On the Aggies:
How Kevin Sumlin managed to outdo both Texas’ Mack Brown and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops in recruiting.
COLLEGE STATION — Kevin Sumlin says there are two questions he will never ask after watching video of a prospect— except when explaining why he won’t ask them.
“‘What’s he rated?’ and ‘Who’s recruiting him?’ ’’ Sumlin said. “I don’t care.” Texas A&M’s secondyear coach said he cares about those two questions only for perception purposes, and right now the perception around Aggieland and across the South is about as positive as it could be.
“Sumlin accomplished the rare feat of topping both Mack Brown and Bob Stoops on the Texas recruiting trail— and he laid much of the groundwork before anyone outside College Station had seen JohnnyManziel,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel in dubbing Sumlin themagazine’s “Recruiter of the Year.” Season to remember
In his first full season of recruiting for Texas A&M, Sumlin tied the bow on the Aggies’ first Rivals.com top-10 class in eight years. And as revered as they are around Aggieland for reviving the program starting in the mid-1980s, Jackie Sherrill and R.C. Slocum over a combined 21 seasons never achieved what Sumlin did in one— a top-five finish nationally.
The No. 5 Aggies, behind Heisman Trophy winner Manziel, earned their highest season-ending ranking since 1956, when they also finished fifth under then-coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. A&M was 11-2 in 2012 in a league that has won the last seven national titles. And the Aggies were the only team to defeat the national champion Alabama, and they did so at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“We’re in a pretty good league,” Sumlin said of his initial impression of playing in the Southeastern Conference.
The casual observer likely will assume much of A&M’s recruiting success stemmed from its surprisingly successful first season in the SEC, an upset at Alabama, the school’s second Heisman Trophy winner, and a shellacking of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. They would be wrong. “We had a lot of guys committed (already),” Sumlin said— a gentle reminder that much of this stellar class had believed in the new regime before all of the success during the past season. Early sales job pays off
A year ago, Sumlin, who was hired from Houston, had yet to coach a single practice at A&M but had started spinning his spiel to 2013 recruits and hoped they believed the Aggies would compete for titles right away in the SEC. That’s why he will always have an affinity for the players who had faith in his A&M program before he ever stepped on the Kyle Field sideline as head coach.
“I’ll always be indebted to those guys who bought in to what we were selling, because (the good things) hadn’t happened yet,” Sumlin said. “In January, you would be surprised by the number of phone calls we got. But we just didn’t have any room.”
There’s plenty of room for next year, however, and Sumlin already had shifted gears and begun to focus on 2014 long before signing day Wednesday.
“We’ve got six or seven commitments for next year,” he said. “I look for us to sign another pretty healthy class.”