Texas A&M Football: Kevin Sumlin went from Hot Seat to On Fire
By Matt Green
On Sunday night, Texas A&M blew a 34-point lead on the road at UCLA to lose the season opener 45-44.
Kevin Sumlin entered the season with possibly the hottest seat of any SEC head coach, and on Sunday, the Texas A&M football coach’s seat got even hotter.
With 4:08 remaining in the third quarter, the Aggies led 44-10. What could possibly go wrong, right? Well, Josh Rosen happened, and all Texas A&M could do was sit back and watch. After the Aggies took a 34-point lead, UCLA had five drives and scored five touchdowns, scoring 35 unanswered points.
On the Bruins’ first seven drives of the game, Rosen went 11-for-26 for 129 yards. But on the final five drives of the game, he was on another level. He went 24-for-33 for 362 yards and four touchdowns.
Chosen Rosen.... "The touchdown heard round the world" https://t.co/Bg0goaxXhB
— UCLA Nation (@UCLA_Nation) September 4, 2017
Texas A&M had eight second half drives. They ran 48 plays for 149 yards, an average of 3.1 yards per play. They also scored six points on those eight drives.
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Kevin Sumlin and the Texas A&M football program have already built the reputation of collapsing in the second half of the season, this year they couldn’t even get through one game without a second half collapse.
The Aggies have started 5-0 in each of the last three seasons, and even went 6-0 last season, but they finished 8-5 in all three of those seasons. Texas A&M has two more cupcake games before jumping into conference play.
I have the Aggies losing three of their first four conference games this season. They start with Arkansas in Jerry World, then host South Carolina and Alabama, before traveling to Florida prior to their bye week.
Next: Previewing the first weekend of SEC action
If Sumlin does in fact start the season 3-4, it’s hard to imagine him keeping his job. There is a lot of time before then and there’s a chance he could turn this thing around, but his seat is effectively on fire right now.