I still remember a comment from an FSU fan when we hired Jimbo on what to expect. I wish I could find the original, but it appears to be lost to the ether. The highlights (good, bad, and neutral) based on my poor, faulty memory are below:
- His recruiting at FSU was excellent, and he would likely improve Texas A&M's recruiting substantially.
- He wanted more facilities/upgrades than FSU was willing to provide at the time, which wasn't likely to be a problem for Texas A&M.
- He ran a very TOP-oriented offense (considered a bit outdated even at that time), consistently having one of the longest delays until snap in the nation.
- He was very conservative, very rarely going for it on fourth down, executing trick plays, etc.
- His offense focused heavily on the TE (a position we had almost forgot existed by the end of Sumlin's tenure)
- He was too loyal to his assistant coaches, rarely firing individuals for poor performance. This led to a gradual decrease in quality of assistant coaches as FSU's better assistant coaches were promoted away by other schools and those performing poorly stuck around.
- His offensive line recruiting left the FSU OL depleted after several years.