Texas A&M Football: Firing Kevin Sumlin wasn’t the right move

2. Kevin Sumlin was an elite recruiter

My second reason why I believe the firing was wrong is that Sumlin and his staff had done a great job in recruiting. Some would argue that taking recruiting national was wrong but I would say in today’s world if you can take the first, second or third best player in another state why not do that?

Here’s the breakdown of class rank according to rivals. The 2012 class which was primarily put together by the previous staff came in at No. 15. The headliners in that class were Thomas Johnson, Trey Williams, Matt Davis and Mike Matthews.

2013 class – No. 11

A look at the headliners in this group make you scratch your head. How many of these guys made a difference in year three or four? Take a look at this group. Daeshon Hall, Justin Manning, JaQuay Williams, Kameron Miles, Kyrion Parker, Kenny Hill, Laquvionte Gonzalez, Ishmael Wilson, Isaiah Golden, Kohl Stewart, Sebastian Larue and Ricky Seals-Jones.

2014 class – No. 6

How about this group? Otaro Alaka, Zaycoven Henderson, Speedy Noil, Avery Gennesy, Jermaine Eluemenor, Qualen Cunningham, Myles Garrett, Zach Ledwik, Kyle Allen, DeShawn Washington, Armani Watts and Nick Harvey. A bunch of guys that made a difference and still are today. What would this team look like if half of the 2013 group had worked out.

2015 class – No. 10

Daylon Mack, Kendall Bussey, Richard Moore, Christian Kirk, Roney Elam, James Lockhart, Keaton Sutherland, Kyler Murray, Connor Lanfear, Larry Pryor, Trevor Elbert and Justin Dunning were the headliners. Some big hits while a few are on the wait and see list but there’s a couple of where did you go?

2016 class – No. 17

Maybe fatigue was starting to set in or maybe the evaluation process was changing. Headliners include Aaron Hansford, Quartney Davis, Clyde Chriss, Ikenna Okeke, Trayveon Williams, Kellen Diesch, Justin Madubuike, Rakeem Boyd, Tyrel Dodson and Austin Anderson. This group outside of Williams and Dodson is a wait and see. Their development will now come from a new coaching staff.

2017 class – No. 10

Headliners include Anthony Hines, Jhamon Ausbon, Devodrick Johnson, Tyree Johnson, Jayden Peevy, Hezekiah Jones, Cameron Buckley, Kellen Mond, Santino Marchiol, Keldrick Carper, Derrick Tucker, Grayson Reed and Myles Jones. Everyone on this list but Marchiol (injured) and Reed made plays in 2017. This group and 2016 group have to get the incoming staff very excited.

As you can see recruiting was not the problem, they found talent but for various reasons that include the law and future fit/playing time has forced the staff to play so many young guys. I hope that would’ve given this staff another year but that was not the case.