Black coaches’ ranks dwindle

And then there were three.

The number of black head football coaches in major college football has been cut in half in the last month or so, with Sylvester Croom, the coach who broke the Southeastern Conference’s football color barrier, the latest to go.

Croom resigned Saturday from his post at Mississippi State, after five years and one winning season.

The announcement came in a statement released by the school after Croom met with Athletic Director Greg Byrne the day after a 45-0 loss to rival Mississippi.

Randy Shannon of Miami, Turner Gill of Buffalo and Kevin Sumlin of Houston are the only remaining black men in charge among the 119 teams that play at college football’s highest level. Washington’s Tyrone Willingham and Kansas State’s Ron Prince were recently fired, with Willingham finishing up with the Huskies next Saturday.

Croom, 54, said in a statement, “We have tried to build a program the right way that can compete for conference championships. I believe the foundation has been set for those goals to be reached under the leadership of someone else, and it was my decision to resign.”

Croom is out only one year after he was voted SEC coach of the year in the wake of his team’s Liberty Bowl victory and 8-5 finish that led to a contract extension that paid him $1.7 million this year.

An All-American center under coach Bear Bryant at Alabama, Croom had been an NFL assistant for 17 seasons when in 2003 he took over a Mississippi State program that was under heavy NCAA sanctions for rules violations and had won only three games in each of the previous three seasons.

Croom’s record was 21-38, including a 4-8 mark this season, when the Bulldogs had one of the SEC’s most anemic offenses.

Even so, recruiting had gone well and the Bulldogs went into rivalry week off a 31-28 win over Arkansas.

But then came the goose egg against Mississippi in the most lopsided Egg Bowl in 37 years, a game in which Bulldogs quarterbacks were sacked 11 times leading to a loss of 51 yards in rushing.

Croom offered no explanation other than to say, “I don’t know why what happened today occurred. I’m sorry to say that it’s an absolute mystery to me.”

Bad egg

This is the second year in a row that the coach of the losing team in the Egg Bowl also lost his job.

Last year it was Ed Orgeron, who was fired a day after Mississippi blew a 14-0 lead in the fourth quarter.

Orgeron, by the way, is rumored to be joining Lane Kiffin’s staff at Tennessee. They were part of Pete Carroll’s staff at USC.

Fit to be tied

Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach says he thinks there’s a better way to break the three-way tie in the Big 12 Conference South than the current mandate of using the Bowl Championship Series standings: Graduation rates.

“I think the Big 12 Conference should have an executive session tonight,” Leach told reporters after Texas Tech defeated Baylor. “And I think when they do that they will find that no one’s more deserving than the Red Raiders to win Big 12 South.”

Leach knows as much. Last month, an NCAA report showed the Texas Tech football team had a Big 12-best 79% graduation rate. Texas’ was 50% and Oklahoma’s was a conference-worst 46%.

Turning green?

Cincinnati knew it was Big East champion and BCS bowl game-bound even before its 30-10 victory over Syracuse, but the Bearcats better not celebrate too much.

Coach Brian Kelly is rumored to be high on Notre Dame’s wish list if the Fighting Irish decide to jettison Coach Charlie Weis.

Kelly is 20-5 in two seasons at Cincinnati and is 158-56-2 in 18 seasons as a college head coach.

In a related matter . . .

Speaking of Weis, Notre Dame has the six wins required to be bowl eligible, a mixed blessing.

Notre Dame has lost nine consecutive bowl games.

Boston College, that other Catholic school, has won eight straight bowl games.

The Eagles clinched a spot in next week’s Atlantic Coast Conference title game with a 28-21 victory over Maryland.

Pass and catch

Kerry Meier spent much of last week taking snaps and running the Kansas offense because starting quarterback Todd Reesing couldn’t lift his throwing arm above his shoulder.

But Reesing played -- and starred -- in the Jayhawks’ 40-37 victory over Missouri in the 117th football edition of the Border War.

Meier did the same.

Reesing completed 37 of 51 passes for 375 yards and four touchdowns, including two to Meier, who made a school-record 14 receptions for 106 yards.

The performance catapulted Reesing to four school season records -- 460 passes, 302 completions, 3,575 yards passing and 3,683 total yards.

Getting defensive

Safety Darrell Stuckey also stuck it to Missouri, coming up with two interceptions, causing a fumble and recovering a fumble.

Wait a SEC

Florida might be without star receiver Percy Harvin in the SEC title game against top-ranked Alabama next Saturday.

Harvin left Florida’s 45-15 win over Florida State in the second quarter because of a sprained right ankle -- but only after he extended his touchdown-scoring streak to a nation-leading 14 games.

The Gators barely missed him, scoring 31 points after he left and rolling up 502 total yards.

Practice makes perfect

Southern Methodist (1-11) isn’t very good and gives up more than its fair share of touchdowns -- but there was a bright side and Jesse Henderson found it.

Henderson, a Southern Methodist senior, set an NCAA career record for kickoff return yardage -- he certainly got plenty of chances -- finishing with 2,928 yards.

That’s six more yards than the previous mark, which was established by Jeff Liggon of Tulane from 1993 to 1996.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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mike.hiserman@latimes.com