Kevin Sumlin's honeymoon in College Station is over and that is public knowledge at this point. That is the nature of things when a coach posts three consecutive 8-5 seasons in the SEC at a big-time program and even Sumlin would likely acknowledge that things haven't gone according to plan.
With that in mind, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo explored the fact that Sumlin could find himself on the hot seat with a very obvious and famous coach waiting in the wings.
Having it on the record though provides rivals a negative recruiting card to play against the Aggies, which doesn't make Sumlin's job any easier. It also ratchets up pressure on every game, could do damage on the team internally and all but begs for columns like this to be written.
Especially because of this: Chip Kelly is going to serve as a college football analyst for ESPN this year.
Yes, that Chip Kelly. The Oregon Chip Kelly, the 46-7 college record Chip Kelly, the no-longer-hot NFL coach Chip Kelly that will loom over every single job opening all season
Wetzel unearthed the possibility that Chip Kelly could be in the minds of folks near the A&M program and he expanded on the thought process behind it. He noted that Kelly took a college — not NFL — analysts job and his show-cause sanctions for NCAA rules violations has expired.
This wouldn't qualify as a full-fledged "report" of Kelly as the next guy in line at Texas A&M but Wetzel has likely heard enough to smoke to justify the thought. Kelly is a proven commodity at the college level and he would be easily the most attractive candidate on the market should the Aggies look to part ways with Sumlin.
If Texas A&M rattles off a 10-win season, the whispers will die down but, if not, the chatter will grow even louder.