Good article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today interviewing Kevin Sumlin about how hard it is to win in Aggieland. The Mississippi schools discussion made me laugh.
"A Stomp of All Things Mississippi" . . .
- Thread starter dawgman42
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“People would always say, ‘Why can’t we beat the Mississippi schools?’” Sumlin said. “People didn’t understand that then that those teams had good players. Guys like Dak Prescott, or A.J. Brown.”
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article317714636.html#storylink=cpy
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article317714636.html#storylink=cpy
Ex-Texas A&M coach explains the hardest part about coaching the Aggies now
EULESS
A fun factoid for Texas A&M fans: Former head coach Kevin Sumlin’s first two seasons in the SEC remain the best consecutive years for the program since it joined the league.
That is now all but guaranteed as an Aggies team that made the playoffs last season, and returned a senior starting quarterback, is among the leaders as one of the nation’s most disappointing teams in college football.
Sumlin is now the head coach of the UFL’s Dallas Renegades, and it is not lost on him that since he was fired from A&M near the end of the 2017 season the state of the program hasn’t changed much.
“You have a chance to sit back and look at it, and every (Texas A&M coach) has had some sort of issue,” Sumlin told the Star-Telegram in an interview last week. “Whatever it is, there has been an issue. And now it’s become a lot tougher even when I was there.”
It’s been nine years since A&M fired Sumlin after his sixth season in College Station, when it was decided what he was doing wasn’t the standard. Sumlin was replaced by Jimbo Fisher, a tenure that was worse than Sumlin’s, and far more expensive.
You can make a strong case that the best season A&M has enjoyed this century was in 2012, when quarterback Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy, the team defeated Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, finished 11-2 and No. 5 in the final AP Poll.
(The Aggies did finish 9-1 under Jimbo in 2020, but that was played under COVID conditions which muted and neutered all achievements.)
In 2012, A&M defeated No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, a moment that remains arguably its greatest day since it joined the SEC. That game is burned in all Aggie brains, the picture of the scoreboard hung on walls, but it was not a sign of the future; it was a one-off.
Texas A&M is now 4-3, and 1-3 in the SEC under third-year coach Mike Elko. It will play at No. 13 Alabama on Saturday, and the Aggies are a 14-point underdog. Looking at their remaining schedule, a losing record feels possible, which would be their second in the last five years.
Why Kevin Sumlin thinks the Texas A&M job is tougher today
In Sumlin’s first season, the SEC had 14 teams, with both the Aggies and Missouri as the new additions. This was what Texas A&M wanted when it left the Big 12.“When we moved to the SEC, it really separated A&M in the state. People thought it was crazy, but it drew a line. We weren’t playing Texas anymore,” he said. “And you’re really not recruiting the same guy; you’re recruiting the same guys, but you’re not. Does that make sense?”
Absolutely. When A&M was in the SEC without Texas, and Oklahoma, the recruiting pitch was different to the same kid. Today, it’s all the same.
The line drawn by A&M was erased by the SEC when it added Texas and Oklahoma in 2024.
“In certain ways, this is a harder job now than just being in the SEC West,” Sumlin said. “Your main competition (Texas) you have to play and beat, not only in recruiting but on the field, let alone LSU, and Alabama and the rest. So it has become a tougher job.”
Texas A&M has learned the hard way
When A&M joined this league, it was assumed it would be a fight with LSU and Alabama and Georgia, but a stomp of all things Mississippi.“People would always say, ‘Why can’t we beat the Mississippi schools?’” Sumlin said. “People didn’t understand that then that those teams had good players. Guys like Dak Prescott, or A.J. Brown.”
In Sumlin’s time at A&M, the Aggies were 3-3 against Ole Miss, and 3-3 against Mississippi State. As members of the SEC, Ole Miss is 6-5 against Texas A&M. The Aggies are 8-5 against the Bulldogs in the SEC.
“They understand it, especially now. It’s what it was; you can look back and say, ‘Well, nobody understood that.’ The fan base didn’t recognize it because we had never played them,” he said. “And now they know this is a little bit different (from the Big 12). They understood Texas and Oklahoma, so combine that, and it’s a tougher row to hoe.”
Then there is another element at play that a lot of these BigSEC10 schools, the coaches, their fans and big-money boosters are navigating, and coming to terms with — in the age of the super conference, your team is going to lose.
“Everybody can’t win,” Sumlin said. “The conferences are tougher, and there are more people, more eyeballs, more money, and it creates more pressure.”
This is Texas A&M’s 15th season as a member of the SEC, and it is still trying to get back to the high points it created in those first two years under Kevin Sumlin.
P.S.--GLFR boycotts the Star-Telegram
Similarly to us, they've never truly accepted what they are, and operated that way. Due to their competition, they have to do things differently, have a different mindset, have a different plan. Instead they want to do things conventionally. Cultures are different.
I’m genuinely curious when you say we’ve never accepted what we are and chosen to do things differently, how the hirings of Mullen->Moorhead->Leach->Lebby fit into that narrative. I’d argue the only hire that does fit your “po ol state” narrative is Arnett and we weren’t exactly awash with options in December.
A&M = MSU with a lot more money. Both continue to shot themselves in the foot (sometimes in the head).
THe same article could be written about Arkansas. Living there in the final Nutt years, they never referred to State and OM individually, it was always "the Mississippi schools". They made a good choice joining the SEC. But they will never win conference titles like in the SWC days and they had a difficult time excepting that.
I'm actually advocating for little more po ol state when it comes to football. Basketball/baseball - we're fine. But we have to come to grips with the idea that while we do have some money and attractiveness, we don't have as much as our competition. In the old era, I was less convinced that this mattered as much because you could find more overlooked players and keep them. But now? We have to have a plan and accept that we likely aren't going to get the A-list (or A-price) players. We need to lean into our small town/culture/underdog role and find players that fit that.
aTm should do the same thing. They've proven that it's not all about money, they have plenty of it. But they have the same culture problem.
@L4Dawg spent a lot of time and drank a lot of Zima the other day trying to convince us that it was 100% about money.
How long until A&M leaves the conference so they can play an easier schedule? “We don’t need the money, we’re rich.”
The move to the SEC allowed them to get out from under Texas and not be little brother anymore. Regardless of the lack of consistent big time success on the field the move to the SEC has been a grand slam home run for them. Even with Texas in the SEC now the little brother syndrome is gone and just about everything at A&M has seen positive growth except on the field which matters less in the SEC than when they were in the Big12 because everyone knows the SEC is a way better league.
Only way I think they leave is for equal or better opportunity which could be Big10 or some new super conference. I think they could do damage in the Big 10 long term.
Didn't have to read it, everybody here knows. Also, my Aggie buddies have changed during this time period. They used to be a lot like us with how they acted but they are now more like Texas and Ole Miss. They genuinely think they are better than us and it wasn't always that way. Tech people are more like us but that could change too if they get all high and mighty with what Cody Campbell is doing.
Well if you had read it, you'd realize that it makes a great case that aTm is still, in fact, very much little brother to Texas. Regardless of what they think of us.
Auburn thinks they are better than us too, but that still doesn't change the uncontroversial fact that they are Alabama's little brother.
Texas was practically begging to get in the SEC partly because they saw how much it was helping A&M grow and separate themselves. I'm sure people still look at them as little brother but not like they did when I first moved here over 20 years ago.....that's just my lived truth****
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