By Bruce Feldman | CBSSports.com Senior College Football Columnist
Courtesy of CBS Sports.com
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Pads are popping all over Texas. It's
1:23 p.m. on a balmy late February day and several college
football programs in the Lone Star State have already kicked off
spring football -- even if spring technically doesn't start for
another month. At
Texas A&M,
where the Aggies won't get on the practice field for another five
weeks, the real action is in the staff room of the massive Bright
Football Complex.
Kevin Sumlin, A&M's new hope
to resurrect a proud football program that, truth be told, stopped
being a powerhouse before the old Southwest Conference went belly
up some two decades ago, sits tipped back in front of a long,
rectangular board table in a room littered with maroon leather
swivel chairs. To Sumlin's left are staffers Justin Moore, an
associate AD for football who came with the head coach from his previous
job at Houston, and Matt Watson, A&M's long-time equipment
man. Across the table are two men in sport coats. One looks to be
in his late 30s. The other in his mid 60s.
"The reason you guys are here is we gotta do something about the feel of
this building," Sumlin says, as he glances around the room and
pauses for a few heartbeats. "This feels old and stiff and cold --
everything is dark. I'm always going around flipping on lights.
This has to reflect that we have a younger staff. This building
should be a tool for teaching and recruiting."
Both men across the table smile, nodding their heads with a look of understanding.
"Oh, we get it," says the older man, who heads a Tulsa-based
architecture firm that has done branding work for major college
programs. "That's all what the West End Zone project [at Oklahoma State]
was all about -- getting good coaches and players, and keepin'
'em."
Sumlin and Moore have hosted a few similar
meetings with companies looking for A&M's business over the
previous few weeks. Other firms the new Aggies have brought in
have done renovation jobs for the Dallas Mavericks and Colorado
Rockies.
The lights dim. The younger man across the
table, armed with his laser pointer, begins a presentation on the
screen in the front of the room. The show begins with a few slides
of Oklahoma State's football complex. "This is what 50 years of
neglect gets you," the younger man says looking at the Before
photo.
He clicks through to a second image, showing the fruits of Oklahoma State mega booster Boone Pickens' funds. "And
THIS! is what vision, leadership and money will get you."
Now the nodding heads are on Sumlin's side of the table.
The guys who did the Oklahoma State renovation are here because
Sumlin and his staff at Houston had heard plenty of their recruits
gush about Oklahoma State's facilities when they would come to
visit Houston. The coaches had also toured the Cowboys' place and
came away similarly awed.
They understand that it's
not a coincidence that Oklahoma State's rise occurred about the
same time as the program started to look big-time too. But unlike
where Oklahoma State was a few years ago, Texas A&M does not
require a massive, structural overhaul. The Aggies football stadium,
Kyle Field, stacks up well against any other venue in sports in
magnitude and in atmosphere. Kyle Field is big-time. The football
complex? Well, if you've been to a few of their SEC rivals, you can
tell right away, A&M's set-up is sorely lacking in wattage. It
feels outdated. The Bright Complex has plenty of high-end
furniture, but the place just feels stuffy, stale. The building
has more of a vibe of an oversized law office than somewhere you'd
expect to run a powerhouse college program or woo blue-chip
recruits.
What Sumlin is really looking for, as the
program makes the big leap into the rugged SEC, is more along the
lines of branding and graphics overhaul. In short, the A&M
football complex needs a makeover.
Sumlin's comments
to the design guys over the next hour of their presentation range
from detailed questions -- "Are those chairs and tables anchored
down? No arm rests on those chairs, huh?" -- to observations -- "I
like how you added that 'Cowboys' on the ceiling of that hall.
That made the whole deal. It could've been kinda boring."
"We don't do boring," says the 60-something year-old.
• • •
On the field, the Aggies sure could use a makeover as well. Since
1996, they have finished in the top 15 just one time (1998).
