» Sumlin fired as head coach at Texas A&M,
Fans, lawmakers urge Tennessee not to hire Schiano.
Texas A&M fired coach Kevin Sumlin on Sunday after six winning seasons.
The first black head coach in program history was 51-26 and 25-23 in the Southeastern Conference and never had a losing season. But his first year at A&M was his best, and he never could come close to matching it.
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher has been mentioned as a potential replacement, along with SMU coach Chad Morris, Washington State coach Mike Leach and Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy.
In 2012, Sumlin had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback in Johnny Manziel and ushered in the program’s move from the Big 12 to the SEC by going 11-2. That earned him a new contract and $5 million annual salary, but the Aggies have not won more than nine games since.
They ended their regular season Saturday by losing to LSU. They dropped to 7-5 and finished 4-4 in the SEC for the fourth time under Sumlin.
Athletic Director Scott Woodward, hired by the school in the summer of 2016, said in a statement that Sumlin made Texas A&M “a better all-around football program and led our program with dignity and character.”
“Our expectations at A&M are very high,” Woodward said. “We believe that we should compete for SEC championships on an annual basis and, at times, national championships. I believe that we need a new coach to take us there.”
Special teams coach Jeff Banks will be interim coach.
Sumlin, 53, had two years left on his contract, which calls for a $10 million buyout to be paid within 60 days of his termination. Texas A&M said the terms of the deal would be honored.
Tennessee’s pursuit of Schiano prompts backlash: Tennessee’s pursuit of Greg Schiano as its next head coach has fallen through.
According to various reports, Tennessee Athletic Director John Currie flew to Ohio Sunday in hopes of bringing Schiano back with him for a press conference later that evening. However, the news of Schiano’s hiring was met with mass backlash from fans, former players, media members and even members of the state government.
Most of the backlash stemmed from testimony that Schiano may have known about the child abuse in the Jerry Sandusky case when he was an assistant at Penn State from 1990-95.
Court documents released last year of a deposition in a case related to the Sandusky scandal suggested Schiano might have been aware of Sandusky’s sexual abuse against children, though Schiano says he had no knowledge of what was happening at the time.
“The head football coach at the University of Tennessee is the highest-paid state employee,” Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison said. “They’re the face of our state. We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee. It’s egregious to the people and it’s wrong to the taxpayers.”
Faison was one of at least three state representatives who went on Twitter or issued statements Sunday to criticize the possibility of Tennessee hiring Schiano.
Schiano posted a 68-67 record from 2001-11 as the head coach at Rutgers, where he turned around what had been one of the nation’s most downtrodden programs. He went 11-21 as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2012-13.
Mississippi keeps Luke: Mississippi decided to keep Matt Luke as its coach. The 41-year-old spent the past season as the interim coach, taking over after Hugh Freeze resigned in July following a university investigation into his phone records. The school announced Luke was the permanent head coach on Twitter on Sunday night.
Luke led the Rebels to a 6-6 record, including a 3-5 SEC mark. He finished the season with a 31-28 upset victory over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl.
LATE SATURDAY
No. 21 Stanford 38, No. 8 Notre Dame 20: K.J. Costello threw two of his career-high four touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and Stanford rallied to defeat Notre Dame on Saturday.
The night couldn’t have gone much better for the Cardinal (9-3), who got the help they needed when Washington beat Washington State 41-14 in the Apple Cup to send Stanford to the Pac-12 title game. The Cardinal finished tied for first in the North with the Huskies but won the head-to-head matchup to take the tiebreaker.
Bryce Love ran for 125 yards, but Costello was the star of the offense by throwing for 176 yards and delivering the four scores. Stanford has won seven of nine in the series, including the last five at home against the Fighting Irish (9-3).
Notre Dame had a meltdown in the fourth quarter with two turnovers in the opening minutes and was dealt a serious blow in its hopes for making a New Year’s Six bowl game.
The game took a dramatic turn in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter as Stanford turned a 20-17 deficit into a 38-20 lead in a span of 3:36.