re: Rank the Aggy coaches of the past 20 yrs

The low hanging fruit is to just rank them by win/loss ratios, but that never tells the whole story.

Sumlin has the best overall record but most of his success came with inherited players. Jimbo’s best season was year 3 where it’s more of his program, and he had a better conference record as posted above. Sumlin also managed to run two 5 star QBs off within a week of each other, was on the losing side of the second biggest comeback in NCAA history, and multiple bad losses by wide margins. Jimbo’s teams kept it close in losses for the most part (outside of 2019 LSU) and never gave up in a game.

Sherman was a great evaluator of talent, an ok recruiter, and a bad game day coach. Fran, well there’s nothing that needs to be said there.

Therefore I’ll say:

1) Fisher
2) Sumlin
3) Sherman
4) Franchione

I still wonder to this day if Sherman had gotten another year what he would have been able to do w/Johnny at QB. Would he have benched him for showing up hungover to the Miss State game and been able to put some sense into him? I know it was lame of Johnny's dad to complain that Sumlin didn't help Johnny become a man but... Sherman would not have put up w/Johnny's partying the way Sumlin did b/c unfortunately Sumlin and Kliff were just as bad as Johnny when it came to the boozing.

He definitely would’ve benched JFF and tried to instill some responsibility/discipline. Probably would’ve been better long term for Johnny, but worse for us as I bet we don’t go 11-2 that season.

We probably go 8-4 in 2012 and Sherman gets another 2-3 years in the SEC because we think “well that’s not too bad for moving into the way tougher SEC”.

Probably would’ve been looking for a new coach after the 2014 or 2015 season.

quote:

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all 4 are far inferior to RC Slocum.


Well, yeah. While RC's offenses would make Les Miles look progressive, he was one heckuva good coach.

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True, but it was a different time for sure. Boring wins are easier to get used to than exciting losses. Slocum was most definitely the highest character coach of the group.

1. Kevin Sumlin 51–26 25–23
2. Jimbo Fisher 45–25 27–21
3. Mike Sherman 25–25 15–18
4. Dennis Franchione 32–28 19–21

so fran is last, no doubt. he was horrible in a pretty weak overall big 12. other than UT and OU big 12 was down then.

Sherman recruited a shite load of talent and had them heading in right direction after disaster that was Fran.

fisher got them to upgrade everything and spend money. changed the recruiting there. and has better record than other 2 without the luxury of playing big 12

Sumlin is best imo because he took over right when they were coming to into the SEC. He did not have the luxury of all the money flowing in like jimbo did and overall did much better than jimbo. did a great job with first coaching staff and did a great job recruiting QBs before hitting the bottle and pissing it all away by running everyone off.

Sherman was one of the worst in game coaches I’ve ever witnessed coach a team of mine. There was a reason they blew all those leads and it was far from all on the defense. A lot of his staff was also old NFL buddies who had no interest in playing the recruiting game. He was not fit to coach in the SEC and he knew it

This is an interesting point and I tend to think it would have gone very differently. Kingsbury went on record saying very early on he realized it was in their “best” interest to let Johnny be Johnny because he could win games. Sherman would have never done such a thing.

People forget Johnny came from a very rigid and militant high school program and he stayed in line. One has to wonder if Sherman’s tougher stance on that sort of thing would have had any impact on Johnny’s behavior? I don’t know. He may not have ever seen play time at all?

Either way, he was a great evaluator of talent but a horrid game day coach. He brought in some of the best players in school history and actually did a half way decent job of developing them. S&C and half time adjustments just weren’t there and that’s on him and his staffing. So long term I don’t think it would have gotten ANY better.

Slocum was on the downward trajectory and that wasn’t going to change. With competitive facilities and donor contributions his success would have likely
Been higher and longer sustained.

Fran was a wreck from start to stop in every conceivable manner.

Sumlin did a lot with some decent talent, brought in some excellent skill players. But couldn’t sustain locker room harmony.

I’d have to say

1. Jimbo - lots of mediocrity but kept things on the cusp of being excellent
2. Sherman - similar to fisher, but a little worse
3. Sumlin - a fun program for a couple years, but his propensity to lose by 6+ scores on the regular are inexcusable. His teams got blown out at a frequency that must be rememebered
4. Fran - literally no positive comments at all. This is when I was a student. I witnessed the 77-0 in person. It was the absolute worst display of football I’d ever seen and likely will ever see. That is a stain that will never come out. (2 years of Slocum, and 3 years of Fran for my time in school, I needed one additional semester, changed my mind on major a couple times)