Kevin Sumlin was Right to Ignore Manziel Questions

Jul 15, 2014; Hoover, AL, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin talks to the media during the SEC Football Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

If I were Kevin Sumlin, I’d be annoyed too.

I’d be annoyed with the fact that everybody seems to forget my success with quarterbacks. I’d be annoyed with the fact that everybody forgets about what I did with Case Keenum at Houston before I got Johnny Manziel. I’d be annoyed with the notion that all the credit for turning Texas A&M around goes to the fact that I just struck gold with a great quarterback, and now the program that I’m building will fall apart.

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Newsflash everybody, Sumlin’s a great coach. Let’s stop glossing over that.

The number of questions he faced about Manziel’s departure at Tuesday’s SEC Media Days session was exhausting. And because he said Manziel’s departure is irrelevant and he has to think about the future, he’s accused of dodging Manziel questions. Well, why did he continually get hounded by them?

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It should be noted that this isn’t the first time Sumlin has been questioned on how he can handle a new quarterback. When he was hired at Texas A&M in 2011, Sumlin was coming off running an air raid offense at Houston with Keenum, who managed to shatter college football records with his efficiency. He was asked about running a different offense in College Station, and to his credit, Sumlin said that he tailors his system around the quarterback he has.

Two and a half years later, after managing a dual-threat quarterback that managed to shatter a few college football records himself, Sumlin is getting asked the same question. How can he build his offense around another quarterback?

Well, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that whoever starts, Kyle Allen or Kenny Hill, will become another great superstar in the Sumlin offense and in a year we’ll be talking about one of them as a Heisman candidate. Book it.

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Here’s a point of interest: Allen or Hill, whomever starts, will be the most highly recruited starting quarterback Sumlin has ever worked with. Keenum was a 2-star, and Manziel was a 3-star. Hill is a 4-star dual threat quarterback, and Allen is a 5-star pro-style quarterback.

And by the way, the fact that Sumlin has two completely different styles of quarterbacks competing for the starting job shows how aware he is of his offensive genius. It doesn’t matter what system he runs, he just needs to make sure he has the right guy in there.

It should be noted that being under-appreciated for just how good of a coach he is should be nothing new. In 2009, after an 8-5 season then a 10-4 season at Houston, of all places, Sumlin was passed over for head coaching opportunities at Kansas, which he lost to Turner Gill, Cincinnati, which went to Butch Jones, and Tennessee, which was the greatest atrocity of all. Former Vol Athletic Director Mike Hamilton decided to pass on Sumlin for more “qualified” guys on his list and landed Derek Dooley, who had a losing record at Louisiana Tech. Nice job Mike.

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Of course, Sumlin has begun to get noticed recently more than he has in the past, and to his credit, he seems determined to stay at Texas A&M and build up a program for the long haul. The reason he’s not appreciated is, well, because his system is so successful, ironically. He has a system that turns quarterbacks into superstars, and then we spend the rest of the time talking about the greatness of the quarterbacks and questioning if Sumlin can win without said quarterback.

That’s what is happening with Johnny Manziel right now, and the same thing will happen with either Allen or Hill in a couple of years.