CC: Kevin Sumlin still attractive ?
In the past many on this board have pushed for Michigan to look at Kevin Sumlin as a potential head coach. I have never been a big Sumlin fan but think he definitely knows offense. The question is whether he can build a good defense.
With 3 straight bad losses (but to very good teams), including the 59-0 implosion against Alabama, he is beginning to look a little shaky.
Would you still like to see him as a potential candidate should the HC position open up ? I highly doubt he would even consider leaving A&M but was wondering if he has lost some of his appeal in the past 3 weeks.
Go Blue ! Beat State !
October 24th, 2014 at 10:45 AM ^
He is a good looking man.
His wife is more attractive, but not quite in the Lane Kiffin, Glen Mason, Bret Bielma category.
I have no opinion of his coaching abilities.
October 24th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
Bret Bielma is more attractive than his wife? Yikes. DO NOT WANT.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:19 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:20 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:20 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:24 PM ^
October 24th, 2014 at 9:35 AM ^
He needs to do something about that...now that Charlie Strong? Whew! Good gawd!
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:24 PM ^
6/10. Pointy elbows. Would not bang.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:26 PM ^
Yes. Can we give him Muschamp to deal with the D?
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:27 PM ^
Defenses always suck. No. I already saw that once.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:30 PM ^
October 24th, 2014 at 1:52 AM ^
October 24th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^
I gotta go with sucky defense. 1) if you're likely to lose at least you get to be happy about scoring points along the way 2) being down by 7 four minutes in doesn't mean game over and 3) maybe you get lucky and get some freaky turnovers (with a great defense/sucky offense you're more likely to get turnovers, but you also have to score directly off the turnover).
October 24th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
Down 7 four minutes in doesn't mean game over, but what about being down 45 at halftime?
October 24th, 2014 at 12:56 PM ^
I was talking about sucky defense with the other side of the ball being markedly better and contrasting that to sucky offense with the defense being markedly better. You present a faulty premise as down 45 at half was not a result of sucky defense and good offense. Rather, that resulted from both sucky offense AND sucky defense. An overall general suckitude, if you will.
On the 6 drives not limited by the end of the first half, A&M had 4 - 3 & outs with the other "drives" having 4 and 5 plays all of those "drives" resulted in punts. First half total yards for A&M was 51 and longest "drive" was 21 yards. A&M may generally be viewed as a potent offense, but not last week.
And yes, if your offense is really bad, being down 7 four minutes in could result in a very high probability of loss. I will grant you "game over" overstates that very high probability.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^
- 2008: 82
- 2009: 89
- 2010: 96
- 2011: 55
- 2012: 20
- 2013: 87
- 2014: 95
He's had three DCs, all of whom have been successful elsewhere.
I didn't need the last three weeks to think he was an awful idea.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^
He seems like he has a great offensive mind but his defenses are not good. That's a long enough sample to question whether that will ever change.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:50 PM ^
Is he dictating scheme to his DC? Is it something about the way he runs a practice? Is there something about his offense that makes it difficult for his defense? (I think that might be the case at Indiana, for example.)
It's odd that somebody that's so offense-focused would be leaving a stamp on the defense too.
October 23rd, 2014 at 11:17 PM ^
No kidding. cough 3-3-5 cough.
October 24th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
My sense after watching a lot of college football over the years, is that defenses forced to practice against HC-masterminded offenses often become proficient against said flavor of offense, while becoming susceptible to lacking focus against all others. This is especially true when the HC's offense trends toward basketball on grass; while the opposite can be like catching lightning in a bottle (at least, until teams learn to scheme against you when it matters most).
If your HC is a run heavy stalwart with fully developed personel, his DC can be successful as a 3-3-5 savant with the goal of protecting against the run, but with any eye against the spread, also. In this situation, the DC can recruit speed first, and probably still get by giving up chunks of yardage every play against run heavy teams. By practicing against that style of team every day, even though not necessarily built to stop it foremost, it will be much better equipped through conditioning to hold up. On the other hand, the talent group on such a defense will match up against any spread out there. It's covered both ways.
Conversely, if the HC is a spread savant with fully developed personel, it is difficult for that DC to be anything other than a 3-3-5 savant. If that DC wanted to be traditional, it would face an up-hill battle - every practice uptempo, his athletes' bodies' changing to match the playing environment. That defense will become highly athletic, yes - but not necessarily best equipped by body weight or system to capitalize on the fundamentals being taught by a traditionalist DC.
IMO, a great defense has to be able to match up well against all flavors of offense; which requires being able to practice against most flavors of offense in a pragmatic way. The great teams always seem to have the personel to line 'em up and shove the rock down the other team's throat; and employ defenses that can at least grind through games against such teams. The best teams seem also able to spread 'em out and control the pace; with defenses capable of manning up against the fastest players. Excellent teams can absolutely be spread; but to be elite, they have to have the personel to also control the line and play run heavy. My sense is this is where certain stylisitically offense-minded HC's can put their teams and defenses at a disadvantage, by emphasizing such a clearly dimensional culture.
