Would you be happy initially with Sumlin?

[Seniorsmoke]

To think Art Briles is not responsible for a lot of Houston's success is really naive. That does not mean Sumlin could not have done it, but it is not the same as the guy who goes in when things are at the bottom and stays until he shows results. He does get points for continuing what Briles got started, but comparing him with folks who have done the dirty work the first few years of a turnaround is not a fair comparison. Golden would have a much better claim to have done the whole job than Sumlin can claim.
I really do not want any coach who does not bring an aggressive, successful defensive record. I don't think you can win in the BigTen by outscoring people. You have to be able to stop ball control offenses.

I have not seen anyone claim that Art Briles is not responsible for any of Houston's success. My point was against those suggesting that Sumlin is riding off off Briles' coat tails and should not get credit for what has happened there. Nor have I seen anyone make a comparison between Golden and Sumlin. Under Sumlin, Houston has been more successful that even Briles was there. That is a fact not an opinion. Recent Big 10 games has shown IMO that outscoring people is exactly what is needed to win games. It is the direction college football is heading. Sumlin's defensive stats have not been very good, so that is a very reasonable reason to think he may not have success here. When Wisconisin needs 31 points to beat Iowa and Michigan St needs 28 to beat Nothwestern, I believe it speaks to the shift taking place in college football toward offense, Big Ten included.

 

[Seniorsmoke]

So Sumlin would be better than Brewster? You're really going out on a limb there.

Sumlin would be a non-exciting, relatively risky choice. He has a pass-happy offense and a poor defense. Leach has a longer record of winning with a pass -happy offense and a not-quite-as-bad defense playing a lot of games against Big12 competition. Why hire Sumlin when you can hire Leach?

Sumlin has shown that he will taillor his offense around the players he has to run it. With a True Freshmen now at qb, Houston's last 2 victories have come running the ball more than 45% of the time. Anyone who has ever watched a Mike Leach coached team should know that would never happen.

 

[tpbeight]

There's not much teaching involved with the Air Raid. It's very, very simplistic. Leach took less than a week to install it. Tony Franklin installed his version in just three days. ECU's offensive coordinator, who just turned 27 last month and barely has any coaching experience, smoothly installed it and has that offense humming.



We lack the talent, obviously.

Man, with that level of simplicity and the obvious awesomeness of the Air Raid offense it's a wonder why any team in college football would run anything else.

Thanks to Art Briles and Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin is now considered a good coach. i guess he got lucky.

 

[evegoe]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4505553

http://vimeo.com/6554056

 

[WolfontheProwl]

Not sure it will matter to me.

As long as the U does their homework and pics the guy they think can do the best job I will be ok with that. How long I can stay happy with the new coach will depend on if he can help this program grow and win some games. The hard part coming up no matter who the coach is will be the schedule not only is our Big Ten Schedule going to be tough the non conference schedule is going to be over our head for a while. I like the idea of playing some of the top programs in the country when we are good enough to compete with them but if we are not it will be another blow out we dont need.

 

[RodentRampage]

I'm very wary of any talk of "You don't need defense anymore, all you need is offense!" Someone posted the top ten teams and how their offenses were going to show how the game had changed to be all about offense. But when the defensive stats were shown for those same teams, the top 5 defenses were there, and 8 of the top 10 teams had defenses in the top 20.

 

[Seniorsmoke]

I'm very wary of any talk of "You don't need defense anymore, all you need is offense!" Someone posted the top ten teams and how their offenses were going to show how the game had changed to be all about offense. But when the defensive stats were shown for those same teams, the top 5 defenses were there, and 8 of the top 10 teams had defenses in the top 20.

http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/football/ncaaf/stats/team-total-defense

Very interesting that only 2 teams from the Big Ten are in the Top 20 nationally in Total Team Defense. Obviouslly an attention to the defensive side of the ball is paramount, but the days of shut down Defense seems to have passed by.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/team/_/stat/total

4 Big 10 teams are in the Top 20 on Offense.

Just watching weekly games, you can see the shift taking place. A good Defense is one that gets timely stops and opportune turnovers.

 

[Hates Monikers]

This is really a hollow argument that tires me, especially since most of your cohorts are, or would, drool over Jim Harbaugh.

Sumlin is in his third year of being a HC at a FBS school. Jim Harbaugh went to Stanford AFTER his 3rd year at the University of San Diego, a non-scholarship DIAA school playing in the Pioneer League that loses regularly to DIII schools.

It is hilarious that the mighty Gopher fans would sprun a FBS HC because "he has almost no HC experience" when other lesser football schools such as Stanford would embrace them. I guess 40 years of futility isn't enough to humble some of us to the point were we would simply accept a coach with SOME HC experience rather than a used car salesman from Denver.

This comment is just really unfair to the "anti-Sumlin" crowd. Mostly because, based on what I've read on this and other threads, the anti-Sumlin crowd isn't really anti-Sumlin. It's just that we've been promised more, for better or worse. Sorry, Joel Maturi; this is on you.

It's also unfair to keep throwing out Harbaugh as a coach with little experience at a smaller school who has done great things. And of course those guys are out there. Every successful D1 coach was a coach at a lower level first -- or were merely assistants. Sumlin may be one of those who turn out to be successful. But for every Harbaugh there are two Dan Hawkins. And Minnesota keeps selecting the Hawkins version. You have no assurance that Sumlin is going to be the next Harbaugh. Heck, Briles himself was 2-6 and 1-7 (conference) in his first two years at Baylor. We have no assurance that someone with more of a track record can do it, either. But for some of us, that experience gives us greater comfort.

If Sumlin is hired here, most of us will support him 100% and hope he IS the next Harbaugh. But some of us are simply holding out for more of a Harbaugh.

 

[RodentRampage]

If defense is out of vogue, then it is a golden opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

 

[PushingBackAgain]

What happens if the Texas A&M job opens up?

 

[Buttcheeks McGaffigan]

I expect the UM to contact the top names. If we get turned down, at least we tried. How do we know that? I would guess the Harbaugh types want no publicity with this.

Belotti comes before Sumlin in my world. Then Golden.

If we have run through the top dogs still searching, Sumlin would be OK.

I'm not sure about not wanting publicity. College coaches are notorious for using other job opening to get a nice fat raise with their current team.

 

[go4rob]

Sumlin would definitely not give me a boner or anything but I could support that hire.

I'd certainly take Sumlin over Shannon, any day.