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Ranking every Texas A&M Football coach in school history

By Matthew Bartlett

Sep 5, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin on the sidelines coaching against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first quarter at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 5, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin on the sidelines coaching against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first quarter at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 17, 2015; College Station, TX, USA; General view of Kyle Field before a game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /

From worst to first, we ranked all 31 Texas A&M football coaches in school history. Where does Kevin Sumlin rank among the all time Aggie coaching greats?

Each of the top 10 coaches are ranked in the following pages, but before we get there it’s important to stop and assess the overall coaching quality in the history of this program. The first Aggie team was fielded in 1984 since then 31 different men have held the title of head football coach, including two interim coaches. How do they stack up?

Aggie Coaching by the Numbers

12 – Coaches coached two or fewer seasons at Texas A&M
9 – Coaches had a sub .500 record
8 – Coaches coached more than 50 games at Texas A&M
7 – Coaches had at least one conference title
2 – Coaches won a national championship at Texas A&M

Those numbers point to a few key factors in this ranking. First, there are only a handful of coaches that stayed at Texas A&M long enough to make much of an impact. Second those that did stay weren’t always successful. For those reasons we’ve lumped together two groups of coaches into tiers before ranking the top 10.

Short timers

13 coaches (and interims) were with the program fewer than three seasons. They get a pass for their brief time with the Aggie program:

F. D. Perkins (1894), A. M. Soule & H. W. South (1896) , C. W. Taylor (1897) , H. W. Williams (1898), W. A. Murray (1899-1901), Walter E. Bachman (1905-1906), L. L. Larson (1907), N. A. Merriam (1908-1909), Edwin Harlan (1915-1916), D. V. Graves (1918), Gary Darnell (2007), Tim DeRuyter (2011)

Bottom of the Barrel

These six coaches surpassed the two season mark, but did not have a winning record at Texas A&M:

  • Robert Harry Stiteler (1948-1950): 8-21-2
  • Raymond George (1951-1953): 12-14-4
  • James A. Myers (1958-1961): 12-24-4
  • Henry Foldberg (1962-1964): 6-23-1
  • Gene Stallings (1965-1971): 27-45-1
  • Tom Wilson (1978-1981): 17-17

Honorable Mentions

These two guys were here for long enough, but didn’t make the cut for the top 10. Mike Sherman (2008-2011) finished exactly .500 (25-25) but only 15-18 in Big 12 conference play. Madison Bell went 24-21-3 from 1929-1933 but finished 8-14-3 in the Southwestern Conference.

All told that’s 21 coaches that didn’t do much for the Aggies. Now it’s time to look at the top 10 head coaches in Texas A&M football history. The bar isn’t that high. They had to have coached three seasons at Texas A&M and left the school with a winning record.