re: Who still likes Sumlin?

What I love about this season is the fact that what we think about Sumlin is pretty much irrelevant. Either he performs well or he doesn't and he is gone. There is no more excuses, no more wait for tomorrow or this QB to grow up or any of that.

I have seen Aggies who outright dislike Sumlin fear him doing well this year, presumably because based on talent alone next year under Sumlin looks like a trainwreck waiting to happen. I don't agree with that though, and not just because I don't think you should root against your team.

I feel like after Beaty left Sumlin began to change gears from semi-shitty coaches who were amazing recruiters (Spav is a great example) to great coaches who are shitty recruiters (Chavis is the obvious example). In order for the second strategy to pay off we need coaches that can coach up our less talented players to beat talented ones. If Sumlin wins enough in 2016 to stay, they I for one look forward to seeing how this strategy will either pay off or not in 2017.

Any chance of me ever liking him personally again went away after the incredible lack of character he showed last year regarding the Kyle Allen situation.

I could get over it if he were actually a good coach, though.

The biggest thing holding me back is that, numbers-wise, he's off to probably the best start in A&M history, which is even more impressive given the schedules we've had to play. I just don't think we can do better if we miss out on Herman. To get to Bama/LSU's level, we are going to need some luck and another lightning-in-the-bottle type season that actually ends in a SEC championship or a playoff birth. Otherwise all we can do is throw money at people and hope it works. But I agree, what we think right now doesn't really matter. I feel like there is no in-between this year: we will either lose to UCLA, Arkie, etc. and just tank completely, or we will have 2012 again.

Again, I don't understand why you would think he would all the sudden start commenting on injuries that aren't season ending when it's been clear from the get go that he does not give injury reports. You also seem to want to pretend that Allen wasn't obviously telling the staff that he was good to go. If Allen himself was willing to play then why the hell should Sumlin let opposing teams know what to target when the kid is in the game?

Not that I remember

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Again, I don't understand why you would think he would all the sudden start commenting on injuries that aren't season ending when it's been clear from the get go that he does not give injury reports.

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Not commenting on injuries is usually inconsequential. In this case, he more or less said his starting QB sucked instead of admitting he was playing a QB with a bad shoulder so as to avoid having to discuss Kyler Murray's tantrum and what was supposed to be a "secret" suspension. His refusal to put Hubenak in earlier in the OM game when it was stil close for the same reason is equally unforgivable.

The man has set a precedent that perception, image and control are more important to him than winning games. He's willing to lose games and railroad players in order to maintain control of he narrative. In this case, both the games and the narrative got away from him.

There isn't really a like or dislike, either he wins games or he doesn't. if he wins a lot of games and quits running 5 star QBs off, I think we should keep him, if we continue to be mediocre and win 7-9 games under him, I think he should leave. It's as simple as that.

As to his actual character, it's always rubbed me the wrong way that he's an arrogant a-hole to the media when he's winning, and has a deer in the headlights look with them after he loses games. But there's plenty of a-hole coaches with personality problems that win lots of games (Saban, Meyer, Belicheck) that people put up with so if he wins enough times it's a moot point.

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When he repeatedly said Allen wasn't injured and was just playing like arse. The reality was he was hurt in the third quarter against MSU and played 2.5 games with essentially an inability to abduct his throwing shoulder past 90 degrees. The guy is going to crush it at UH if he stays healthy and thousands of Aggie fans will be SHOCKED because they still believe Sumlin's bull shite.

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Amen. Allen needs to learn that though you can play while injured, if you're not giving your team a better chance of winning than someone else then you are actually hurting your team. He tried to tough it out but he should've been smarter. The kid is a stud and can sling the football. He will go pro. He will be drafted very high. Barring major injury of course

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that attitude played better when the Ags were winning games they weren't supposed to win.

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True. But that's the nature of the beast for that approach, like you said.

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That's kind of what I meant about the swag thing wearing thin. You've got to back it up.

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Indeed.