Aggies want more, but is it achievable?
Kevin Sumlin finally out at A&M?
Would anyone in college football America really be surprised?
Apparently the man himself, who said Tuesday he expects to keep guiding the Aggies in 2018.
“Why wouldn’t I?” said the ex-Cougars coach, who could soon become an ex-Aggie.
Um … 7-4? And 8-5. And 8-5 again and again in a place that is absolutely convinced it can be better than this.
It was when Johnny Manziel ruled the world (and College Station). And really, that’s when Sumlin’s fall began.
All those other quarterbacks. All the young national talent now starring in the NFL. All that cash — Manziel was on to something when he kept rubbing his fingers together (and won a Heisman) — with almost a half-billion dollars invested into a rebuilt Kyle Field and one of the
most dedicated and passionate fan bases in the country eagerly waiting year after year for something more.
This is the world Sumlin wanted when he left the University of Houston high and dry in December 2011. Now he’s on the verge of paying the price six years later. And if it happens in the days surrounding LSU on Saturday, I can’t blame the Aggies’ big-money movers for wanting more.
But you have every right to question whether they’re going to do any better.
Jim Mora and Butch Jones are gone. Jim Harbaugh has disappointed in blue. And almost a year to the day that Tom Herman’s name started ticking across our TVs last Thanksgiving — Charlie Strong fired; Herman from UH to LSU, then officially to Austin — college football’s silly season has returned just as families are reuniting across the country.
Opener-and-shut case
If it happens, the seasonopening stunner that was UCLA 45-44 on Sept. 3 sealed it. And if the Aggies finally move on from Sumlin, they would have been better off firing him that night.
Of course, A&M was going to drop three of four in the middle of the season — Sumlin has fiveloss campaigns down to a science. And of course, the Aggies were going to fall to Alabama again without Manziel.
Almost everyone does. And that’s part of the never-ending college football problem that plagues every major program that doesn’t have Nick Saban.
It’s a Dabo Swinney-Saban world, where geniuses guiding “student-athletes” rule. Then it’s pretty much everybody else clawing for scraps. Heck, even 10-1 Georgia might have screwed up when it moved on two Novembers ago from Mark Richt, who’s 10-0 at Miami this season and has the Hurricanes (No. 2) ahead of the Bulldogs (No. 7) in the almighty College Football Playoff rankings.
In such a cutthroat, unforgiving environment — fabulously wealthy boosters dictating the futures of amateurs; colleges hiring and firing on a whim while young men are forced to stick around — the Aggies will surely raise the College Station bar even higher if they choose to enter a post-Sumlin world.
Which is why there should be another another name out there other than just Jimbo Fisher.
A&M can’t accept 8-5 annually but is fascinated by 4-6 and a lost season in Tallahassee, Fla.?
Hilarious. And a little backward.
I’ve been waiting for the Aggies to move on from Sumlin ever since he treated Kyle Allen versus Kyler Murray like little league practice. The Aggies dropped three of their final five games that season and haven’t won a bowl since 2014 (and that was the Liberty Bowl, which barely counts). Now Sumlin could be dismissed before this bowl season even arrives.
No guarantees
Herman’s Longhorns are improving but just 6-5. Major Applewhite’s Cougars are 6-4 and have dropped several games that Herman would have won his first year but also couldn’t close out at UH last season.
Be careful what you wish for, College Station.
Of course, tied for fourth in the SEC West isn’t good enough five years after Manziel carried the Aggies to No. 5 in the country, quarterbacked a Cotton Bowl victory and started flashing his money fingers. If this really is the end for Sumlin, it was only a matter of time.
But if A&M goes all in for Fisher, College Station better end up with the 2013-14 version. The last time I saw him, he was getting schooled by Herman’s Coogs in the Peach Bowl.
And here’s what all that big Aggie money should really be considering: A&M has won more than 10 games only twice since 1994. Is it the coach? Or is it the program?