I met Sumlin a few times when he was here at private dinners and whatnot. He was a schmoozer and good at that aspect. Very personable guy. But he came off as the “cool dad” not the discipline guy. I think the swag works to bring kids in, but you need discipline when times get rough. That is where his problem is now. Also my understanding he was a total CEO and not a hands on offensive coach.
Off topic, I never met our last former coach, but I understand that he was kind of a dickhead privately(surprise!).
My basic observation of Sumlin is fairly simple: he only had two really good years (2011 at UH and 2012 at A & M). In both those years he benefited from having great quarterbacks that he didn’t even recruit. Keenum here and Manziel at A & M.
I know nothing about Sumlin’s personality beyond what is revealed in press conferences and interviews. I told anyone who would listen that the Aggies would rue the day they hired him because you cannot win in the SEC in particular without a solid defense. He never cared much about defense at UH apparently thinking that he could always out score the other team. In SEC, not true. Have to have defense.
And Aggies D is, or ought to be, very, very good. Why aren’t they? Don’t know. Maybe deep down the D knows it’s all about the O and they’re second class citizens? Just thinking out loud.
So if he lacks leadership, that is a big problem and maybe the root of the inconsistency. How does that change if he goes to the NFL? Those guys need an HC who can lead, and having an abrasive personality doesn’t mean he can lead pros any better than college players. If you can’t lead you can’t lead. It doesn’t matter if you swear Patton-like or say ‘pretty please with sugar on top’. Sure it’s a different style for pros vs college but you’ve got to be able to lead. He can’t.
P.S. Charlie Strong has a totally different personality and he can’t lead either which is why USF will rue the day they hired him.
P.P.S. Scott Frost is a leader. He’s the reason UCF will win the AAC East going away and play UH for the title. That will be a slug-fest of a game decided by a TD or less. Bring it.
It was all Case and his ability in my opinion. He had Case at Houston and Johnny Football at A&M. He screwed Houston over the way he left and Houston is better now because of it.
Didn’t he inherit the Blake Joseph - Case Keenum decision as well? Joseph had a cannon of an arm but accuracy / mobility was an issue. I still remember him throwing that ball 10 yards through the end zone that Edwards tried to catch.
My personal perception of Sumlin is:
Able to handle the teams UH was supposed to handle (sure it took some miracles like @ La Tech and @ SMU if I recall) and gave UH some credibility with wins over P5 programs that Briles seemed to be lacking
Fell short in winning a Conference Championship – that is where Briles and Coach Concussion overshadowed Sumlin
Upgraded the coaching staff – Briles seemed to bring in his HS connections from his Stephenville days
As others pointed out, how much success was due to Keenum at the controls vs. Sumlin coaching makes it hard to say if he was a good coach or just benefited from good timing. Probably a little of both.
I will always think that Briles was the better offensive mind but Sumlin took care of the bigger picture better (e.g. special teams, fewer stupid personal foul penalties that plagued UH and Baylor under Briles, better conditioned players, etc.) and seemed to have the team prepared each week. However, Sumlin never got UH over the top…maybe he could have before A&M started whispering in his ear.
Sumlin did a good job while here and he defintely help raise our profile and expectations. The way he left and brokered his deal with A&M was careless and classless and hurt the kids and our program.
My personal interactions with him on 2 occasions I found him to be pompous, abrasive, arrogant and he could not have cared less to talk to me. I don’t expect a coach to be my best friend, but they are ambassadors to the program. And it’s not like I caught him at a bad time or I was trying to talk his ear off, it was at his coach’s show. Major turn off.
I had several rubbing elbow moments with Briles, Sumlin and Herman. I have nothing bad to say about any of those experiences…but also don’t think you should judge a man solely on his actions at a booster get-together.
Speaking of get-togethers. More than a handful of those “rubbing elbow” moments were at 57’s place. Whatever happened to 57? Is he still on the old site?
During the CUSA championship game that we barely showed up for vs. Southern Miss the gossip was flying in the stands that he’d just accepted the TAMU position. After the game he was interviewed by one of the announcers and his comment was that if the players couldn’t get up for such an important game, it was their fault. That’s paraphrasing a little, but catches the gist of it. I immediately hoped he was fail at ATM. Hump.
