instances where Sherrill's punishment of a player, or lack thereof, was unfair or inappropriate, and I don't necessarily think he would handle any of things things differently than Croom has. I know many disagree, but it appears to me that Croom has been nothing but fair in punishing players. Crimes or offenses involving dishonesty and moral turpitude get you the boot, while isolated incidents resulting from bad judgment or immaturity generally warrant a lesser punishment. I know, I know, what about Stallworth's counterfit charges and the "cop beating" by Pegues and Co.? Well, I truly believe Croom takes all the facts into consideration in determining the appropriate punishment, as most coaches would. Both of those incidents sound pretty bad on their faces, but all reports indicated that there was more to the stories and and a lack of any real criminal motive. Moreover, all charges in each case were either dropped or lessened to misdemeanors.

I think where Croom differs from many coaches and gets the "character" tag is in the extra emphasis he places on it both publicly and privately. Again, I believe he's sincere in doing so, but where he's messed up has been by writing checks with his mouth that his ass can't cash. Not in "be good or be gone" so much, but in claiming that he's recruiting character guys and that we haven't read about our players in the newspaper in X amount of time. He should have never publicly made those comments and I have to think he's realizing that, the hard way.