Sumlin still has plenty of fans
Former players use social media to defend coach
COLLEGE STATION — It’s a reaction as old as sport itself: a young athlete defending the coach who gave him a chance, who believed in him and helped mold his life moving forward.
That’s why former Texas A&M defensive lineman Jay Arnold, among others, was so adamant this week in his defense of Kevin Sumlin, who’s on his way out after six seasons with the Aggies.
“You’re damn right I’m a ‘Sumlin apologist,’ he was the man who gave me an opportunity to play football in the best conference at the collegiate level in the sport,” Arnold posted via Twitter. “That’s my coach. That’s always my coach.”
For better or for worse, that is his coach, and Arnold joins millions of other young men and women who own similar sentiments toward their most influential adults outside of their parents (and in some cases in lieu of their parents).
Players and former play-
ers reacted via social media this week to the Chronicle revelation Sumlin would not be retained following the Aggies’ regular-season finale at LSU on Saturday night. In the offseason A&M athletic director Scott Woodward said an 8-5 finish, which A&M has managed three consecutive seasons, is not good enough.
The Aggies are 7-4 (4-3 in SEC) and are double-digit underdogs at LSU. Even if A&M pulls off an upset, Sumlin will be let go that day or within days, multiple people with knowledge of the situation said.
Former A&M offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor, now with the Baltimore Ravens, posted in part, “The way they’re treating the players and coaches in this situation is weak … it’s supposed to be about the players, (but) A&M making it about their own selfish intentions …”
Light on substance
It’s supposed to be about the players? No, it’s not, and Sumlin’s slogan of “It’s about us” is just one of many problems with what’s long been regarded as a country club program heavy on style and light on substance.
It’s supposed to be about the players? No, it’s supposed to be about competing for conference titles, which Sumlin has failed to do in his six years of leading the Aggies. He’s 51-25 overall, knocking out the lightweights dotting a typical Power Five schedule, but 15-19 where it counts most: SEC West play.
A report that a coach will be dismissed following a regular season is nothing new, and after reading some passionate reaction from young men defending their coach, my first thought was, Don’t they know how this works?
Truth is no, they don’t, and while veteran reporters have covered multiple firings and hirings and the sometimes-sticky process is relatively similar, it’s all new to these naïve competitors who are trying to figure out what’s going on and why sophomore running back Trayveon Williams let his feelings be known this week in all caps on Twitter.
“Have Some Class About The Way You Go About Things, That’s Flat Out Ridiculous,” Williams posted.
Ten years ago and before social media had hit its sometimes-unbecoming stride, Dennis Franchione was on his way out as A&M coach. Years later plenty of athletes would reveal exactly how unpopular Franchione was at the time, but that wasn’t evident on the night he was fired.
“It’s beyond football what he means to us,” then-A&M defensive lineman Red Bryant said after Franchione’s Aggies defeated Texas in the coach’s last game in 2007. “It’s a great feeling to go out and beat your rival, and just tell the man you appreciate him for everything in life.”
Meanwhile Sumlin said his players have handled noise from the outside all season, and this week’s Chronicle story is no different.
“It’s not like we haven’t dealt with this since the spring,” Sumlin said.
No seventh season
That jab is in reference to Woodward’s appearance on the “Paul Finebaum Show” on the SEC Network, when Woodward said 8-5 no longer is good enough.
“Coach Sumlin knows he has to win, and he has to win this year,” Woodward said on the show. “He has to do better than he’s done in the past.”
The Aggies haven’t, after blowing a 34-point lead in the season opener at UCLA and losing by a combined 36 points at home to Mississippi State and Auburn — all reasons Sumlin won’t return for a seventh season.
“Our team has done a really, really nice job of focusing on games at hand,” Sumlin said, in gently brushing aside the unwieldy losses to the Bruins, Bulldogs and Tigers. “And