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Philadelphia Eagles pursued Kevin Sumlin to replace Chip Kelly

By Patrick Schmidt

Oct 3, 2015; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin watches warm ups prior to a game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 3, 2015; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin watches warm ups prior to a game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Philadelphia Eagles had Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin at the top of their wish list to replace Chip Kelly.

When the Eagles fired Chip Kelly before the end of the season, the smart money would have been on Philadelphia going a different direction with the next hire and not going back to the college game to find their next head coach.

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But according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, the Eagles did just that and had Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin was being pursued by the franchise. The NFL has been something Sumlin has been connected to in the past few years but he wants to stay in college according to Rapoport.

It’s surprising on a couple of levels.

First, why would the Eagles want to go down the same road they just traveled by going to a college coach with no NFL coaching experience of any kind? And Sumlin is half the coach Kelly was in college.

Second, Sumlin’s stock has definitely taken a tumble since going 11-2 in his first year at A&M in 2012 after going 12-1 in his last season at Houston. After his first year at A&M, that’s when Sumlin should have jumped to the NFL if he was serious about testing the waters in the professional ranks. But after a 9-4 season in 2013, back-to-back 8-5 seasons followed as Sumlin couldn’t coach up a defense or develop a quarterback.

With Kenny Hill, Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray transferring away from Sumlin since the end of the 2014 season, Sumlin can’t get a handle on how to run a mid-level SEC program, so how would he be considered an upgrade over Kelly who won 10 games his first two years before regressing in 2015?

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Sumlin may not be long for Texas A&M after the hiring of a new athletic director on top of the struggles of the program, so if an NFL team wants him, it’s surprising he wouldn’t abandon ship and take on a new challenge and get a fat new contract.

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