10 reasons why Sumlin failed at A&M

That was then. Everything since then has been a disappointment. That disappointment ended Saturday night, with Sumlin's termination after Texas A&M played LSU. As with any firing, there were plenty of reasons, but here are 10 of the biggest that contributed to Sumlin's demise in Aggieland.

This was a habit that started in 2012, when the Aggies had LSU down 12-0 and blew the lead by halftime, losing 24-19. In 2013, they jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Alabama and lost in a shootout, 49-45.

It really didn't get ugly until last year, when the Aggies lost big leads against both UCLA and Tennessee, but won. Then they blew a 21-6 lead against Ole Miss and didn't recover, losing by 1.

Then came UCLA, and the 34-point debacle. The second largest blown lead in the history of the FBS. At that point, it was clear that Sumlin and his coaching staff had a nasty habit of getting conservative and playing not to lose, not playing to win. That habit proved costly in last season's LSU game and earlier this season against Auburn, as conservative play calling before the half cost them dearly. And it never changed.

What looked like a major accomplishment on national signing day ended up being a monumental disaster. The Aggies signed 31 players and only five completed four years at A&M. The net result was a team that was depleted of upperclassmen in 2015 and 2016, when those players could have made a difference.

Some of the names who left include:

Kenny Hill (transfer to TCU)

Laquivionte Gonzalez (transfer to Kansas, where he was kicked off the team)

Isaiah Golden (arrested, imprisoned)

Darian Claiborne (arrested, kicked off the team)

Kameron Miles (kicked off the team)

JaQuay Williams (transfer to Louisville)

Ishmael Wilson (transfer to Baylor, where he was kicked off the team)

Sebastian Larue (transfer to Washington State)

James White (transfer to Lamar)

Jay Arnold, Justin Manning, Joas Aguilar, J.J. Gustafson, Jordan Mastrogiovanni and Noel Ellis all had to retire due to injuries. Jonathan Wiggins, Victor Davis, Brett Wade and Jordan Points all faded into oblivion. Cam Clear did very little. Of that class, the Aggies can honestly say they got something out of Shaan Washington, Jeremy Tabuyo, Ricky Seals-Jones, Alex Sezer, Daeshon Hall, Reggie Chevis and Hardreck Walker. That's it.

Let's look at some of the later classes for A&M. Some started off with a lot of promise, like 2014's, but ended up pretty flat. The Aggies had Myles Garrett in 2014, and that was an questioned grand slam. Armani Watts, Zaycoven Henderson, Donovan Wilson, Josh Reynolds and Jarrett Johnson. But it also had Kyle Allen, Jamal Jeffery, Qualen Cunningham, Josh Walker, DeShawn Washington and Tank Davis. 12 of the 20 players in the class could be considered "hits". In 2015, the Aggies had the disastrous Kyler Murray and a lot of misses on defense: Richard Moore, Dwaine Thomas, James Lockhart and Roney Elam among them.

For the 2016 class, it's still early but it looks like you can say 8 of the 21 players signed already qualify as misses. That's not a good sign at all.

Texas A&M currently has one of the highest-paid assistant staffs in the nation and are clearly not getting what they're paying for. Jim Turner, Noel Mazzone and Aaron Moorehead have clearly disappointed, and you can make a solid argument John Chavis hasn't been worth his big paycheck. But the blunders go back well beyond that.

Hiring Jake Spavital to replace Kliff Kingsbury was a mistake. He simply wasn't ready and his offense got predictable once Johnny Manziel stopped playing streetball. Mark Hagen was mistake at both linebackers coach and defensive tackles coach. Terry Jospeh was a major disappointment as secondary coach.

The biggest mistake was bringing the toxic Dave Christensen to coach the offensive line. Christensen's enormous ego and very unclear coaching responsibilities had him trying to run the offense instead of Spavital, which led to blocking schemes that didn't match playcalls and Christensen screaming obscenities at Spavital through the coaching headphones during the game. He shouldn't have been hired to begin with, his behavior shouldn't have been tolerated and he should have been gone before the season ended. But Sumlin never stepped in to handle matters.

This one goes back to the start. Manziel, obviously, is the best-known example, but the situations with Golden, Claiborne and the like were far more serious. But the discipline issues continued. Kenny Hill infamously ended up unconscious in a potted plant outside of a College Station bar; Kyler Murray cursed out Spavital on the sideline and was suspended for only one game. He ended up having his teammates bundle up his equipment and throw it out of the locker room (and the baseball team threatening him with physical harm).

