Column: It's time for coach Sumlin to leave Texas A&M for better job
I am a Kevin Sumlin fan. He grew up about 45 minutes north of me. I have seen his high school play football. For the past three weeks, I have covered his press conferences and found him more engaging than most coaches.
I like the guy.
Here is my advice for him: it’s time to get out of Dodge. Or College Station to be exact.
Being from south Alabama and playing college football at Purdue, it seems Sumlin’s dream job should be in the SEC. A young African-American who comes back to the South and is successful.
But why stay if you are not appreciated?
The Aggies lost to Alabama at home, although they pretty much gave that game away. Then they were embarrassed at Ole Miss. A&M couldn’t even get into the Rebels’ end zone.
Now this. Texas A&M should beat South Carolina like a drum. But the Aggies didn’t do that. And the Kyle Field crowd seemed to let their displeasure known.
A 35-28 win against the Gamecocks does not sit well in Aggieland. Good. Take that as a sign.
Coach, you’ve done about all you can there. You had a Heisman winner. You beat Alabama when it was hot as a pistol. What else do you want there?
There are better situations than Texas A&M and you can have your choice of them.
First, you are playing in the SEC West. Alabama and LSU will always be a tough game. Ole Miss is better. Does anyone want to play Mississippi State or Arkansas? Auburn has players, too. Why would anyone want to face that Marquis de Sade schedule?
Coach, you can go to the SEC East where it is easier to get to the title game. You can go to the Big Ten and take on Urban Meyer. You can go to Los Angeles and cash in financially and with the local recruiting talent.
You would be a perfect fit at Southern Cal.
You have contacts in Texas for recruits. Also in Louisiana and the junior colleges. Add those kids to the ones you can get in L.A., and that is a great talent base.
But more than anything, coach, you won’t have to see Les Miles or Nick Saban again unless it is in a bowl game.
Jackie Sherrill was not happy at A&M. Neither was Emory Bellard, R.C. Slocum, Gene Stallings or Bear Bryant.
Take the chance to leave College Station and make your name elsewhere.
Texas A&M will get a new coach and he will be the one to take the grief.
You can go to the Pac-12 and contend for the national title. Also, you can have a contract with more zeroes.
Most important, you can leave behind all the headaches, just like the others did.
Stupid article, from random Bama bashing to annoying paragraph spacings. Plus, you’re tell Sumlin to leave the SEC because the schedule is too hard. Is that you Urban Meyer?
*telling
SDS rarely does A&M any favors but this column is just pure garbage. And it is the last thing I will ever read on this site.
Hey now, it’s kinda fun once you learn to laugh at it.
Hi, I’m Steve Barnes, and I am an A$$clown.
He apparently doesn’t even do so much as a Google search to research his retarded claims.
Go to the Pac12 and “add more zeroes” to his pay? Are you kidding me?
1. Nick Saban, Alabama.
2. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State.
3. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma.
4. Charlie Strong, Texas.
5. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan.
6. Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M.
The highest paid college coach in the Pac12 comes in at #14 nationally, over at Washington.
Steve Barnes likes butt.
*it in the butt
aTm, a great place to go to college and a great place to coach football.
It would be easier for him to win big at USC as his offense fits the PAC 12 and there aren’t great defenses to challenge it like in the SEC. Plus he’d make more $$ and have a bigger profile.
Take it easy Aggie fans I’m just pointing out the positives. A&M has positives too now that they’ve overtaken UT in talent rich TX.
I don’t think he’s worn out his welcome so this article is premature and ill- timed after a win but I didn’t watch the fans reactions. How many Aggie fans are disappointed by the close game today?
No, you’re just textbook trolling. A bigger profile? You can Google “top watched college football teams over past 5 years” and see A&M is right in the mix with the best!
Not many Aggie students are dissatisfied with the margin of victory. I can’t speak for t-shirt fans…
Make more money? Lolololololololol A&M has some of the deepest pockets in the country. We can match any program( thanks to the association of former students) dollar for dollar.
WTF did I just read?
Maybe this guy should go write for the Pac-12…
Saturday Down South has officially passed up BleacherReport for BS and shoddy journalism. There are many things wrong with this article but the glaring thing that stands out to me, RC Slocum and Jackie Sherril loved A&M Slocum still lives in the BCS area and Sherril is a regular supporter.
Exactly. You can find Jackie on texags radio every week!!!!
Misinformed blog writers these days…..
Hey Barnes, blow me!
Amateur
Yep R.C. hated it so much he was at the game today. Dude you’re an idiot.
While I reluctantly agree that it is time for Coach Sumlin to move on, this article was just really dumb. On top of being poorly written. Perhaps you were being snarkey. Perhaps it was a tongue in cheek swipe at others who think it is time for a change. Neither is an excuse for embarrassing yourself as you did in this article.
Wow!!! How much did Southern Cal pay Barnes to write this article?
They need to be focused on paying players because that’s the only way they’ll play for the lame coaches they hire.
