Mississippi State is a sleeping giant in the college football world, and the hiring of Sylvester Croom could be just the wakeup call it needed. That statement might sound outrageous, but I'm not exaggerating.

The simple reason is that Mississippi is an extremely fertile recruiting area. In fact, I consider Mississippi to be the best state per capita in the country for producing football players. It generally takes me at least three trips to see the best talent in Mississippi. The skill position players stand out more, but the state is packed with lineman too.

Right now, a good number of the SEC schools -- particularly Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and LSU -- come in and raid the best players in the state.

Sylvester Croom could change that quickly. The majority of the great players in Mississippi are black and Croom, who is the first black head football coach in the SEC, could put a fence around the state and gather up some of the greatest players in the country. Croom will also open some new doors to the Bulldogs. Prospects and their parents throughout the South will identify with Croom and what he is trying to establish in Starkville.

The path to turning around a program is never easy, but an important, almost essential, first step is to make contact with the high school coaches in the state. Croom, much like Barry Alvarez did when he arrived at Wisconsin, needs to go to every single high school in the state and meet every head coach. Building relationships with the high school coaching community is an absolute requirement for future success.

He can get the job done. Despite a very successful season, Ole Miss has not done a great job recruiting in the state. An aggressive Mississippi State staff could easily overtake the Rebels.

It's going to take four years, but Mississippi State can become a dominating team in the SEC with a couple of good recruiting classes.

Tom Lemming covers college football recruiting for ESPN.com.