The Texas Aggies will apparently wrap up their coaching search tomorrow, and all signs point to the Aggies handing the reigns over to UH head Coach Kevin Sumlin. Sumlin is coming off the best year in UH history and the program's only undefeated regular season. UH has set records all over the offensive side of the field and led FBS in total offense and total points. Sumlin has ties to the A&M program as he was an assistant coach for the Aggies from 2001-2002, so he seems like the obvious choice. 
If you look though a bit deeper though at Sumlin’s accomplishments at UH, you will see that they weren't against anything close to the top flight competition the Aggies will see in the SEC. On top of the easy schedule, the Heisman hopeful that led the Cougars to the C-USA title game wasn't his recruit. The real architect of UH’s resurgence was Sumlins predecessor, Art Biles.
Art Briles came into UH after the Coogs went 0-11 and won 8 games in 3 years under Dana Dimel. The program was in the worst shape it had ever been in. In his first year he won 7 games and took the Coogs to their first bowl game in 7 years. He won the conference title 3 years later and the program starting putting players in the NFL. In 2007 he left the Cougars for another program that needed to be brought out of the shadows of the college football powerhouses. The Baylor Bears hadn't had a winning season in 15 years and went 0-8 in the Big XII the year before Briles arrived.
Briles and the Bears battled through 2 rebuilding years in 08 & 09 in which they went 4-8 both years. But they broke through in 2010 and went to their first bowl game since 1994. He followed that up this year with a 9-3 season in which the Bears beat TCU, Texas, and OU. The Bears have also secured their first winning season in Big XII conference play since they joined the conference.Briles is Texas football through and through. He’s coached football in the state for over 30 years. He has outstanding relationships with high school coaches all over Texas from his years at Texas Tech, UH and Baylor. He recruited Robert Griffin III to UH and then was able to get him to follow him to Baylor. All the polls now are pointing to RG3 being Baylor’s first Heisman winner. If you can win a Heisman at Baylor imagine what he can do at a school with near unlimited resources, rich football tradition, and playing in the country’s premier football conference.
Briles has the experience needed to push through several inevitable bad rebuilding seasons and the high school connection s to tip the recruiting scales back in the favor of the Aggies. If Bill Byrne and the A&M administration haven't placed a call to Waco and backed up a Brinks truck to Briles front door, they're not only crazy, they're bordering incompetent.
These are all very valid points and A&M had some much better choices (Mike Leach) available for the position but I don't think Art Briles would have ever been an option at any reasonable price point.
ReplyDeleteTexas A&M has a very good thing going for them when they join the ranks of the most dominant conference in college football. The fact remains, though, that they will doubtless be in the bottom of the ranks for quite some time regardless of how great of a recruiting class they have in the upcoming years.
Briles currently has the opportunity to make Baylor a serious perennial contender for the Big 12 title and I don't think he would give that up to try and build up an Aggie team in the SEC, there is just not enough career profit from that. He would just risk a reputation hit if he were not able to make a major impact in the SEC in 5 years and stall all of the momentum he has been building thus far.
My money is on Briles taking the NFL step within that same time frame and being quite successful (cough, cough, not like Pete Carroll, cough, cough, the Seahawks are a terrible team).
The College Station cadre really did waste an excellent opportunity by not picking up Mike Leach before a really pathetic team like WSU was able to sign him. A proven, winning, Big 12 coach who was not fired for performance but rather politics...shame on TAMU
@RyanBum. First off A&M would never take Mike Leach, ever. He was the head coach at Texas Tech and the Aggie faithful would be on board. I don't disagree that Leach is a good coach but I think Baylor is a much harder place to win. I am much more impressed with what Baylor has done this year than what Texas Tech did several years back.
ReplyDeletePlus continued success at Baylor is nearly impossible. Texas and OU have serious recruiting advantages and they will always be the class of the conference.
A&M is a sleeping giant, it always has been. Massive resources, rabid fan base, and centered in a recruiting hotbed. A&M has underperformed for years,ack Brown has out recruited and out coached A&M since he's been there.
But by no stretch is Baylor a better job than A&M. And I don't see Briles leaving for the NFL either. The only reason for Briles to stay in Waco, is comfort. And that may be the reason he doesn't leave. Success is. More comfortable than suffering through several bad seasons as the Aggies gain their footing in the SEC I just think if anyone can do it it's Art Briles