3 straight losses have offensive coordinator Jake Spavital on the hot seat.
COLLEGE STATION — In the same space coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once prowled under the old, barren Kyle Field stands — the same expanse where coach R.C. Slocum kidded one could hear “Phantom of the Opera” late at night amid the stadium’s west side “dungeon” decor — now rests a polished grand piano.
It’s not far from a grand staircase accentuated by a grander chandelier. On the sparkly stadium’s south side, pampered players are treated to a hot tub surrounded by a waterfall, an artsy barbershop, and a high-tech locker room that wows every recruit lucky enough to receive a gold ticket inside a college football mecca.
Texas A&M, with its half-billion dollar ode to sports fanaticism finished this fall, finally has all in place to compete for a Southeastern Conference title. All except the competing part.
While everything enveloping them has been enriched at Kyle Field, the Aggies have responded with increasingly poor performances. Prompting the query: Why is trouble brewing in Aggie Paradise?
Dwindling returns
The answers are multiple, and the next year or two will tell whether coach Kevin Sumlin is truly the man to lead A&M back into the conference promised land. Sumlin, 51, is in his fourth season, and as his surroundings have improved, his record has grown worse.
In what’s become a reverse honeymoon — many fans are willing to continue giving him a chance because of his first season at A&M — the Aggies have finished 11-2, 9-4 and 8-5 in Sumlin’s first three seasons. With perhaps the most favorable schedule they’ll have in years in the SEC, the Aggies are 6-3 this season.
On its surface, that’s not a bad record. It’s how the Aggies have gone about putting it together that has upset the faithful. A&M has blowout losses to Alabama (41-23) and Auburn (26-10) at refurbished Kyle and to Mississippi (23-3) on the road.
Simply, the Aggies haven’t competed in their biggest games, two of them within earshot of that grand piano (A&M also failed to win an SEC home game last season in three tries). Asked on Tuesday his message to fans regarding the state of his program, Sumlin responded: “My message would be let’s wait until the end of the season. And (then) let’s figure out where we are.”
The Aggies close out their home schedule at 6 p.m. Saturday against non-conference pushover Western Carolina. They conclude their regular season on the road at Vanderbilt and LSU.
Chancellor John Sharp, who spearheaded the $485 million Kyle Field rebuild, is gung-ho about A&M’s making a run at an SEC West title, and at 65, he’s edging toward retirement. Still, Sumlin has earned the benefit of the doubt from Sharp and others who count, based on his 34-14 record and becoming the first A&M coach to win three consecutive bowls.
The Aggies haven’t won a national title or even played in a national championship game since 1939, so it’s not exactly a program steeped in title tradition. The Aggies, who joined the SEC in 2012, last won a league title in 1998 as a Big 12 member. That was long before the amenities became a whole lot nicer along Wellborn Road.
A year ago, Sumlin fired defensive coordinator Mark Snyder after the Aggies
finished outside the top 100 in total defense for a second consecutive year. Sharp & Co. approved Sumlin’s chasing down one of the nation’s top coordinators in LSU’s John Chavis for $1.7 million annually, and Chavis has had a positive impact on the defense (although the Aggies still can’t slow the run — a season-long subject).
Revolving door
Sumlin’s gig isn’t in jeopardy — he has four years remaining on a $5 million annual contract — but his offensive coordinator’s certainly is. In a situation similar to last year’s on defense, Sumlin is expected to either fire or demote Jake Spavital — or hope Spavital gets another job and makes a clean break from A&M.
Kliff Kingsbury was Sumlin’s first offensive coordinator in 2012, when A&M finished 11-2 and quarterback Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy. Kingsbury rode that success to Texas Tech as head coach, and Sumlin promoted running backs coach Clarence McKinney to coordinator for the 2013 season.
That lasted a year, and even though A&M featured one of the nation’s top offenses, the credit was given to a scrambling Manziel, who also was stifled (and fighting injuries) late in the ’13 season in losses at LSU and Missouri.
Sumlin then turned to another unproven playcaller in his quarterbacks coach Spavital, and the Aggies have declined in offense the past two seasons, with Spavital drawing the most heat along the way. In 2012, they ranked third nationally in total offense. With four games remaining this season (including a bowl), they rank 52nd nationally.
“We just have to finish (drives),” Spavital said Tuesday when asked about his sagging offense. “Against Auburn (last Saturday) we moved the ball efficiently; we just didn’t finish. In this league, you don’t know how many opportunities you’re going to get.”
Those opportunities are dwindling for Spavital, and Sumlin is expected to chase down an experienced playcaller in his place to pair with Chavis. For his part, the veteran SEC coordinator dubbed his defense’s showing against Auburn as “totally unacceptable.”
“We expect more, and our fans deserve more,” an incensed Chavis said Tuesday. “And we’re going to find a way to give them that.”
That’s exactly Sumlin’s job description at this point, with a whole lot of people who spent a whole lot of money on Kyle Field watching from the top of a grand staircase.