What Price Glory?

Sherrill won't be making nearly that at Mississippi State—his base salary is reported to be $75,000, and he will receive a $15,000 housing allowance from private sources—and it is not yet clear exactly how much control he will have over the football program. When word got out that State had eliminated Perkins from consideration for the job because he wanted too much control, an SWC coach laughed and said, "I feel sorry for that [Mississippi State] athletic director. He doesn't know what he's getting into. If he thought Perkins wanted control, wait until he gets a full dose of Jackie."

Last week, however, Zacharias and Templeton dismissed the reports about Sherrill's demands as the sort of gossip that a strong leader always engenders. The president said he had no problem with anything he knew of Sherrill's background or with any of the coach's requirements. Zacharias also said he owed it to State's fans to hire a proven winner. Sherrill fit the bill so well that Zacharias was even able to appease the alumni who had backed Collins.

"Nobody I talked with indicated [Sherrill] personally had any difficulties at Texas A&M," Zacharias says. "And no one I ever talked to questioned his coaching ability. Now how do you face your people and say, 'We're having trouble with Jackie Sherrill because the program he has been associated with had some difficulties'? I feel comfortable with the decision. The man inspires confidence. There's already a new level of excitement and expectations that I've never seen here before."

There is, indeed. Even the faculty council was quiet in the wake of Sherrill's hiring, despite the fact that the administration had totally ignored the council's resolution. Chairman Easley said that the only way to interpret the professors' silence was as a vote of confidence in Zacharias's ability to judge character. "Faculty people are not sports investigators," said Easley, "and we're somewhat naive about these things."

Naive is something nobody has ever accused Sherrill of being, and last week he was hard at work, selling himself to people who desperately want to be sold. At his first press conference, on Dec. 9, he ingratiated himself with State fans, who are sensitive about the university's backwoods image, when he said, "I grew up on a farm, and I spent a lot of time in the chicken house in Biloxi, and I know what it is like to work on an oil rig, to shuck corn and to pick cotton."

That sort of talk plays well in Bulldog country. Still, the only thing that really matters is whether Sherrill knows how to win without betraying all the Mississippi State people who now think it's so wonderful that he's getting another chance.