UC Davis Aggies

Why Kevin Sumlin's history as an underdog should scare Alabama

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:23 p.m. ET

Bruce Feldman

Coaches will rarely acknowledge point spreads. But seeing how Texas A&M is undefeated at 6-0 and ranked No. 6 in the nation yet still is an 18-point underdog against Alabama (and climbing apparently), I asked Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin Thursday morning if he’s noticed that little detail.

“C’mon, we don’t pay any attention to that stuff,” he said with a laugh. “Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, don’t you know that?”

Of course.

Sumlin wasn’t sure if one of his teams in his nine seasons as a head coach had even been such a big underdog. Then again, he knows how dominant Alabama has been under Nick Saban. After all, the Tide have won 19 games in a row and just crushed a Top 10 opponent on the road by 39 points last week.

Sumlin’s track record, though, is actually pretty amazing as a double-digit underdog.

In 2009, his Houston team visited No. 5 Oklahoma State as a 16-point underdog and the Cougars left a 45-35 winner. In 2012, his Aggies visited No. 1 Alabama as a 13.5-point underdog and left a 29-24 winner. In 2014, the Aggies were a 10.5-point underdog to South Carolina on opening night in Columbia and scorched the Gamecocks 52-28.

Of course, Sumlin’s team was also a sizable underdog (13.5 points) the last time the Aggies visited Tuscaloosa. They lost that one 59-0. It is also worth noting the Tide are 9-2 against the spread in their last 11 games against teams with winning records.

Overall, Sumlin’s teams have been a double-digit underdog seven times. He’s won five of those games, with all of them on the road, and more impressively he’s 5-1 in them against ranked opponents and 4-1 against AP Top 10 teams as a huge ‘dog. That includes the Aggies' 41-38 win at No. 3 Auburn when A&M was a 23.5-point underdog.

The edge in Sumlin’s personality seems to be very comfortable in the underdog role. Those who have worked with Sumlin say he does a masterful job of priming his team’s mindset for such challenges and embracing the underdog status. On Tuesday at his weekly press conference, he was asked about his program being doubted.

“We haven’t been motivated by that all year,” Sumlin said. “Someone said to me, ‘Well, nobody’s giving you a chance.’ I said, ‘Well, I guess it’s a good thing nobody’s playing.”

At one point Tuesday, Sumlin was also asked about the “enormity” of this weekend’s matchup and replied: “I’m not concerned about enormity. Enormity is not a football word."

Sumlin knows how talented his team is. This also isn’t the inexperienced, coltish group he’s had the past two years in the post-Johnny Football era, one that had a leadership void in its locker room with its most gifted players still trying to find their way. He says for as dynamic as some of the talent was on that 2012 team that went 11-2 with Manziel, Mike Evans and several other future first-rounders, this team has more overall talent.

The defense, led by arguably the best DE tandem in college football in Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall, is certainly better than any group Sumlin’s had in College Station even if the stats don’t necessarily reflect that, especially after a 45-38 double-OT win over Tennessee. There are now playmakers at all three levels of the defense, something that had been lacking.

Three years ago, I spent the week with A&M as the Aggies prepared for their game against mighty Alabama. I was there to research my book "The QB," but also filed this All-Access piece. I’ve had a lot of memories about that week. The pre-game atmosphere from 24 hours before kickoff right till the start of the game was unlike anything I’d ever witnessed in two decades covering the sport. The closest thing I’d seen to the energy around that A&M team was USC’s group under Pete Carroll.

As I wrote back in August after visiting A&M, I thought the Aggies had come of age this year and were poised to surprise a lot of folks who had written Sumlin’s program off. In the days leading up to this week’s game, I thought a lot about the vibe around that 2013 Bama game. I remembered it also being like a Who’s Who of top recruits, and that helped lay the foundation for this team now.

A&M had 79 recruits in attendance that day on official and unofficial visits. A staggering 90 percent of those players signed D-1 scholarships somewhere, many of them in the SEC. Jamal Adams, Devon Godchaux and D.J. Chark, who ended up at LSU, were there. So were a few future Bama players and Longhorns, too. The best players on this Aggies defense -- Garrett, the all-world defensive end prospect who Sumlin had visited in his “Swagcopter" the day before, as well as Armani Watts and Nick Harvey -- also attended.

In all, 11 players now on the A&M two-deep were there that day. In addition, the Aggies signed five other players also in attendance including both Kyler Murray and Kyle Allen, who helped paved the way for the Aggies to land star WR Christian Kirk.

“It wasn’t just the quantity of recruits we had that day, it was the quality too, and it was the atmosphere we had, it really was epic,” Scott Johnston, A&M’s in-house recruiting coordinator, said. "It was our biggest (recruiting) game since we have been here, at least probably till our Tennessee game a few weeks ago.”

That energy was what a lot of those kids bought into even though A&M didn’t win that game, falling to No. 1 Alabama 49-42. The Aggies did put up 628 yards -- the most the Tide had ever allowed.

We’ll see if Sumlin’s squad is capable of another epic showing this Saturday.