Gene Stallings clearly isn’t a big fan of Kevin Sumlin these days.
The Aggie alum and former Texas A&M and Alabama coach was very critical of the current direction of the Texas A&M program under Sumlin Thursday during an interview with The Opening Drive radio show. Stallings went so far as to place some of the blame for Johnny Manziel’s issues back to his lack of discipline during his days in College Station.
“It’s not satisfied as far as I’m concerned,” Stallings said on the air. “I felt they really mishandled Johnny Manziel. The worst thing you can do for a player is get him off if he’s guilty. You don’t have to send him to jail, but he violates the rules so they handicapped him a half a game against Rice. That’s real punishment.
“Now all of a sudden, Johnny thinks he’s bigger than the game and you see what his life has turned out to be.”
Stallings also believes Sumlin should be held accountable for his assistant coaches poor attempt at humor during the infamous women’s clinic held on campus.
“They had a clinic for women,” Stallings said, “Maybe 700 people attended. They had some graphics that were… they were just ‘classless’ is the word for that. Everything starts at the top. Even though he probably didn’t have anything to do with it, still was on his watch.”
The former coach even dropped a bit of personal info that shaped his opinion of the program, as Stallings directed his grandson to check out the Aggies during his recruitment. However a poor experience while visiting College Station led to him ultimately signing with Clemson.
“My grandson went down there (to A&M), and that’s sort of where I wanted him to go — (he) ended up going to Clemson – but he was displeased with the way the coaches talked to the players and various things,” Stallings said. “So I think they need clean up the act and get on the right road and coach football and have a good year.”
If the Aggies don’t bounce back from last season’s 8-5 campaign is a big way, Stallings certainly won’t be the last coach criticizing the direction of the A&M program under Sumlin.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
