Texas A&M: Building A Football Powerhouse

The day Texas A&M finally made the decision to leave the Big 12 conference for the SEC will always be remembered as the day A&M moved toward national prominence.

The meteoric rise of Texas A&M on the gridiron came as a complete surprise to many people associated with the historic football program. After a dismal season in 2011 that ended with a heartbreaking last minute loss to bitter rival Texas, a team that had overshadowed them in the state of Texas, A&M pulled the plug on then current head coach Mike Sherman.

Regardless of anyone’s optimistic outlook ‘s on the 2012 season, most people would simply look to the 2011′s team’s shortcomings and reiterate that if they could not succeed in the Big 12, how could they compete in the rugged SEC west?

A successor would soon come quickly in the form of  Kevin Sumlin, an up-and-coming coach out of the University of Houston. Sumlin had recently led the Houston Cougars to a 13-1 record, and was running the spread option to perfection with quarterback Case Keenum at the helm.

Prior to the start of Texas A&M’s inaugural 2012 season in the SEC, Sumlin traveled to Mobile, Alabama, for the SEC media days to discuss the challenges of playing in a new conference.  When asked about his assessment of the western division, Sumlin responded with a quick smile gesture that revealed his true feelings about the move. 

“It’s a pretty damn hard league. How is that? That’s my assessment.” said Sumlin laughing, “You look at that, you see the talent level. I think the combination, somebody we were just talking about, the main difference that I see is the combination of size and speed.”

Little did anyone know that a star in the making would soon emerge onto the national spotlight as the starting quarterback for Texas A&M.

Johnny Manziel, also known nationally as “Johnny Football” became a household name after his monster win on the road in Tuscaloosa, Alabama against the top ranked Crimson Tide. The Alabama game revealed a dramatic clash of playing styles that also captured the true potential of the dual threat quarterback in college football today.

 Manziel finished this performance off by winning the Heisman trophy as a freshmen, securing a Cotton Bowl championship against Big 12 power Oklahoma, and capping off the historic run with an 11-2 season record.

“It’s huge for this program, and for me especially, with the kind of woes A&M has had over the past decade or however long it’s been since they had 11 wins,” said Manziel when asked about the Cotton Bowl win by FOX . “For us to get up tonight and watch them battle back, it’s good when we strike first. That’s what we like to do. It was good to do that and not really look back.”

Since that time Texas A&M has secured itself as a top five team respectively and has also become one of the SEC’s most elite programs. A top 10 recruiting class has only cemented A&M football in 2013 as a force to be reckoned with, leading many to think what could be in the near future.

“It’s amazing, 13 months ago we were going to get our brains beat out. When I took the job, it’s like I didn’t know we were going to the SEC,” Sumlin said during an interview for In the Loop with Nick and Lopez. “We had a bunch of detractors:‘Who are these coaches? We were running an offense that won’t work in a traditional, physical, line-of-scrimmage league like the SEC. And we understand that, but that’s why I have so much respect for that first class that we signed and then the guys who were early commitments (in the 2013 class), because there was true faith that we were going to get it done.”

Sumlin, who has reportedly just received a raise for himself and his assistants according to Aggieathletics.com, has revealed a small glimpse of how winning can dramatically change the culture of a school and its football team. Along with this, new renovations of Kyle Field are also in the works, with an estimated capacity of over 100,000 seats upon completion.

“Kyle Field is unique in the country, no other university provides as many student tickets as we do for a student body,” said Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin regarding the stadium renovations, according to DFW.com.“Typically you’ll find 6-8-10 thousand student tickets available, usually in the corner or end zone for students to utilize but that’s not how it works here.”

Media exposure has also exploded for Texas A&M, as the school has estimated a total of $37 million in media exposure, according to Joyce Julius & Associates since Manziel has won the Heisman. Licensing has also grown exponentially for A&M in just about every category since the move to the SEC was announced.

“Texas A&M’s licensing revenues were three times above the national average before the season kicked off, and the university had experienced a 77 percent licensing growth in the last four years even before the move to the SEC, said Shane Hinckley, assistant vice president for business development at A&M.

This all, however, fails in comparison to the rise to prominence in the amount of interest surrounding the program by top flight high school players around the country. It’s no wonder people can’t help but look to see what’s happening in College Station these days, with the Aggie’s ability to consistently place the best talent on the field against the SEC’s elite.

“They’re recruiting like an SEC school, which means cutthroat and heartless, the way you have to do it,” said Rivals.com national analyst Mike Farrell. “If you’re Kevin Sumlin and you’re the coach of one of the hottest teams in the country, you take as many as you can right now. That’s what he’s doing.”

Time will tell if the foundation of the program outreaches the rise of Johnny Manziel. Until then A&M will continue to grow into a national power that may soon be contending for national titles.

“We went to the Cotton Bowl this year,” said Manziel, “A BCS bowl and national championship is the goal next year.”