Sumlin's predecessor Mike Sherman went 15-18 in Big 12 play before
getting fired. The coach before him, Dennis Franchione, had a
19-21 league record and didn't lead A&M to a top-25 finish
once in five seasons before getting canned. Enter Sumlin, who
takes over as the Aggies are moving into a tougher conference that
has won six straight national titles. They'll make the jump into
the most brutal division (the SEC West) in college football while
breaking in a new starting quarterback (Ryan Tannehill is
projected to be a first-round draft pick in April); a new starting
running back (Cyrus Gray is also NFL bound after consecutive 1000-yard
seasons); and having to replace most of their defensive line and
secondary.
The program does have some
intriguing potential, though. Sumlin has a firm grasp of that,
having spent a few seasons in College Station as an assistant
under R.C. Slocum, the last Aggies football coach to have
significant success at A&M. There is big booster support to rival
any in the SEC. There is a lot of tradition, from the 12th Man to
the Corps of Cadets. "This is not a wine-and-cheese crowd," he
says. "This is the home of the 12th Man. They know what noise can
do."
A&M also is sitting in the middle of some of the most fertile recruiting soil in the country.
Sumlin inherited an excellent group of offensive linemen, too. All
five starters return, including the junior tackle tandem of Luke
Joeckel and Jake Matthews who have already turned NFL scouts'
heads. That's a nice foundation to build the offense around. There
are also three former five-star tailbacks on the 2012 roster and a
go-to receiver in Ryan Swope. There are four promising
quarterbacks ready to battle for the starting job. Three of the
four QBs are dynamic dual-threat guys, which would be an
intriguing change in the system that Sumlin and his 32-year-old
offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, a budding star in the
coaching business, are bringing over from Houston, where they had the
nation's No. 1 offense in two of the past three seasons.
"I'm excited to see what we have," says Kingsbury, sitting front
of a board covered with dozens of plays scrawled in sharpie. "We
wanted all four of those quarterbacks at Houston but they came
here."
The Aggies defense is also undergoing big
change, shifting from a 3-4 to a 4-3. "People are going to try to
run it down our throats," Sumlin says matter-of-factly. "We have
to line up and be able to stop the run right now."
Given their inexperience up front, that doesn't sound promising.
"We've gotta get better fundamentally, no doubt about that," says
Mark Snyder, the new defensive coordinator. "We gotta become more
vertical up front, get up the field. I keep telling the kids, it's
the old Miami mentality -- get vertical!"
The
other challenge is to become more physical, says Snyder, a former
Ohio State defensive coordinator who is excited to work with former
Boise State defensive backs coach Marcel Yates. "There'll be no
finesse corners here. (Yates') DBs at Boise were very physical,
and that's good, because it's not touch football in this league.
To me, it's the Big Ten with more athletic players."
The players seem to be buying in. Sumlin is pleased about the
commitment his new team has shown in the offseason conditioning
program under strength coach Larry Jackson, another staffer he
brought with him from Houston. Better still, A&M hasn't had
one player quit or leave amid the transition. That is a rarity
these days when coaching turnover tends to lead to substantial
attrition under the proverbial "culture" changes.
"We're not out of the woods yet, but the attitude has been great,"
Sumlin says. "I told 'em, 'A lot of you guys didn't sign up for me. I
know that, but we know what we're doing. Trust us.'"
• • •
Texas A&M's arrival in the SEC has been met with a collective
eye roll by the league's sizable fan base. That is as much a
reflection of the conference's dominance as it is the Aggies
mediocrity over the past decade. The 47-year-old Sumlin, a former
Purdue linebacker, returns to College Station with a sterling rep
among his peers. In four seasons at Houston, he went 35-17 while
leading the program to its first bowl victory since 1980. In 2009,
he was a finalist for the Paul "Bear" Bryant National Coach of
the Year when he led the Cougars to a Conference USA West Division
crown and a final record of 10-4. In 2011, he led Houston to a
12-1 mark before leaving for College Station.
"He
has such charisma with the players," says Kingsbury, a one-time New
England Patriots QB, when asked what makes Sumlin such a good head
coach. "He's very real to them. They know he's accessible. He treats
them like grown-ups and they want to play hard for him."
The staff Sumlin assembled is impressive. In addition to a sharp
pair of coordinators, Sumlin also snagged, among others,
Stanford's special teams coordinator Brian Polian, Yates from
Boise State and Clarence McKinney, his ace recruiter from Houston.
