re: Sumlin vs. Gus: Who's more dangerous?

JFF going down when he did was HUGE. A&M had 3rd and 1 and brought in a new QB that threw a terrible pass. Four point swing there. Then Auburn drives and scores and Joekel comes out again for a quick 3 and out. Auburn scores again. That doesn't even mention the horsecollar.

Auburn won and this isn't about "moral victories", it's about the fact that game could have EASILY gone the other way and it wasn't as if coaching was the big difference. Both coaches were excellent.

It's easy to bag on Sumlin after his worst game but look at what he has done overall. This was the first game in 2 years he has lost by more than a TD and that wasn't in doubt up until the end. That's damn impressive considering what he inherited.

Realize as well that if Sherman were the coach or many others we may never have seen JFF. Showers was the heir apparent and Sumlin took a huge chance on a RS Freshman that was undersized and had issues. Most of his improvisational running skills were also harder to see in practice because QB's aren't tackled. He did an incredible job of developing him. Same story with Evans that was a basketball player. This year Labhart is starting and he was a guy that was not only a walkon but didn't even try out for the football team his first year. The A&M recruiting classes of '09, '10, and '11 are pretty ugly rankings wise and many of the few 4 Stars aren't even on the team now.

Gus has done an amazing job at Auburn for sure but to act as though he didn't inherit a ton of talent is ridiculous. Every Class on his roster was a Top 10 outside of last year. Did he lose some of those players? Sure, but not all of them. He has been able to take some very talented guys and get them to play which is very different than taking a bunch of 3 Stars and making them into Heisman winners and Bielitnikoff Finalists.

If you look at the complete transformation of the A&M program that Sumlin deserves a ton of credit for as well that is a huge factor. The recruiting is amazing compared to where it was. The entire attitude of the team is completely different as is the perception of the school. It's more than winning games, he is building something.

Auburn snuck up on a lot of people this year, let's see if they can do it next year just as A&M was tested this season.