I hope you are right about A&M. Everything I've seen or heard about Sumlim makes me think he is capable of sustaining success and we don't need another quality program in the West. With all of their losses including Kingsbury, we really need them to struggle this year.
Sumlin has been a major college coach for exactly one year (I'm not counting Houston). Mike Archer looked like a genius for a couple of years, even. Remember that. They will struggle, and it will be fun to watch here in Texas. The only thing that keeps the pompous Aggies in check is that they didn't beat us last year.
I realize that our offense, as "boring" as it has been, has still yielded an unprecedented number of wins. Slocum's offense at A & M was boring, too, but their strong defenses led to success for the teams of the 90's.
Just ready for another SEC season on our brand new SEC network, where ever that may be. I'm always happy to watch a bad conference game over a nationally hyped one, anytime. Can't wait for Vandy vs Ole Miss. See, I just proved it.
A lot of talk on this thread about the LSU/Georgia game. An aspect not mentioned is, Mettenberger back to UGA. Interesting.
I have to count his tenure at Houston because he did so much with so little talent. I've heard him speak on radio, TV, and in person and he's an impressive guy (IMO). I think there is some truth to the rumors that the Eagles offered (or wanted to offer) their job to him ahead of Chip Kelly. If he gets some momentum in that program with a few decent recruiting classes stacked together, they should be a top 15-20 program. I've wondered why highly recruited athletes would want to go to a place like College Station (given other options) but Sumlin may be able to be an X factor. When they joined the conference, I was hoping they'd be more on the Ole Miss / Miss St level. I'm also hoping that the clash between old school Aggies and the younger generation ruins the progress of their program. The old school Aggies initially hated Sumlin's new age approach, including wearing alternative uniforms until they started winning. At much as it pains me to entertain the thought, I may have to pull for Bama to get revenge over the Aggies in that early season matchup in College Station.
Look at the Gumps' schedule, A&M and LSU are the only two teams that can derail their path to a three-peat. Screw Bama.
It's safe to say he had CUSA talent at Houston. It's just as important to note he runs an Art Briles system. It's a system where the success is very contingent on having a play-maker at the QB position. That 13 win season in 2011 rest largely on the arm of Casey Keenum. Keenum struggled a lot in 2010 resulting in a sub .500 season at Houston. FWIW, it's an interesting system to track through college football. Sumlin from Briles. Briles tutelage comes from Leach. Leach is at the base of the coaching tree he and Mumme started at UK years ago. Heck, now that I'm rambling a bit... That Leach/Mumme system also produced Holgerson whose system at WVU is like Sumlin's and Briles—very contingent on QB play. (And occasionally fielding a decent defense, but majority of the time it's all about offense.)
