Now, granted, some of you (maybe even more than some) have already written off Kevin Sumlin as Texas A&M’s football coach. As the 2017 football season approaches, your minds are focused elsewhere, mostly on what the next Aggies coach will bring to the table. Chip Kelly’s ears are surely burning.

We have predicted the Aggies to finish 4-8, with only one conference victory, and a cellar-dwelling spot in the SEC West. If our crystal ball is correct, you will have your way; Sumlin will be gone.

However, five games on the schedule will decide that fate. Here they are, in order of difficulty, the handful of match-ups that will define the 2017 season for A&M, and for Sumlin.

vs. Auburn, Nov. 4

The visiting team has won this clash in each of the five meetings since the Aggies joined the SEC. That doesn’t bode well for Texas A&M since the Nov. 4 meeting is at Kyle Field. With all the hype surrounding the Tigers this season, a victory over a surging Auburn team in early November would be monumental, perhaps even job-saving.

vs. Alabama, Oct. 7

Aggies fans must have thought this SEC thing would be easy, beating the conference’s best in Alabama back in their inaugural season of 2012. They’ve lost four straight to the Tide since then. This year’s clash will take place at Kyle Field, where the Aggies are 0-3 against Alabama. This also has the potential to be one of those job-saving victories if Sumlin can pull it off on the first Saturday in October.

at LSU, Nov. 25

The Aggies have lost the last six games between the two teams, starting with a Cotton Bowl loss following the 2010 season when they were still a member of the Big 12. The Aggies haven’t won in Baton Rouge since 1994, although they’ve only played twice in Tiger Stadium since then.

If Sumlin is still the Aggies’ coach when these teams get together at the end of the season, it could turn out to be the single most important game in his career at Texas A&M.

at Florida, Oct. 14

In a rare meeting with Florida and even rarer visit to The Swamp, the Aggies catch the Gators the week after facing Alabama. Meeting the two teams that played for the SEC Championship in consecutive weeks isn’t the most advantageous of scheduling, but a victory would go a long way in reversing A&M’s recent trend of mid-season collapses.

The Aggies have played in The Swamp just once, in 1962, some 30 years before the facility was actually given its nickname by former head coach Steve Spurrier, and even before the Ole Ball Coach played quarterback at the school (1964-66) and won the Heisman Trophy (1966) there.

at UCLA, Sept. 3

This doesn’t look to be the toughest game on the Aggies’ schedule, but it certainly will set the tone. If Sumlin is to survive the 2017 season, going out to Cali for the opener and plucking a victory is crucial.

The last time the Aggies dropped a season opener was in their first year in the SEC (2012), in their first SEC game (Florida).