Three-time national coach of the year finalist Kevin Sumlin has overseen the Texas A&M football team’s successful transition to the nation’s premier conference while posting the school’s most successful five-year span in nearly two decades while competing in the rugged SEC West division.
Since taking over the reins of the Texas A&M program on Dec. 10, 2011, Sumlin has averaged nearly nine victories per season and is one of just two current SEC head coaches to have won at least eight games each year during that span. His 44 wins (44-21 record) after his first five seasons marked the second-fastest coaching start in school history behind R.C. Slocum’s 49 wins from 1989-93
He is just the second Aggie head coach to take his first five teams to a bowl game, and Sumlin’s teams have improved the Aggies’ school record streak of consecutive seasons with a bowl game appearance to eight seasons. His three bowl victories are already tied for the most in school history.
Sumlin’s record against non-conference teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 is a perfect 5-0 (wins over No. 22 Louisiana Tech and No. 11 Oklahoma in 2012, No. 22 Duke in 2013, No. 15 Arizona State in 2015 and No. 16 UCLA in 2016). Sumlin’s Aggies have beaten at least one AP Top 25 opponent away from Kyle Field each year, and his 12 victories over top 25 teams from 2012-16 rank among the most in college football.
Among those wins over ranked opponents were three road victories over teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll — 29-24 over No. 1 Alabama in 2012, 52-29 over No. 9 South Carolina in the 2014 season-opener and 41-38 over No. 3 Auburn in 2014. Sumlin is the only Aggie head coach in school history to post more than two AP top 10 road wins.
The Aggies’ success on the field has coincided with the team’s continued upward trend in the classroom. The Texas A&M football team’s 2013-14 multi-year Academic Progress Rate of 974 was an all-time high for the school, and the 2014-15 APR was 967. The Aggies also finished the 2015-16 school year with an overall team GPA above 2.70 and had more than 30 players named to the Athletics Director Honor Roll (requires a 3.0 GPA or higher) both semesters.
Despite his defensive background as a linebacker at Purdue in the mid-1980s, it’s been his offenses that have been his calling card as a head coach. In Sumlin’s five seasons in the SEC, his offenses have led the conference in passing, scoring and total offense twice, and his 2012 edition became the first to break the 7,000-yard plateau in total offense with 7,261 yards and his 2013 unit was just a yard shy of the milestone.
Going into 2017, Texas A&M owns SEC season records for passing yards (4,593 in 2013), total yards and average total offense (7,261/558.5 in 2012) and first downs (357 in 2013). Texas A&M has the SEC’s top two season efforts in total offense average and first downs.
In his nine seasons as a head coach, Sumlin’s offenses have averaged more than 400 yards of total offense every season, including more than 500 yards five times. His teams have scored more than 500 points five times, including an incredible 690 points in 2011.
Sumlin came to Texas A&M after a successful stint as head coach at the University of Houston, where he led the Cougars to a school-record 13 victories and the program’s highest finish in the Bowl Championship Series standings in 2011. Sumlin was named the Region 5 Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association in 2011 and was one of five finalists for the AFCA’s National Coach of the Year award.
During his time at UH, Sumlin posted a 35-17 overall record and led the Cougars to three bowl games. Sumlin led the Cougars to berths in the 2011 Ticket Center Bowl and the 2008 and 2009 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowls.
His final season in Houston was one of the finest in the history of the Cougar football program. Sumlin’s Cougars raced through the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record before falling in the Conference-USA Championship to Southern Miss. The Cougars led the nation in passing, total and scoring offense and featured the nation’s leader in passing and total offense, quarterback Case Keenum. UH set NCAA FBS team records for total offense and passing yards.
His lone team to not reach a bowl was in 2010. Houston entered the season with high expectations but injuries to their top two quarterbacks, including Keenum, contributed to a 5-7 campaign.
In 2009, Sumlin was a finalist for the Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year Award after leading the Cougars to a 10-4 record, which included wins over No. 5-ranked Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., and BCS conference teams Texas Tech and Mississippi State. Statistically, UH led the nation in passing (433.7), total (563.4) and scoring offense (42.2). Houston also became just the third team in NCAA history to post a 5,000-yard passer and three 1,000-yard receivers in one season).
Taking over the reins of the UH program in December 2007, Sumlin guided the Cougars to an 8-5 record in 2008 and became the first UH coach in 28 years to lead his team to a bowl victory, as Houston topped Air Force 34-28 in the Armed Forces Bowl. When hired at UH, he became the first African-American head football coach at a NCAA Division I school in the state of Texas. He was one of only 10 first-year Football Bowl Subdivision coaches to guide his team to a bowl game and one of only six to win the bowl contest.
Sumlin went to Houston after seven seasons as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator in the Big 12. Sumlin spent five seasons at the University of Oklahoma under head coach Bob Stoops, where he served as both the co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach (2006-07) and special teams coordinator/tight ends coach (2003-05).
Before his arrival in Norman, Sumlin spent two seasons at Texas A&M under head coach R.C. Slocum, where he served as the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Aggies (2001-2002).
During his previous stint in Aggieland, Sumlin coached several of the top receivers in school history, including Bethel Johnson, Terrence Murphy and Jamaar Taylor who still rank in the top 10 in career catches and receiving yards.
Early in the 2002 season, Slocum promoted Sumlin to offensive play-caller after the Aggie offense struggled in the first three games of the season. With Sumlin calling the plays, the Aggie offense flourished, averaging 33.0 points and 419 yards per game for the remainder of the season after posting just 16.0 points and 286 yards per game previously. A highlight of the season including a 30-26 win over top-ranked Oklahoma with the Aggies gaining 404 total yards to key the victory.
His coaching career has seen stops at his alma mater, Purdue (1998-2001), Minnesota (1993-97) and Wyoming (1991-92).
Purdue’s 1998 receivers set school records with 377 receptions for 4,208 yards and 43 touchdowns. The Boilermakers’ Chris Daniels set a Big Ten record with 121 catches and recorded another Big Ten record with 21 receptions in one game.
In addition to Stoops and Slocum, Sumlin served as an assistant coach under Joe Tiller at Purdue and Wyoming, Jim Wacker at Minnesota, Glen Mason at Minnesota and Mike Price at Washington State.
Sumlin has coached in 16 bowl games, including all four traditional New Year’s Day games.
A four-year letterman as a linebacker at Purdue from 1983-86, Sumlin finished his career as one of the top tacklers in Boilermaker history. He was named to Sports Illustrated’s All-America walk-on list as a freshman after leading Purdue with 91 tackles.
He earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as a senior while ranking fifth in the league with 114 tackles, and helped lead Purdue to the Peach Bowl.
The Indianapolis native graduated from Purdue in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in both criminology and criminal justice. Sumlin and his wife Charlene have four children: daughters Courtney and Shelby, and sons Jackson and Joey.
(08-2017)
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