Mississippi State Head Coach Sylvester Croom resigned Saturday morning after five years with the school.

He left with a 21-38 overall record and many unsatisfied Mississippi State backers, asking who can solve all the problems the program has.

However, it isn't uncommon for Bulldogs fans to be upset. This is the fan base who, in 1999, frequently called for Wayne Madkin to be benched. Madkin, of course, was the school's career passing leader.

This is also the fan base who, over the past three years, loved to despise Jamont Gordon, despite the countless games that Gordon single handily won.

Furthermore, this is the same fanbase who could never really get behind Croom at all, even when he led the team to a Liberty Bowl victory a year ago.

So really, the biggest question is how Croom was even able to deal with 60,000 people calling for his head every Saturday.

One word: Character.

It was what Croom was always based on.

He brought an unprecedented level of character to the program as soon as he took over. It was a program that had just come off of the best years in its history, but was in serious trouble of flying out of control.

Croom came in and made drastic changes.

Poor character was no longer tolerated. He even kicked off the starting running back, Nick Turner. The back up running back was a man named Jerious Norwood.

Turner was good enough to start above a future school record-breaker, but that didn't matter to Croom.

He never sacrificed character for success. That mindset led to the previous year, in which the Bulldogs went to a bowl game for the first time since 2000.

However, his loyalty to character also led to unrest. He was loyal to his coordinators, even when it was clear that they were not getting their jobs done. The failure to improve was enough to cost him his job.

But what is really interesting is how he went out.

The school was fed up with him. However, Croom was also fed up with the situation, and resigned.

He willingly resigned in the best interest of the school. In the best interest of the school that gave him a chance to be an SEC coach.

He willingly resigned in the best interest of the school that wanted him to fire his coordinators, but in the end were convinced to pay them the rest of their contract too.

He willingly resigned, taking the fall, in the best interest of the school that had turned on him.

He even went out with character.

In this sports world, with all of its Rich Rodriguez's and Nick Saban's, needs more Sylvester Croom's—more men of character.

If only teams put a little emphasis on character instead of simply success, just imagine how different the sports scene would look.

Heck, the Memphis Tigers might actually have beaten the Kansas Jayhawks last year in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

The nation could learn a huge lesson from Sylvester Croom about being devoted to character.

In fact, Mississippi State could learn a thing or two about that.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?