A Progressive A&M: The impact of Sumlin's hiring

Roughly a year ago, while riding in a car with Billy Liucci and Brandon Leone, we discussed who Texas A&M would hire if then-coach Mike Sherman was fired.

I will be the first to admit that due to my relationship with Coach Sherman and how much I think of him as a person, I did not want to see him fired and think he is one of the best football coaches in the country. After I finished my statement, Billy agreed on how much he respected Sherman.

Yet, he noted that due to the team’s lack of production and failure to meet preseason expectations, the speculations about his job security were valid. At that point the conversation then switched to who we thought the next coach should be if Sherman was fired.

The first name that came up was Kevin Sumlin. Each of us loved his personality and how his University of Houston team embodied it.

So as the first football season in the Sumlin era comes to a close, I thought it was appropriate to reflect back to that day and bring to light some of points I shared with Liucci and Leone, and to explain how his hire can do more for the university than merely winning football games.

The right choice, on and off the field

I felt Coach Sumlin’s style of offense could be successful in the SEC. The belief that it couldn't was one of the biggest knocks on the idea of hiring him.

It is a general football fact that a team with a dominant offensive line will always be competitive; although cliche, the game is won in the trenches. Due to my time as a player I had the opportunity to see how talented every member of this offensive line was from the moment they each stepped foot on campus.

I feel each one of them will have opportunities in the NFL, and that thought is what made me 100% sure A&M would be competitive in the SEC.

I also knew that Coach Sherman had recruited enough speed at the offensive skill positions. That combination of superior interior play and speed provides any new coach the nucleus needed to be a successful offense.

That said, I mainly wanted Sumlin’s offense because it fits perfectly with what Texas kids grow up doing. Texas is the spread offense capitol of the country at the high school level. So he would be recruiting kids to do what they have been doing their entire football lives.

At the time, some folks argued that SEC teams needed to run a conservative pro style rushing attack in order to be successful like Alabama or LSU. I acknowledge the success of that style of play. But Texas A&M will never be as good at being Alabama as Alabama is at being Alabama. Why make our Texas kids learn a foreign style of play to try and match what other schools are doing in the conference?

Instead I believed in being different than the other SEC schools — clinging on to the things that make football in Texas so great and bringing that to the SEC. A spread attack that highlights the quarterback's ability to throw and run, the receivers' ability to catch and make plays, and the running backs' ability to do what they do in space.

I wanted Texas A&M to be the best Texas A&M it could be and bring that to the SEC, to show that the new kids on the block that are bringing a new state, coach and style of play to the best and most historic conference in the country.

My next point was deeper and much more important than dominant interior line play or innovative offensive schemes. I proposed that the hiring of Kevin Sumlin could be one of the biggest steps in removing some of the negative stigmas associated with Texas A&M.

Most of which made by misinformed people around the country ... and more importantly, in the state.

Stereotypes are alive and well in all walks of life and especially when it comes to universities. Schools are often stereotyped with titles such as 'party school,' 'Greek life school,' 'nerdy school,' etc. Growing up in an Aggie household I have always disliked some of the negative stereotypes linked to Texas A&M — a hick town, a school stuck in the 60s, a school not meant for minority groups.

The stereotype of not being a welcoming place to minorities could directly affect A&M recruiting. Shortly after I committed to play football at Texas A&M as a high school sophomore, I went to my cousin's barber shop in Houston to get my weekly haircut. While there I had one of my cousin’s customers tell me that he felt Texas A&M was not a place for African Americans.

After he told me this, several other men chimed in, all with similar opinions. None of them knew I had grown up an Aggie or that some of my best childhood memories were spent hearing stories of the wonderful experience my African-American father had while playing football at A&M.

I then went on to ask them if they had ever spent any time in College Station.

None of them had.

So I asked, “How do you make an assumption like that about a place you have never been?” The response: Whenever they watched an A&M game on TV, all they saw were cows, farms and bald-headed white men in military fatigues, and with those visuals they don’t see it as a place for minorities.

From my experiences as a child to my time in college, I couldn’t disagree more with the opinions of the men in that barber shop.

Once I became a proud former student, I found myself more worried about Texas A&M football recruiting than I had ever been before. It made me think back to that day and realize that the men at that barber shop could one day have sons being recruited to Aggieland, and that father's perception of A&M could be the deciding factor in allowing his son to play there or not.

So as I sit here thinking of all the things we talked about in that car a year ago — how there were so many uncertainties on who to hire and what it would do for our program moving forward — I’m so proud that our administration chose a coach who provided a high powered spread offense that dominated the SEC and lead to college football’s first freshmen Heisman Trophy Winner.

I'm proud that A&M chose a coach whose Kanye-blaring, smoke-filled entrance into Kyle Field and flashy, modern tweaks to the Aggies' traditional uniforms attacked the “old-fashioned” and “hick town” stereotypes placed upon the University by its many critics.

And I'm proud of how the hiring of an articulate, charismatic, supremely qualified African-American head football coach could exceed the limitations of wins in a sport and, more importantly, begin to change the perception from a school that lacked diversity to an institution that welcomes it.