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If you take your maroon Aggie glasses off and look at it objectively, there is absolutely no doubt about the fact this team under Sumlin is either less talented or less well coached than the team he inherited. Is it talent, is it scheme, is it development? I don't know.
The exercise you did to look at two sides of the ball, O and D, then what has happened over the past 4 years is pretty easy to 'see'.
The '12 D had a good foundation of Jr's / Sr's and no depth, which showed up in '13 and '14. But it also had a scheme which was 'read and react' which we can see from just one year under an experienced SEC co-ord is not how you stop or stall O's in the SEC. That trend of attacking D's goes all the way back to Spurrier in the 90's.
The O is simpler. MS was an OC, he had stockpiled the O for three years (and didn't take care of the D side of the ball). Sumlin continued that recruiting work. But in '12 the SYSTEM, the actually scheme and execution was nearly textbook Air Raid. In '13 it changed when KK left and began a slow disassembly in '14 and rolled into a total collapse in '15.
Sumlin corrected the D after '14 and the results showed up this year. So in that sense the D 'improvement' was a result of all three: coaching and scheme and player development.
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But if you are going to give Sumlin 100% of the credit for 2012 when not one of the players was recruited by him (other than maybe some bit STs roles) I don't know how you reconcile that with 2015.
On the evidence of 2015, 2012 was clearly more about the OL, #2, and Kliff than it was Sumlin and his system. If it was all Sumlin and his system why does is his offense in Year 4 with 5* QBs and 4 and 5* WRs and no RBs whatsoever so poor? You tell me.
This is the second part of the two sides of the ball.
When KK left, the next year with top OL talent, nearly the same WR talent, the system started to flutter. With KK gone, and CM in charge, the scheme went from 'let Johnny be Johnny' (Pure Air Raid) to "lets try to get him to work from the pocket more". Big mistake for him, BUT also setting the tone for getting away from the Air Raid. Go back to Leach's years at iTT, people observed "His offense is 'easy' it's just "plug and play". Right. Well...partly correct. His scheme was about simplicity and execution at a very high level. How did that '12 scheme look? simplicity and execution...at a very high level. Sure he could plug in a new guy...because EVERY QB did exactly the same thing: execute at a very high level his basic Air Raid concepts...A&M has not been THERE in 3 years...since KK left.
The reigns were handed off to Spav in '14. That same year defensively the system on that side of the ball was broken and coming into clear focus but the O issues were clouded; the first half looked nice but then derailed by the drinking preferences of the starter and second half with the performance over the last five games of his replacement. Coming into '15 off those 5 starts by KA which looked pretty good, the stage was set...but the LSU game when the O was basically ineffective; all the warts showed in that game - 140 yds passing...80yds rushing. The pre-cursor of collapse actually...but it took 5 games into the '15 season to be realized.
That's what happened. It's retrospective and that does not either a) change the result or b) take the load off Sumlins shoulders.
Today it IS about coaching and development. And it's also about either resurrecting the SAME scheme which was in place in '12 or doing something different. It's my opinion that the O has drifted away from the Air Raid because of the guy directly responsible for it which is JS AND Sumlin doesn't get a pass because the whole enchilada is on his plate. Yea, he allowed it to happen.
It is what it is and yes "it" is about 'coaching' which means top down. And it's incumbent on KS to fix it.
