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Texas A&M Football: The recipe for hiring the perfect coach

By Matthew Bartlett

ARLINGTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 24: Coach Kevin Sumlin of the Texas A&M Aggies during the first quarter against the Arkansas Razorbacks at AT&T Stadium on September 24, 2016 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 24: Coach Kevin Sumlin of the Texas A&M Aggies during the first quarter against the Arkansas Razorbacks at AT&T Stadium on September 24, 2016 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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It was a bit of a surprise when Texas A&M football hired a guy named Kevin Sumlin from Houston. Is he the guy that can take the Aggies to the next level?

The SEC has two divisions between the 14 teams. It also has two divisions between the 14 coaches: Nick Saban and everyone else. Trying (and failing) to beat Saban has gotten a lot of SEC coaches fired over the last five or six years. If you were an Athletic Director in the SEC how would you go about building a program to compete with one of, if not the greatest coaches in the history of the sport?

Saban is the jackpot of coaching hires. He can recruit elite talent and can do the X’s and O’s on Saturdays. The rest of the SEC coaching spectrum lacks another coach that can do both of those as well as Saban.

Two coaching alternatives

Elite recruiter and poor coach

That leaves two remaining coaching types: the Les Miles-style coach and the Dan Mullen-style coach. Les Miles won games on nearly talent alone. Talent wins games. When you have elite level talent you can let those players loose on the field with minimal structure. His trickeration and questionable game management are what cost him in the long run, not the level of ability of his players.

Elite coach and poor recruiter

On the other side, you’ve got Mullen. Mullen hasn’t recruited on the level of Les Miles. It hasn’t ever really been close. But somehow how Mullen got his Mississippi State squad to No. 1 in the nation, even if their stay was brief. Mullen’s strategy and coaching takes mediocre to decent talent and gets it to play up to the level of Alabama and Auburn, even if its only in short bursts.

Both coaches found some level of SEC success, but they did it in completely different ways. Obviously the most efficient route to championships is finding the next Nick Saban. But in case you hadn’t noticed, that’s not easy to do.

So who do you hire?

Dabo Swinney is who you’re after. Well, maybe not the actual Dabo Swinney, but rather a coach who is elite in one of those two areas that can develop the other aspect over time. He’s been an elite coach for a long time. What he lacked at Clemson was the talent to put the Tigers over the top.

Swinny is currently entering his 11th season as the head coach at Clemson. During his first five years at Clemson the Tigers average the 18th best recruiting ranking in the nation. In his next five years they averaged 13th in the nation. Since 2013 the Tigers haven’t been worse than 16th in the nation or third in the ACC. That’s not at the level of Alabama or LSU, but it is a marked improvement from the 2009 Clemson class that was No. 28 nationally.

Next: Ranking all 31 football coaches in Texas A&M history

For all the faults of Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M, it’s absolutely clear that the Aggies have rocketed up the recruiting ranks in his time at the school. The team has also taken down some SEC heavy weights over the years. There are glimmers of promise. Is this elite recruiter and competent coaching going to take the next step in his development? Aggies sure hope so.

***247 Sports, Sports Reference***