Texas A&M DC Search Turns To South Florida, According To Report

Fired Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman will reportedly become a Miami Dolphins coordinator.

↵

Former Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman sent a lengthy letter to Texas high school coaches shortly after he was fired. He had every reason to leave on a bitter note, but instead peeled off a 4,000-worder filled with advice both practical and emotional, all written mostly to coaches with whom he may never work again.

↵For a coach perceived by most outsiders as something of a NFL-tainted bore, this is quite a revelation. It’s like finding out the Grinch’s heart was never all that small at all!

Via TexAgs.com’s Billy Liucci, who also had the Narduzzi report (which Narduzzi confirmed):

USF ranked No. 39 in total defense in 2011 and No. 17 in 2010, his first year in Tampa. He went 22-37 as Marshall’s head coach before joining South Florida. Previous stops have taken him to Ohio State, Minnesota, UCF and elsewhere.

He has no clear connections to the state of Texas or the SEC. Previous stops included Cincinnati, Miami and Northern Illinois.

That figure would’ve placed him eighth among Big 12 coaches this year, but A&M will be a SEC school by the time he oversees his first game. His salary would rank 12th at best in the 14-team SEC, using 2011 numbers. Vanderbilt doesn’t disclose coach James Franklin’s pay.

As Ben Kercheval points out, that leaves plenty of budget for Sumlin to hire a capable defensive coordinator, something he’s going to need and quickly. An offensive-minded coach, Sumlin should be able to score on SEC defenses with SEC athletes. But his D will face quite an upgrade from Conference USA competition.

Sumlin takes over for Mike Sherman, who was fired in a recruit’s driveway after a collapse-prone, 6-6 season.

For more A&M, visit Texas A&M blog I Am the 12th Man.

Going 35-17 at UH and nearly reaching the BCS, Sumlin now becomes the first African-American head coach at a major Texas program and A&M’s first-ever SEC head coach. Expect A&M to officially announce him shortly.

For more on the Aggies, visit Texas A&M blog I Am The 12th Man. And check in with our 2011 Coaching Carousel Tracker.

It’s not Mark Richt and it’s not any of the other candidates suddenly thrown into the mix, but Texas A&M is reportedly close to a deal with its new head coach. And the man is who many expected to see turn up in College Station all along. It took a bit of time for Texas A&M and Kevin Sumlin to get to the final stages of the negotiations that are expected to make the Houston head coach the leading man of the Aggies, but that’s where everything stands late on Friday night.

According to Billy Luicci, Sumlin and A&M are in the final stages of negotiations.

Well, this was a fun coaching search detour. At one point, all signs were pointing towards the Texas A&M Aggies hiring Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin. And then, out of nowhere, a rumor popped up indicating the Aggies were targeting Mark Richt. If you thought the Richt rumors seemed less than plausible, you were correct.

The whole thing has come full circle now: Richt reportedly shot down A&M and Sumlin is back in the mix, according to Brett Zwerneman.

Follow along as Texas A&M gets Mark Richt a raise.

This one’s been quietly bubbling up all day before a reporter was able to confirm something related to Mark Richt and the Texas A&M head coaching job. That something isn’t news related to Richt considering the Aggies head coaching job. But A&M may consider Richt a candidate for the position left vacant after Mike Sherman was fired in a recruit’s driveway.

Here’s the report, from Brent Zwenerman of the San Antonio Express-News.

Team meetings this time of year usually result in rumors of a coaching change, especially when they involve highly sought after head coaches. But in the case of Kevin Sumlin, a team meeting with the Houston Cougars on Wednesday night was not called to announce he was leaving for a new job, possibly Texas A&M. Instead, the meeting was a completely normal checkup with his Houston football team.

The report comes from Sam Khan Jr., who tweeted a statement from the Houston football spokesman and his own opinion shortly thereafter.

Kevin Sumlin has reportedly called a team meeting with his players at Houston on Wednesday evening. What the meeting will cover is unknown, but speculation has run rampant about Sumlin taking the Texas A&M head coaching job. According to multiple reports, Sumlin is expected to accept the Texas A&M head coaching job, and the meeting could mean a deal is done.

Sumlin’s plans to meet with the team were reported by Richard Justice. The team meeting could mean a coaching change, or it could be something out of left field, but nobody knows what it’s about at this time.

The Texas A&M Aggies need a new head coach. To that end, they’re probably interviewing your head coach. According to the Dallas Morning News’ David Harris, in the past week they’ve interviewed “Houston’s Kevin Sumlin, Southern Mississippi’s Larry Fedora, Air Force’s Troy Calhoun and Alabama’s Kirby Smart.”

Fighting Illini beat writer John Supinie cited one source and reported that the two sides are close to a deal, meaning Sumlin would take his explosive offense and move it to the Big 10. If he is to be believed, that would make two head coaches, Urban Meyer at Ohio State being the other, known for high-scoring teams revolving around the passing game — or mobile quarterbacks — who are joining the conference that pretty much invented ground-and-pound.

However, TexAgs.com’s Billy Liucci pretty much just saw Supinie’s source and raised him two:

Kevin Sumlin and Larry Fedora reportedly interviewed for the Texas A&M coaching vacancy on Monday. Sumlin is currently the coach at Houston, while Fedora is the head coach at Souther Mississippi. Both would be vying to replace Mike Sherman, who was fired on Thursday after going 25-25 over four mostly lackluster seasons.

Sumlin’s been A&M’s reported top target for a few days now, also reportedly drawing interest from around the Pac-12. Take it for what it’s worth, but we’ve now entered the point at which the murmurs go from Sumlin being targeted to Sumlin being hired.

If accurate, it would mean a jump from Conference USA to the SEC for Sumlin.

Enhanced compensation is in Sumlin’s immediate future, whether UH is able to pony up sufficiently or not. A&M’s pending SEC riches likely mean they can offer anything the Cougars can and then some, even with their various other budget concerns. TAMU is a bigger and better job in a familiar region and one to which Sumlin already has working experience ties.

Texas A&M fired football coach Mike Sherman Thursday night, but did so in disorderly fashion. Sherman was reportedly notified over the phone while on a recruiting trip -- just hours after he’d already met with College Station brass. That doesn’t reflect well on athletic director Bill Byrne (this doesn’t either, nor does this), and Aggies beat writer Brent Zwerneman reports Byrne’s job could be on the line as well.

Byrne has been the A&M AD since 2003. He helped guide the department from the Big 12 and into the SEC, but the record shows he’s also used “tu” in reference to the University of Texas.

The list, as has been reported, is pretty much everybody Ole Miss wants plus everybody Arizona State wants. See for yourself! First up, the Star-Telegram:

A&M is a better job than ASU is, plus Sumlin already knows the school and the area. If he’s offered the chance to coach in the SEC, that’s the move. Strong, for his part, has long wanted to become a SEC head coach.

Mike Sherman was hired as the head coach of Texas A&M in 2007, after being a head coach with the Green Bay Packers in the NFL from 2000-2005 and serving as the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans from 2006-2007. During his tenure at Texas A&M, Sherman finished with an overall record of 25-25 and only one winning season.

What a difference a few fourth quarters make. If not for five late collapses, the Texas A&M Aggies could be as good as 11-1 right now and threatening for a national championship spot. But they aren’t, so things like this get said about head coach Mike Sherman by higher-ups, statements like this are necessitated, and the question of whether he’ll come back next season must be addressed.

Chip Brown of OrangeBloods.com, for one, reports Sherman will remain with the Aggies through their SEC debut.