STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State head football coach Sylvester Croom was named the American Football Coaches Association Region 2 Coach of the Year, the organization announced Tuesday.

The Waco, Texas, based AFCA recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners in each of the Association’s five divisions.  Croom joins Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia and Jeff Jagodzinski of Boston College (Region 1), Illinois’ Ron Zook (Region 3), Kansas’ Mark Mangino (Region 4) and Air Force’s Troy Calhoun (Region 5) as regional Football Bowl Subdivision winners.

“What makes this award so special is that this is the only coach of the year award voted on exclusively by the coaches themselves,”  AFCA Executive Director Grant Teaff said.  “The winners are selected by the coaches they compete with and against on a daily basis.”

The AFCA will announce its 2007 National Coach of the Year winners at the 2008 AFCA convention in Anaheim, Calif.