USC couldn’t sniff out sumlin with a blood hound! He had multiple chances to leave ( during the sarkisian hiring process and prior to the Texans hiring Bill o brian ) , but chose to stay.
USC is a dumpster fire that burns at the same brightness as TU!
This guy who wrote this article must have smoked himself retarded. Sumlin is loved by most Aggies. Spavital is a different story. And where did he get this information that we Kyle field was not happy that we beat South Carolina? We yelled for our boys like we do every Saturday.
This dude must be a Walmart t-sip or he must be partying with Sark!
While do think this is just plain wrong, he does make a couple of valid points , the Pac12 would be easier than the SEC west , he probably would make considerably more money at USC and probably have a better chance of playing for more championships!!! But I don’t see it happening
Dude, Texas A&M is top 3-5 largest universities with one of the top donating alumni. Also, they are the 7th richest university. We can pay more than any PAC school.
The other stuff you said is possible.
PS: tell fournette to try to keep his rushing yards under 300 when y’all play us:)
“Steve Barnes is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football.” That is all the information I could find out about this jerk. I understand Saturday Down South is looking for interesting content, but you would think there would be some kind of level of standard.
There are so many things wrong with almost all of Steve Barnes bloviation. He just makes himself look like an idiot when writing about how Sumlin would not have to coach against Miles or Saban if he were to leave. I would guess Mr. Barnes has never competed for anything worthwhile in his life. If you have any desire to be the best, you want to compete against the best. Apparently, there is no one in a position of authority on this web site to try to publish the best and limit the idiocy.
This has to be one of the poorest prepared and written articles on SDS. If we are talking about money, you realize he’s making $5 million in Texas, one of the lowest tax states out there. If he went to USC, he’d need about $8 million to equal the lifestyle he has in Texas. He may leave A&M, but it won’t be for money. We haven’t even started with recruits, where he is in an area (Texas and Louisiana) which is one of the richest recruiting areas in the country. True he can have an easier schedule by going to a weaker conference and playing weaker opponents (like Meyer or in the Pac 12), or he could continue to build A&M into a competitor with upper echelon of the SEC. There is a reason folks like Frieze, Mullen, Bielema, and Sumlin take on this fight every year. Each believes he can position his school at that next level up.
I am a Steve Barnes fan. He grew up somewhere and I just read this article.
I like the guy.
Here is my advice for him. Please never type another sentence. People don’t appreciate your work. It’s time to move on.
Gig’em
Where are getting this crap of Sumlin not being appreciated in College Station? The majority of the criticism for the two losses have been leveled at OC Jake Spavital for predictable playing calling.
Well, if Sumlin moves on, it won’t be because he has been a phenomenal success at building a consistent team at A&M. A&M has the talent, but last season and this season the team has shown a lack of consistency on the offensive side of the ball (the mid season implosion last year was……. epic). Coupled with two years of just horrible defensive squads, his record has been just average (over all SEC record is 16-13, but in the last three years he’s 10-11). Yeah, the offensive stats can be gawdy, but ……..
A&M should have blown South Carolina out of Kyle Field, and barely eked it out after having to change quarterbacks (again) in mid season, with hints of discord (again) in the locker room. While KC talks a lot about how incredible it is to play at Kyle Field, he shows a lack of ability to get the team up for games there, especially for SEC games.
Sumlin is not a great head coach. He is good enough to compete in the SEC West, but the last three years he has produced teams that lack something, whether on offense or defense.
Not calling for his tenure to end by any stretch, but I find this fascination with Sumlin every time a job opening at another school kind of underwhelming.
Young players are inconsistent. It’s not like Sumlin is trotting out a team of seniors. Is Devante Harris the only senior starter on defense? On offense the only ones I can think of are Matthews and Carson. Like it or not (and I don’t) we are going to need to wait until next year when the players are more experienced to see if Sumlin can coach against the SEC West. I have not seen any stats rating the experience/age of the different teams in the west, but I’d guess the Aggies are pretty close to the youngest.
steve barnes is a flat out pussy trolling for clicks. Better luck next time douchebag.
Sumlin is a bad ass and stevie barnes licks taints.
Run away now because your job might be challenging…really? Thankfully Sumlin isn’t the coward that this writer is.
Barnes, You really don’t have a clue about college football in A&M. You might want to choose another sport to write about.
Slocum was so miserable he stayed for three decades. Stallings was so unhappy he served on the Board of Regents. And you can channel Bear Bryant? What an idiot. This guy is a writer for SDS???? lol
If he goes, we will buy better.
Seriously? Go to the Pac12 and “add more zeroes” to his pay? Are you kidding me?
1. Nick Saban, Alabama.
2. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State.
3. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma.
4. Charlie Strong, Texas.
5. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan.
6. Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M.
The highest paid college coach in the Pac12 comes in at #14 nationally, over at Washington.
Leave behind the headaches? He is universally loved by the Aggie fan-base, has great talent and any negative perception of performance is focused onto the offensive/defensive coordinators – and Sumlin gets no blame of his own. WHY would any coach want to leave that situation?
This is the crappiest article I’ve ever read, you must be high.