Sumlin was the biggest jerk on the face of the earth, and wouldnt give you the time of day unless you were a 5 or 6 figure donor. All offense, not much defense…he spent the entire 4 years whining about how hard it was to recruit good players…if he hadnt inherited Case Keenum from Briles, he would never have won here…Guy lost to Rice twice in 4 years…RICE! Enough said…
The first time I met Sumlin in person, I thought he was a pompous ass. The second time, I was convinced I was right the first time; he was a rude, arrogant, bore. He was a great coach as long as he had Case Keenum. The year he was without Case, he was 5-7; the same as Tony Levine. When Case came back, he was 12-0 in regular season; but lost the CUSA Championship because he was too busy getting his gig with the Aggies lined up to prepare a game plan and did not prepare the team at all. It was always all about himself.
I don’t miss him, and I assume you won’t either when he gets the boot.
As the face of the program, you can’t afford to turn off die-hards. You don’t have to be super engaging, but you should always be polite and grateful. MANY many people (not all) had the same experience with Sumlin as gruff, grouchy and aloof. If that’s how you want to be, be a Coordinator not an HC.
Those of you that had contact with him know, as I do, that if you were in his group of friends, he was cool, otherwise he was a jerk and it didn’t matter if you were a booster or not. I was glad when he left and told my Aggie friends to beware and that one day they would be happy to see him go as well.
Throwing trash at your coach is sick.
Sending a letter like that is evil.
I had the good fortune of sitting next to Mrs. Sumlin at Robertson (our sections were separated by a short wall) and I must say she is one of the classiest people I’ve ever met. As far as her husband, he:
blamed me for closing practice to the public (when he was planning on closing it all along) because he didn’t like something that he thought I posted.
basically called me a liar in public (“everything you read on the internet is true, by the way, I see Johnny is here”)
had his SID call me at 7:30 on a Saturday morning demanding I give up the source that told me Blake Joseph wasn’t on the depth chart. I respectfully declined.
There are people on this board that can corroborate and confirm all three of those.
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Return address on that letter is Houston Country Club. Odd choice.
I will vouch for JC. Should have stayed outside the comes.
I met him early while at UH. One of my son’s was at his camps. The number of players was manage and Sumlin actually worked with my son and gave him help with technique. But he was different the last year, not as approachable or friendly.
He never won with his own QBs, he had success with those he inherited. He also never won a conference title at UH and ATM (I am still tied with him in that category…lol).
His agent squeezed UH and ATM over and over for money.
Looking back Sumlin has a lot of sizzle but lacks in big-time wins. I think his window to the NFL is closing really fast.
I will take this opportunity for our poster to “push” for our inclusion to the SEC. This will revive a rivalry but more importantly “seal” the entire State of Texas for your School and U of H. The SEC is the best league. What better representation than both of our Schools. UTA will be forever put out to pasture…no pun intended.
Regarding scumlin:
Yes I am using a very harsh description for the man that left us “at the altar” He not only cost us a game, $M’s but more importantly he lied to a group of young men. These same young men that he had recruited telling their parents to trust him. Yes it is common practice but it is not common practice the way he left us. I am all for people to make more money. Your School or any other School could have waited a few days or even a few weeks. He used us knowing full well that our area has the best talent in all of Texas and maybe the entire Country.
Lack of class:
Again and again I will bring a clear example of the man that he is and the types of Team that he has on the sideline. A few years ago we played against UCLA. They were not a good Team and Neuheisel was about to get fired. Here is scumlin, klinksberry on the sideline taunting the UCLA bench. I get it some players like to talk but that night I was embarrassed and I was not the only one. You could feel it how the entire UCLA Team responded. Case got to the hospital as well as another QB. The next day Neuheisel was asked about it on So Cal radio. He replied very calmly that this was the reason his Team played with so much fire.
So you can ask yourself about this past weekend. Did the same thing happened? You be the judge.
Coach:
So far he has been a “flash in a pan” Interesting the same term used to be "fluff in a pan"
He might be better off cashing an “exit” check. Do some soul searching and understand what got him where he is at today. People change for the better, I believe that. We all learn from losing, failing. I sure hope he does.