Is Sumlin just Gene Chizik without a National Championship?

Don't smear Chizik's name like that

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They also don't really have a loaded roster at all.

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On offense they do.

I guess I missed it where sumlin won with johnny

That's not a fair comparison at all. Given their respective salaries, Sumlin is like two Gene Chizik's at the same time without the title.

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They also don't really have a loaded roster at all.

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But they raided Louisiana for Speedy Noil and some three star, ULM running back commitment.

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Is Sumlin just Gene Chizik without a National Championship?

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No, not at all.

Auburn was program that could compete for top talent BEFORE Chiz came along. Tuberville was cheated out of an national title shot IMHO, and was recruiting top classes long before Chiz or Cam went to Auburn. When Auburn played Oregon for the title under Chiz it was Oregon that people considering to be the upstart lucky to be there, as the national media had already accepted Auburn as one of the few programs that could compete at a high level.

A&M prior to Sumlin was an afterthought for talent and the national media. Nationally and in the state our program was basically Texas Tech with more students and a worse brand. Our average recruiting classes could only barely scrape the top 25, which simply isn't enough talent to compete what-so-ever in the caste system that is college football. Sumlin came in and revamped our brand, and used his recruiting skill to push us up into an entirely new tier of talent. He has made poor choices replacing his original A&M staff that did so well in 2012, but no one can deny that he raised the profile of A&M from a program that no one could possibly think would compete for anything to a program that at least has the talent to be in the discussion in the summer months.

The sad truth about college football is that the majority of the teams out there don't even have a chance to compete for anything significant. We haven't seen a new national title winner in decades for a reason- the media and football minded mavens (aka high school football coaches and big sports fans) refuse to even consider new programs at the top. That then trickles down to recruits and is reflected by the same teams being at the top of the recruiting rankings every year. Hell half the teams in the SEC at best can only play spoiler for the teams that actually have a shot to compete for something, the sad reality is that titles are the only goal (they aren't thankfully) then maybe 20 teams tops should be selling tickets every year.

Sumlin doesn't have the coaching talent himself to win anything worth a damn, but he has loaded the roster and created a recruiting momentum that the next coach can take advantage of. Thanks to the caste system it takes a VERY long time to break through the glass ceiling, even Oregon had a pretty successful previous decade in the 00's to set up Chip Kelly's 2010 run. You need talent, luck, momentum and timing and at the very least Sumlin has brought us talent and proved that it is possible to recruit top 10 classes to Texas A&M. Heck he was changing recruiting in the state before JFF took a snap in a game, so it can't all be pinned on Johnny.

Auburn prior to Chiz was already on the top of the caste system. He didn't break through anything, he just got lucky that one of his crops of top recruits had a once-in-a-lifetime talent in it.

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Maybe he shouldn't have lost to USC the two times they played in the years immediately preceding 2004.

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The fact that the losses of previous years determined the ceiling for the 2004 team shows what a bullshite front-running caste-based popularity contest college football is.

I think Sumlin is more like a Gundy.

The players like him and he will have some good teams but will never quite get to the top.

usually I laugh at most of you aggies "spin" on your program or specifics of it.

but for once I agree with your basic premise. your program needed some swag to attract national attention. Sherman was a damn good offensive mind and recruiter. he should have been your OC, not your HC.

now Sumlin and you guys (new stadium, more money in the program, etc) have elevated fan expectations, it is going to be difficult for sumlin to keep his job, imo. the only way he sqeezes thru is to make a home run hire as OC and y'all get lucky next year and have a damn good year. he can sell "we are improving", esp if y'all finally beat LSU.

When did Chiz go back to a national championship game?