says that Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards scuffled in the garage as fall-out from last week’s wreck at Talladega.
• Enjoy it while you can, Clippers fans, even if it’s the preseason - LA’s second NBA team takes out the Lakers 107-80, which doesn’t keep Phil Jackson from suggesting to a TV reporter that the Clippers should move to Fresno. Ouch.
• And speaking of Fresno: the FRESNO BEE notes that apparently the NCAA frowns on having a local club host your 21st birthday party with ads in the paper, as Bulldogs RB Ryan Mathews found out.
• Want to be an MLB player? Well, the Royals are almost a big league team, and the KANSAS CITY STAR says that they are having open tryouts this weekend.
• And finally, a story about Notre Dame lineman Pat Kuntz and his ever-changing hairstyle, which is now a Mohawk. Gentlemen, I’ll leave the jokes about the landing strip of hair on Kuntz to you in comments.

Football is a sensitive sport, played and coached by delicate men who don’t like to have their feelings hurt.  At least, that’s the message coming out of Clemson, where Tommy Bowden’s Tigers used their off week to reconnect with their emotions.

(Tommy’s Tigers shouldn’t have to tell you when they’re upset!)

According to the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, the Tigers’ go-from-ahead loss to Maryland several weeks ago sparked a firestorm of ire from fans, who called for Bowden’s dismissal and proclaimed the team’s season to be effectively over.  Blubbery cherry-picked quotes after the jump. Read more…

• GUTTY LITTLE BRUINS gets a little animated in presenting the Final Four coaches in South Park form.

We guess that’s John Calipari on the left, and what he’ll turn into after UCLA beats Memphis with a last-second behind-the-backboard non-called charge.

• YOU BEEN BLINDED feels Pampered by watching Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith compete in a diaper-changing contest.

• Now that European pro basketball is rising to NBA-skill levels, 100% INJURY RATE wonders if the cheerleaders are doing the same.

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A Clemson football player who gained national attention by becoming the legal guardian of his little brother had his scholarship taken away.

Phil Taylor of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED updates the latest sad turn of Ray Ray McElrathbey, who was able to get the NCAA to allow him to accept financial assistance to help raise his 11-year-old brother Fahmarr. But Tommy Bowden decided that Ray Ray’s scholarship money could go to better uses:

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WAKE’S GROBE 3RD STRAIGHT COACH TO CALL OFF HOGS: After going through a pair of orange Tigers for their head coaching job, Arkansas was zeroing in on a Demon Deacon. Now the Razorbacks are just back at ground zero.

The NORTHWEST ARKANSAS MORNING NEWS reports that Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe decided to stay in Winston-Salem, rather than flee for Fayetteville.It’s the 2nd ACC coach this week to say no to the Hogs - as Tommy Bowden re-upped with Clemson - and the 3rd coach overall to take himself out of the Razorbacks’ running - as Tommy Tuberville chose to stick with Auburn.

What’s with all the rejection? It’s not like any new coach would have to deal with any ridiculous situations.RAZORBACK EXPATS tries to explain the latest spurning, with their five reasons why Grobe didn’t take the job:

For example, Reason #2: “Was promised that his name would be displayed on banners all over the state…then he found out what that meant.”