Just in the past week, the Aggies heard very bad news as two five-star QBs Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray are transferring from the program and leave Texas A&M together and that leaves a huge deficit at that position.
Kevin Sumlin has been the head coach of the Aggies in 2012. He also inherited a team with Mike Evans, Johnny Manziel, Demontre Moore, Jake Matthews, and Luke Joekel. All those guys are in the NFL. What happened at College Station? It can simply described as a few years of poor scheme in recruiting and a lack of patience from the coaching staff.
As I mentioned last week with Kyle Allen’s transfer, Allen had solid numbers and a 9-5 record. But it seems that Sumlin promised Kyler Murray the world and simply left Sumlin in a position where he now has lost all leverage.
Sumlin was very successful at Houston with an Air Raid style offense, but in A&M it seems he’s switched to more of a Spread style, which has remained since Manziel’s departure after the 2013 season.
Another reason I blame Sumlin for A&M’s struggles is that he gets outcoached in most of their losses.
Alabama was expected, they’re simply too young to beat Alabama, but playing Ole Miss and only scoring three points is simply unacceptable, even on the road. To make matters worse, a pathetic Auburn team, this same Auburn team that clearly didn’t deserve to be a Preseason top five team, 26-10, also defeated Sumlin’s Aggies. So basically, Sumlin’s teams scored 13 points against two teams that they could and probably should’ve beaten. This is why A&M hasn’t won ten games since 2012.
When Texas A&M left the Big 12, it was supposed to open up the recruiting wars to give them an advantage, a way to sell the SEC brand to better their program. But instead by hiring Sumlin, they have a coach that instills a style that’s better suited for the Big 12.
I’ll admit that I believe A&M made a mistake leaving the Big 12, most of their players are from Texas and playing on an average SEC team is never going to be more appealing than playing for Oklahoma, Texas, or even Baylor and TCU.
But with Murray transferring, this hurts Sumlin’s reputation as a recruiter. He’s probably the 4th best coach in Texas going forward behind Charlie Strong, Art Briles, and Gary Patterson.
Murray’s transfer leaves them paper thin at QB and I highly doubt Sumlin can try to sway a prospect his way with how he managed his QB situation.
No word on what teams are favorites for Allen or Murray. But if Murray had free reign over where he went, I’d like to open the idea that he could give a hard look at the Texas Longhorns, a school that he passed on for the Aggies.
Others will defend Kevin Sumlin but here’s how I measure his success. He brought in top 15 recruiting classes in each of his years at College Station, but has yet had the Aggies in contention for the SEC championship. His (0-4) record vs. Les Miles’s LSU Tigers should be the start of the concern of Sumlin as a coach. Zero wins vs. a recruiting rival in LSU that recruits heavily in East Texas is simply unacceptable, LSU hasn’t been all that dominant, Sumlin’s offensive prowess would shine light that they could’ve outscored LSU’s pedestrian offense, but that wasn’t the case either.
Final Verdict:
Kevin Sumlin hired John Chavis in a way to change the mentality on defense for the Aggies and I believe Chavis has the talent to turn it around but Sumlin’s inability to be honest to his recruits is starting to backfire.
How in the world does one program lose two blue-chip QB prospects and another QB who was a capable player in the span of sixteen months? Only Kevin Sumlin and those in that locker room know.
But if I had an opinion and strictly an opinion, I’d say that Sumlin has job offers from the NFL. If that’s the case, I know for sure what kind of coach he is. He’s simply a Bobby Petrino-type, always looking for the next job to escape from the mistakes he made previously.
Just remember Tom Herman did more in one year at Houston than Sumlin did for his entire tenure at the school. Now that’s some truth right there.
What an idiot writer. Listing Charlie Strong as the best college coach in Texas??? You lost all credibility with that one. I agree Sumlin needs to perform in 2016 but you are clearly not qualified to write about it.
Elvis, aside from the “idiot writer” comment. Manziel made Sumlin, and now that He doesn’t have those blue choppers, he is finally being exposed as the mediocre HC that he really is.