Interim Coach Tony Levine Will Replace Kevin Sumlin At Houston

In a statement, athletic director Mack Rhoades gushed about his new coach:

Levine has been an assistant at UH for four years, becoming assistant head coach two years ago. He’s also been running the special teams and coaching tight ends. Previous stops have landed him at Louisville and Louisiana Tech, with a Carolina Panthers gig in there too.

During Levine’s three-year tenure at UH, the special teams unit has 16 blocked kicks, seven kickoff returns for touchdowns and six forced turnovers. Those groups tied five NCAA records and set nine school marks. The seven kickoff returns for touchdowns are the most by any FBS school over the past three years.

A walk-on wide receiver at Minnesota, Levine was a three-year starter and was twice named to the Academic All-Big Ten team.

The extension will keep Dykes at Louisiana Tech through the 2017 season (via Shreveport Times).

Houston is still on the hunt for a new head coach after losing Kevin Sumlin to Texas A&M, but may be zeroing in on a target. According to a report on Saturday, Sonny Dykes’ name has been strongly linked to the Cougars’ head coaching position. Dykes is currently the head man at Louisiana Tech, a job he’s held for the last two seasons.

The report comes from CBS’ Bruce Feldman.

Here’s SB Nation’s 2011 College Football Coaching Carousel Tracker.

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.

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.

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.