Even though it's been more quiet in recent years, Jarrett Johnson's comments about "kuckleheads" not getting with the program a couple weeks ago were a clear indication not much has changed.

It's hard for a program to recover when they get completely whipped by an opponent. The demolition in Tuscaloosa after the Aggies had been #6 in the nation two weeks earlier and had split with Alabama in two previous close games was the first real clue Sumlin's teams weren't ready for prime time. Even though no other game came close to that level of embarrassment, it has stuck in the heads of a lot of people -- including recruits -- for a while.

When Manziel was running all over the place and the Aggies were scoring at will, the Aggies' fast-pace offense was a great weapon. When Manziel left and it became clear the Aggie defense was extremely thin, it became a detriment. Instead of recognizing the problem and slowing things down, Sumlin repeatedly said "that's what we do". With the defense racking up totals in the 100s nationally as they played more plays than any other in the nation, Sumlin adamantly refused to change. Until this season, when the Aggies slowed things down to accommodate their young quarterbacks and, correspondingly, the defense's rankings jumped into the 40s.

There were other issues, of course: the refusal to get under center on 3rd and 4th and short (until the last game, at LSU) because "that's not what we do"; waiting until it was far too late to try to match the physical nature of the SEC West and the despised wide receiver screens. Good coaches learn as they go. Sumlin only changed, slightly, when it was painfully obvious that what he was doing wasn't working.

The Aggies have gotten into the national rankings every single year during Sumlin's tenure, getting as high as 3rd in 2013. They haven't finished the season in the top 25 since 2013, largely because they've collapsed down the stretch.

2013: 2-2, with huge losses at LSU and Missouri.

2014: 2-2, with losses to Missouri and LSU, both at home.

2015: 2-2, with losses to Auburn and LSU.

2016: 1-3, with losses to Mississippi State, Ole Miss and LSU.

2017: 2-2, losing to Auburn and LSU.

November is when the big boys in the SEC hunt. It's when the Aggies were beaten up and overwhelmed each of the last five years.

This one could be the most damning of all. It's hard to fault Sumlin for the departure of Matt Davis or Jameill Showers or even Kenny Hill. It's easy to blame him for the loss of Kyle Allen and the program-destroying decision to recruit and cater to Kyler Murray.

After the Alabama game in 2015, it was clear Allen was hurt, but he attempted to gut it out as the malcontent Murray was suspended for cussing at his coaches. As soon as Murray was out of time out, he was made the permanent starter, alienating Allen and a lot of the locker room. Murray -- who A&M recruited ahead of Jarrett Stidham -- proved he was out of his depth and Allen was back three games later.

But the damage was done. Sumlin, who had repeatedly denied Allen was even injured, had lost the trust of the top QB in the Rivals 2014 class. Murray, who had his father sitting in on coaches meetings, was in the process of alienating his teammates with his attitude. Sumlin was unable satisfy either quarterback, and both were gone by the first week of December.

A&M was fortunate enough to get Trevor Knight to handle things for most of last year, but the absence of experienced quarterbacks left the Aggies reliant on two players who had never taken a snap before 2017: Nick Starkel and Kellen Mond. Mond's recruitment may have been the final nail in the coffin for Sumlin, as he backed off of Jarrett Stidham -- who was very close to committing to the Aggies -- to ensure he kept the nation's #1 dual-threat QB in the 2017 class. As it turned out, Mond wasn't ready to play at a consistently high level and Stidham is taking Auburn to the SEC title game.

A sign of Sumlin's innate stubbornness when it comes to quarterbacks was on full display after the UCLA game. Two years after hanging Kyle Allen out to try by claiming he was healthy when everyone in America knew he wasn't, Sumlin insisted veteran Jake Hubenak could have played against the Bruins but he chose not to use him. Again, anyone who was paying attention knew that false, as Hubenak didn't warm up and didn't even have his helmet nearby due to a throwing shoulder injury. Some things just didn't change, and Sumlin's handling of his signal callers was largely botched after Johnny Football went pro.

How could it be anything else? As Sumlin himself said, this is a results-oriented business, and Sumlin didn't produce where it mattered most.

LSU: 0-6.

Alabama: 1-5.

Auburn: 3-3.

Mississippi State: 3-3.

Ole Miss: 3-3.

Arkansas: 6-0.

That makes you an average program at best. Texas A&M, its alumni and fan base have put around $600 million into contracts, the renovation of Kyle Field and the reconstruction of the Bright Complex. That means average is an unacceptable return on their investment.

And that's why Kevin Sumlin is no longer the coach of the Texas Aggies.