re: Croom owned Bama. Why didn't he succeed more at MSU?

First of all, hiring Croom was the equivalent of self imposing sanctions on ourselves. Seriously. Damn you Larry Templeton, you cheap SOB!
Not to mention Templeton sold the rights to our "football" interlocking MSU logo to Nike and then proceeded to let Croom have his choice of uniforms and design.
And what does Croom choose? A very similar look to Bama's uniforms. But I digress.

Sure, Croom was a good man, all about character, doing things the right way and cleaning up the program..yadda yadda yadda.
But the most obvious thing about him was he had NO business coaching D1 football and in the SEC of all conferences.

All that first black head coach in the SEC nonsense is just that..nonsense.
Coaching in this league is about one thing..WINNING.
Thank God we hired Greg Byrne and he ended the nightmare that was the Croom era.

But as for the OP's question...No, Croom owned no one. Ellis Johnson's defense was responsible for the two wins over bama and the 8 wins in 2007.