re: 2016 Recruiting Discussion

We would never ever fire Sumlin for 9 and 10 wins seasons. We don't think we are a Nebraska. With that said, the SEC is tough. As you say just a little slip and you go from the middle of the pack to being stuck at the bottom. I do take contention with one point though:

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I can't think of a better coach who would accept the job at your program.

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That makes it sound like we would have a hard time hiring an elite coach. If being the only SEC program in Texas who also happens to overpay coaches in a crazy way doesn't give us more options going forward then we need to fold the program. I am never delusional enough to think that joining the SEC by itself turned us into a top 15 program, but I believe deep down that between the money, the SEC brand, the recruiting footprint, the facilities and the passion of our fans that we are at least a top 15 job.

I am not saying we can take whoever we want, splash hires in the sport are few and far between and sometimes you get a guy like Gary at TCU who prefers to stay where he is no matter the money. I am saying that when our heading coaching position opens up we won't be picking from scraps and I don't think we should fear new hiring cycles because we might get turned down by big names.

I mean, in our worst modern decade we took Bama's head coach. Last season we hit our SEC low point and we took LSU's best coach. We kept Sumlin from going to USC. We can compete for the best coaching talent, the issue is finding a fit that can overcome the challenges of Aggieland. We are a unique situation.

For all the hand-wringing over recruiting, A&M has the #21 class right now according to 247.

The No.s 20, 22, and 23 are Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee.

UTx is sitting at 60, while OU is running a cool 70.

The fact is we could be doing a LOT worse. We are still viewed as an unknown commodity, because so much credit for 2012 and 2013 is (rightly) attributed to Johnny, Evans and the OL. People still think all the success was attributable to holdovers from the Sherman era. And the offensive success we were able to have last year despite having to eventually turn to a true freshman QB is outweighed in recruit's minds by another abysmal performance on defense.

But you look at the hires Sumlin has made, and I don't see how you can't say he isn't addressing and fixing issues. This isn't a coach who is rigidly refusing to change what he's been doing. This isn't a coach who doesn't challenge his own thinking and preconceptions.

This notion some of our fans have that a great coach taking over a mediocre program will have demonstrated his greatness in the first three years, showing steady improvement, is just wrong. Nick Saban himself had 8, 10, and 8 wins in his first three years at LSU. Sometimes you have to BUILD a program, and sometimes that takes a few years.

Apparently so. Texags poster has navasota friend that told him it's because of too many wrs at a&m?

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Funny Texas 247 site said he was a juco kid and huge grade risk THIS MORNING.

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Screen shot it and post it before its gone.

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That makes it sound like we would have a hard time hiring an elite coach.

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we are at least a top 15 job.

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Y'all are a top 15 job, but that doesn't mean elite coaches come running after your job. Florida is probably a top 10 job and settled for McElwain, Texas is a top 5 job and ended up with Charlie Strong. Not everybody is lucky enough to end up getting Meyer and Harbaugh.

I don't want to get y'all of topic in a recruiting thread so I apologize for that and I'll try to make this relevant. Sumlin is recruiting better than any other coach in A&M's history, and if Chavis can turn the defense around he'll have no problems getting guys on the defensive side of the ball. I think Malik, Kris, and Holton all probably would have gone to A&M if your defense was more proven.

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Y'all are a top 15 job, but that doesn't mean elite coaches come running after your job. Florida is probably a top 10 job and settled for McElwain, Texas is a top 5 job and ended up with Charlie Strong. Not everybody is lucky enough to end up getting Meyer and Harbaugh.

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Texas in the SEC would be a top 5 job, easy. Texas in the B12 w/ A&M in the SEC instead is not a top 5 job. The horns are still somewhat resistant to this new reality, but the Sooners have almost to a man come around to the view that the B12 is like an anchor to their program.

Based on facilities, recruiting grounds, conference affiliation, and the financial support A&M is willing to give, I think A&M is comfortably top-10.

That said, it's still very hard to lure great coaches away from a school where they've already established success. We aren't going to pull Saban from Alabama, or Meyer from OSU. And we're not going to get guys like Patterson from TCU or Snyder from KSU (those guys are just lifers at those programs)

But I am confident that any coach who was actually willing to move to another job would have us as a top destination.

Dickson to Texas. We can't even recruit our two most successful positions right now

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I know you have a fair amount of bias, but to say Texas isn't a top 5 job, but A&M's comfortably top 10 is pretty ridiculous. I know it's an A&M board so I will respect your posters and program, and keep any negative comments to myself, but I don't see how what you're saying is true.

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You don't have to bite your tongue here. At least not on my account. You can explain why you think what I said is "pretty ridiculous". If you're saying that UTx has a much richer football history than we do, I won't argue one bit. Where I would differ is in HOW MUCH that matters. For example, even w/ the Dickson commit today, Sumlin is kicking Strong's arse on the recruiting trail. He did it last year, too, winning all but a few head-to-head battles for recruits. And Sumlin was kicking Brown's arse in recruiting, too. Recruits just don't care so much what happened under a different coach during a different era before they were born. It's why Minnesota is not a national power.

Aside from football history, the UTx Athletic Department's other big advantage over A&M and other programs is the sheer amount of revenue. But for whatever reason, their annual windfalls haven't been enough to fund renovation of their facilities, which are WAY behind those at A&M. And considering all the penny pinching moves UTx AD Steve Patterson is making, and their apparent difficulty in even funding a new tennis facility after the old one was destroyed to make way for the new Medical school, there aren't going to be any renovations anytime soon.

I define "top x job" in terms of offering a HC the tools to win, and I stand by my assessment.

Kid is a WR. That shite is plug and play in the Sumlin system. Who gives a shite?

Seriously what are they spending it on?