The Next Step: Why Kevin Sumlin is still the right guy for Texas A&M

It seemed like a good move at the time.

When Kevin Sumlin was hired to lead the Aggies I thought it was brilliant choice for a program that had grown mundane and stale.

Every program needs the “right guy” in charge. Urban Meyer was the right guy at Florida and Ohio State. Nick Saban is the right guy at Alabama. Brian Kelly is the right guy at Notre Dame.

Charlie Strong was the right guy at Louisville, but may not be the right guy at Texas. Rich Rodriguez was the right guy at West Virginia, but not at Michigan.

Sumlin struck me as the right guy for A&M. He provided a much-needed edge and attitude to a team that had little of either. 

A decade before I’d covered A&M when Sumlin was promoted to offensive coordinator by then-head coach R.C. Slocum to jump start an offense that had been stagnant.

That offense flourished under Sumlin. The Aggies scored least 31 points in five straight games. Always unafraid to take chances, Sumlin brought a true freshman quarterback — Reggie McNeal — off the sidelines to lead a 30-26 upset victory over No. 1 Oklahoma.

He was bold and fearless. Those qualities were desperately needed for a program that under Dennis Franchione and Mike Sherman too often appeared to be playing scared.

Sumlin brought a high-speed offense to a team that had been stuck on dial up. He played music at practice. He brought in rappers. He recruited with a helicopter. He pulled off the difficult task of making College Station a cool destination for highly regarded football prospects like Myles Garrett, Daylon Mack, Speedy Noil, Christian Kirk and Kyler Murray.

Sumlin also was brutally demanding. If the offensive line coach underperformed, he was replaced. The offense sputtered under one coordinator, Sumlin promoted someone else into that position. He brought in heralded defensive coordinator John Chavis to fix an inept defensive unit.

At that time, I was convinced Sumlin was the right choice to lead Texas A&M to championships.

Frankly, I still do.

Maybe it’s because at my age I’ve learned that patience is, indeed, a virtue. Of course, the growing anti-Sumlin faction might say they’ve already shown too much patience.

They might have a case.

There was so much optimism and momentum surrounding the 11-2 finish in Sumlin’s first season that A&M was able to renovate Kyle Field and build and upgrade many other facilities.

Since then, the results haven’t matched Sumlin’s swagger. And that’s surprising.

A&M has everything a coach needs to build a championship program. Its stadium is a showplace. Its other facilities are as good as or better than any in college football.

There is tremendous fan support. There is membership in the Southeastern Conference. A&M has provided funds to hire elite assistant coaches such as Chavis. Sumlin has use of the aforementioned helicopter to recruit one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country. Geography is his friend. Houston is just about an hour away. Dallas is a little less than three hours. San Antonio isn’t much farther.

What is needed to field a championship caliber team that Texas A&M does not provide?

Yet, since Johnny Manziel and many other players that Sumlin inherited have moved on, A&M has not been able to compete with the SEC’s elite programs.

The Aggies have been blown out by Alabama. They’ve been pushed around by Ole Miss.
Then, they appeared woefully out-coached in a loss to Auburn.

Suddenly, a team that looked like a championship contender in early October is in sixth place in the SEC West race. The fall has been so dramatic that even Sumlin used the dreaded words “next year” at this weekly press conference.

“There are a lot of young guys having a learning experience,” he said on Tuesday. “We’re not a young football team but we are a team that has a lot of players coming back next year.”

Aggies cringe at the words “next year.” They’ve been waiting for “next year” since 1939, or at least 1998. They’re tired of waiting.

Yet, the feeling here is that Sumlin will make necessary changes and will reward those Aggies who were patient.

The guess here is they won’t have wait until next year, either.

Look for the Aggies to post an easy victory over Western Carolina. They should follow that with a win over Vanderbilt. At this point a victory in Baton Rouge seems unlikely, but a bowl victory isn’t.

A strong finish would show progress. It would provide some momentum for 2016. It would give hope for the future.

It would also give Aggies reason to believe that Sumlin is still the right guy for Texas A&M.