The Pecan Park Eagle

~ The University of Houston ~
New Cradle of Winning College Coaches

Former UH Coach Kevin Sumlin

So, wait a minute, please. Let’s get straight about something that just happened in college football. Yesterday, Baylor knocked off #1 Kansas State, exactly one week after Texas A&M went over to the mother-load country of SEC football and upset #1 Alabama on the road.

WOW!

And what do these two surprises by a couple of Texas schools over a seven-day period share in common beyond the face of their majorly surprising outcomes? How about the connection of their coaches?

Both Art Briles of Baylor and Kevin Sumlin of Texas A&M each reached their current coaching assignments as “hire-aways” from the The University of Houston. Briles left UH first. After coming back to his UH alma mater for five seasons (2003-2007), and returning the Cougar program to respectable recovery from the 0-11 Dana Dimmel coaching disaster, Briles left for more money and “prestige” at Baylor in Waco. Briles was replaced directly by Kevin Sumlin, who, with some considerable offensive coaching help, took the Cougar up-tempo game to a zenith level over a four-year period (2008-2011) that corresponded with the availability of QB Case Keenum and four of his six operative college seasons. Then Sumlin got hired away too, almost drooling all over himself in false humility and quickly adorned Aggie Pride and, of course, hobbling too on that new bigger paycheck as he stumble-ran to his car and sped away last December from “the little university that will never give up” out on Cullen Boulevard.

As a UH alum, I really don’t blame Briles or Sumlin for leaving for more money – or for what they each saw as a better job. I’m just tired of coaches like them, who use UH as a stepping stone after going out and recruiting the players to UH that they later abandon for a “better offer elsewhere.” Please note: I didn’t say I liked either man for leaving. I just said I didn’t blame them for leaving.

Briles was a UH alum. He played under Yeoman. And he left. I understand why. I just never want to see him again, unless it’s on the downside of a Baylor game with UH. Same with Sumlin because of the way he left. He apparently was so busy working out the details of his new contract with the Aggies during the week leading up to, but also including, the day of last year’s C-USA Championship Game that it cost UH a 14-0 unbeaten season for their want of a game plan.

I attribute some of the 2012 Cougar collapse to the holdover UH players being cut off from their Sumlin mentor figure and the powerful coaching assistants who left UH with him. The Sumlin group now “vend” to the Aggies.

UH needs to come to terms with the fact that we now live in an era in which only big money wins out in the end. Forget the prestige factor. UH can hold their own with the best of them, eventually, if they’ve got the cash to make offers that are beyond refusal. And right now, they do not.

Tony Levine may be the second coming of Bill Yeoman on the loyalty side of things, but he is going to have to right the ship to keep the “Good Hope Cougar” afloat. – I like the guy. And I like the way he talks about his players and UH. And, like most Cougar alums, I think, I’m willing to ride out the adjustment time with him now, if he’s willing to later not grind success into just another platform for moving on. That’s why I say, when the time comes, whether it’s Tony Levine, or someone else we’ve yet to meet, UH needs to be ready on the payday side. Our best UH chance of keeping a coach that’s worth keeping is measured by salary and perqs.

At any rate, and with all UH rants aside, it is ironic that this “seven days apart” consecutive week ambush of two #1’s in college football this 2012 season was pulled off by the two most recent head coaches at UH.

Hmmm and what else?

With Kansas State and Oregon, who also lost their game to Stanford last night, now dropped from the # 1 and # 2 spots as previously unbeaten teams, the probability is that #3 and still unbeaten Notre Dame and “only-Aggie” beaten #4 Alabama both shall rise by tonight to those first two spots, with the Fighting Irish likely to take the top bunk on the BCS Express as we head into the Thanksgiving weekend. “Ain’t” college football grand?

Now to the NFL: GO TEXANS, GO! – BEAT THE JAGUARS!