Why youth is being served under Sumlin
String of transfers, injuries and exits have thinned upperclassman ranks
COLLEGE STATION — In an ideal college football world at Texas A&M, the NFL would claim its share of junior and senior Aggies, and coach Kevin Sumlin would replace his upperclassmen with seasoned, developed upperclassmen-to-be who have patiently waited their turn.
Along the way, he’d sprinkle in a sensational freshman or two, guys so good at their respective positions there was no need to wait. As every footballloving Aggie knows, it’s a less-than-ideal football world around A&M in 2017, with 29 newcomers on the roster, and many playing significant roles in games, for better and often worse.
When the Aggies (3-1, 1-0 SEC) traveled to Arlington last Saturday in an overtime defeat of Arkansas, a whopping 55 of the 83 players listed on the gameday roster were either freshmen or sophomores. To date, the Aggies have played 18 true freshmen, 11 redshirt freshmen and 13 sophomores, and the amount of true freshmen used in four games already matches most in a season in program history.
All of this isn’t a news flash to Sumlin, who’s acutely aware of his youthful roster six years in at A&M. He used “young” on at least five occasions this week discussing the state of his program in preparation for the Aggies’ 6:30 p.m. Saturday game against South Carolina at Kyle Field.
The $5 million question: How did it come to this for A&M, which hasn’t so much as sniffed an SEC West title since finishing tied for second in the division in its first year in the league in 2012?
Let’s start with the calamity otherwise known as the 2013 class, Sumlin’s first full haul that came on the heels of A&M’s 11-2 finish and Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman Trophy in 2012.
Ideally (there’s that word again), Sumlin would have redshirted a fair share of the 32 players in a huge class ranked 11th nationally by Rivals.com, and a fair share of that fair share would now be seniors and leaders.
Zero from 2013 class
Some from that long list were dealt career-ending injuries, others became convicted criminals (Darian Claiborne and Isaiah Golden), and still others (namely Kenny Hill) transferred in search of playing time.
As it stands, zero original scholarship players remain from that 2013 class, with a few still playing elsewhere. Hill, a former starting quarterback at A&M, is the starting quarterback at TCU. Defensive lineman Reggie Chevis is wrapping up his career at the University of Houston. Receiver Ricky Seals-Jones bypassed his senior season for the NFL, when he went undrafted but has made the Arizona Cardinals’ roster.
Sumlin’s first class was his worst class in terms of staying power and playing power, and the Aggies feel the results today. Let’s move on to 2014, a smaller class of 22 but one that has made a far bigger impression on the program. It included defensive end Myles Garrett, the No. 1 overall selection of the 2017 NFL draft, and fellow fivestar prospect Kyle Allen, a quarterback.
A little more than a third of the 2014 class is still on the roster, and again it was a collection sideswiped by injury (Nick Harvey, Donovan Wilson, J.J. Gustafson among them), misconduct (Frank Iheanacho and Josh Walker) and transfer-itis (Allen).
Allen and one of the plums of the 2015 class, Kyler Murray, transferred within a couple of weeks of one another in December 2015. That’s a big reason why, instead of having a veteran quarterback running the show this year, the Aggies are relying on a true freshman in Kellen Mond.
Sumlin, who’s more open and forthright now than early in his A&M tenure, admitted this fall that the transfers of Allen and Murray “hurt the program.” He’s right, but here’s where it potentially gets better for the Aggies: Sumlin has vowed his recruiting process and evaluation has changed since the nightmare days of bringing the likes of Claiborne and Golden onboard, and that vow appears legitimate.
Kirk leads way
A jewel from the 2015 class, Christian Kirk, is leading the way this season as only a junior, and 15 of his 24 classmates are still contributing to the team. Along the way the likes of Murray, defensive lineman James Lockhart and linebackers Richard Moore and Dwaine Thomas transferred in search of more playing time, in part why the impressive classes of 2016 and 2017 have played such a big role so far this season.
Make no mistake: Many of the underclassmen playing for the Aggies, led by Mond, are quite talented, and if Sumlin truly has changed his approach and philosophy around recruiting, perhaps they’ll even stick around.
Should A&M reach eight or nine victories and not get embarrassed along the way, the up-against-thewall Sumlin, whose job has been in jeopardy since the season opener, might even get to coach them as upperclassmen.