October 24th, 2014 at 10:38 AM ^
The primary caveat, of course, is that 2008-2011 he was at Houston, a CUSA school which isn't exactly known for strong defense. I think that, like any other offensive coach, his defenses will be as good as his coordinator/personnel. There's nothing about an Air Raid system that produces inherently bad defenses; Oklahoma has run the Air Raid and had dominating defenses for most of the last 15 years.
October 24th, 2014 at 11:16 AM ^
You would think he'd have the personnel to be able to crack the top 85 at A&M. They're behind WMU, CMU and EMU for example. If A&M's defensive personnel is worse than EMU's they're doing something wrong.
You think this is all on Snyder? I think their respective records say otherwise. Snyder's defenses at USF were #14 and #21.
As for Houston, Sumlin's '09 and '10 teams were their worst in the eight years of the Fremeau database. They were #29 last year; they're #25 so far this year.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^
He's overrated. His defenses have always been Gerg like and he was built by Manziel.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:35 PM ^
Texas finished #31 in dFEI last year and considering how bad they were early in the season before he got there I'm guessing they were top-20 while he was in charge. Even our bad '09 defense finished #60, which looks pretty good against Sumlin's career line.
October 24th, 2014 at 10:40 AM ^
Is that why the QB he coached before Manziel was college football's all-time leading passer despite being a two-star recruit?
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:30 PM ^
Not blaming any of you guys because I was a Sumlin supporter after week 3, but damn... it's amazing how opinions have changed in a matter of 5 weeks
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:47 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:58 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:37 PM ^
I think Case Keenum and Manziel were excellent college QBs. Keenum struck me as a really accurate passer (not much recall there, think I watched a segment of 1-2 games) but spread gets a number of receivers wide open, Keenum was money at hitting them in the numbers (so to speak). Manziel was a different flavor, simply because he was so fast and elusive with his legs, and a good passer to boot, it seemed like they ran their receivers wayyyy down the field a lot and got the LBs all over the place and boom, Manziel is sprinting for big yards.
I like Sumlin because he came out of nowhere to give some powerhouse teams a lot of problems.
I wonder, though, how he transitions to maintaining his "big name" status year over year, or if his offense has been dissected enough to show some predictabilites, or if its going to rely heavily on a superior QB.
The theme I see over and over in CFB is that a given team/given coaching staff seems to emphasize one side of the ball over the other. Perhaps its the double demands of the HC and one of the coordinators, the other coordinator has greater autonomy and less oversight. I suppose he could hire a good DC. The following scenario came to me...suppose you could freeze M's current defense and couple it with a Manziel offense. It would be completely odd from a practice standpoint, to have a defense built to jam the run and pressure the opposing QB vs. an offense designed to make the nickel spin on its head. In other words, oversimplifying, the offense literally couldn't practice against the defense........because each side would be getting the wrong kind of practice.
So the answer is: unknown. I would think attractive to Michigan from a fan's point of view but I also think it would be a complete overhaul of the offensive players recruited, and thus could be another whipsaw/6 year rebuilding event. Could he recruit midwest is also another thing to be seen, Texas is chock full of talent. Kids play tackle football from around kindergarten on and I've heard anecdotes from a teacher I know there, of parents who hold their kids back a year from starting school to aid their physical development for high school football. Midwest is not quite that zealous at this point.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:36 PM ^
Not saying he's as bad as Hoke (who is) but it sure is telling that the less Mike Sherman recruits he has the worse his team gets.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:38 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:47 PM ^
And Dak Precott is...?
October 24th, 2014 at 12:00 AM ^
I don't think the OP is asking whether Sumlin should get the top i.e. be the top candidate, but more so whether he should still be considered. Obviously, Dak was a nobody turned superstar. It would seem that Mullen would be far preferred to Sumlin, by pretty much everyone. I do think Sumlin has to be considered though as beyond the Harbaughs and Mullen, he is far from the worst option.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:34 PM ^
He might have been a 'nobody' according to the scouting rankings but he wasn't a nobody to some of the better offensive minds. His recruiting came down to A&M and Oregon and the other schools who were going after him were Rice, Stanford and Iowa St Harbaugh was the coach at Stanford whiile Tom Herman was the offensive coordinator at Iowa St
October 24th, 2014 at 6:16 AM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:37 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:45 PM ^
MSU is also in the toughest division in the country and people are saying ''Oh well Mullen has only had one good season'' Uhhhhhh so has Sumlin and Texas A&M.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:39 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:48 PM ^
Except for the whole team with a better defense (Michigan State) being better than OSU right?
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:25 PM ^
His defenses at Florida were pretty good.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:34 PM ^
2014: OSU #28, A&M #95
2013: OSU #42, A&M #87
OSU fields an average power-conference defense. A&M fields an average MAC or Sun Belt defense.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:40 PM ^
It's funny how reactionary this blog is.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:48 PM ^
59-0 beatdowns in your 3rd year are usually not a good sign...
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:57 PM ^
I agree, which is why I wasn't on the "OMG Sumlin is the greatest coach ever" train after week one like everyone else.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:36 PM ^
October 24th, 2014 at 8:31 AM ^
you cannot predict the home run until the ball is in the air. In reality, we have no idea who at this point would succeed. Let's hope they get it right this time! It's rough to stink.
October 24th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
October 23rd, 2014 at 11:58 PM ^