Turning around a program that has been in a
tailspin for a long time isn't easy. It's become too cliche to
talk about "changing the culture." But what needs to happen often
starts with overhauling the mindset, and how that takes places can
be in a variety of ways. Some subtle. Some not so subtle. It's
also easier to do with younger players than older ones because
their habits aren't so defined, or in some cases, calcified.
"We've got some pretty clean canvases right now," Sumlin says.
What exactly has been A&M's problem of late? Ask 10 people
around College Station and you'll probably get 10 different
answers. No program in the country has struggled more in crunch
time, though. In the past three seasons, the Aggies were 5-10 in
games decided by 10 points or less. In 2011, they lost five games
in which they had leads in the second half.
Asked how much conditioning was part of the problem, Sumlin scratches
his chin. The easiest thing for any new coach is to point fingers at
the previous staff, but the program's dreadful record in close
games is unavoidable. "Well, to rule out conditioning, you gotta
be crazy," he says.
Sumlin moved the start of
spring football back to March 31. Some college teams are already
done by then. His reasoning was three-fold:
• To give his new coaching staff a chance to come together;
• Get a good start on recruiting;
• Give [A&M strength coach] Larry Jackson a chance to affect conditioning.
All three factors are on track, he says. The biggest
attention-grabber so far for the Aggies fan base has been the buzz
the new staff has created among recruits. They already have a
dozen commitments, and most are from highly-touted prospects. The
best of the bunch could be Isaiah Golden, a prized 300-pound
defensive tackle, who could help solve some of the concerns with
the D-line.
• • •
At Houston, Sumlin's first priority on the makeover there before
the 2008 season was remodeling his office, the meeting rooms and
lobbies of the reception area. The reason, he explains to the
Oklahoma designers as they tour other parts of the A&M
football building: the lobbies are the first things recruits and
players see when they enter a football program. They set the tone.
They make an impression. They impact energy. Sumlin's office is
the place where he tries to reel in a prospect and convince the
kid's family that his school, his program, is best for the
recruit. It's also where he meets with the players he inherited from the
former regime and he wants them comfortable with him and his
personality.
A hounds-tooth hat Sumlin was given
when he was voted as a finalist for the Bear Bryant Award is one
of the few personal items in his office that looks more apt for a
law partner than head ball coach. "My first thought when I walk in
here is I'm either going to take a deposition or give one,"
Sumlin says. The space itself is good, but the walls, save for a
bank of four TVs, are barren. There is much sprucing up that needs
to be done.
Some of A&M's renovation, such as a
new 19,000-square foot, football-only weight room, are already in
the works. (Sumlin says it'll be ready by August 1.)
In addition, Sumlin and his right-hand man, Moore, a former
A&M pitcher, explain to the designers the entryways inside the
complex on the ground floor are too cramped. It's never a good
thing if you're hosting a bunch of recruits on a Junior Day and
they all get bottle-necked as soon as they enter Texas A&M
Football.
The first floor of the A&M football
complex, where the offensive and defensive units of the team also
meet, are beyond spartan. They're just bland. Maybe the previous
coaching staff wanted to minimize any possible distractions in
their position rooms. Whatever the reason, the look needs to be
changed. "Maybe it's not a big deal, but it is to me," Sumlin
says. "This is your learning environment."
The crew
that did the Oklahoma State overhaul had a theme. The lower level,
which was branded to be more lively and vibrant, was geared for
the 17 and 18-year-old players. The upstairs level, where the coaches'
offices are, was catered more to grown-ups with black granite and
stainless steel. Lighting and signage are a must. The Aggies'
football tradition rivals just about any program in the nation.
Only you don't get a great sense of it walking around the
building. You just know that the school's color is maroon.
After another hour or so, while Sumlin led his guests all over the
Bright Football Complex to A&M's impressive indoor track
stadium -- complete with one of the country's few hydraulically
banked tracks -- and into Kyle Field, the tour wraps up back where
the meeting started, inside the Aggies' staff room.
"O.K., so when are you hoping to get something back to you?" the older man asks.
"As soon as possible ... " Moore says.
"Tomorrow," interjects Sumlin with a chuckle. "I got recruits coming in."
by 