Offensive Coordinator Jake Spavital Parts Ways with Texas AM and Kevin Sumlin

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

The Texas A&M roster and coaching staff has undergone several key changes over the last couple of years prompting a lot speculation that all is not well in the Aggies locker room in College Station. The latest of many deflections came on Sunday when offensive coordinator Jake Spavital left the Aggies program.

A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin has gone through a lot of coaches on staff since taking the helm in College Station for the 2012 college football season. His first offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsburry, left the program at the end of the season to become the head coach at Texas Tech. Since Kingsburry’s departure, which is understandable, Sumlin has gone through and used up Clarence McKinney (2013) and now Jake Spavital (2014-15) as offensive coordinators but in his defense McKinney has stayed on staff as the running backs coach.

The dismissal of former defensive coordinator Mark Snyder was understandable. Snyder joined the staff in 2012 and was let go after the 2014 season when the Aggies finished the year ranked No. 102 in total defense. Sumlin made a great hire pulling in John Chavis, the longtime LSU defensive coordinator which has already started to show dividends.

Another understandable change on the staff was removing offensive line coach B.J. Anderson, after three years, in favor of Dave Christensen, a well-respected coach with some 30 years coaching offensive lineman or serving as an offensive coordinator.

Everything was supposed to be coming together for Sumlin entering his fourth year with the Aggies but from the outside looking in, as he preps for his fifth season, the staff and team looks fragmented and shattered. The announcement on Sunday that Spavital and Sumlin had “mutually decided to part ways” is troubling especially after Sumlin has lost three starting quarterbacks in the last two years as transfers; Kenny Hill, Kyle Allen, and Kyler Murray.

In the past, coaches have offered up sacrificial lambs to the boosters, alumni, and fan base parting ways with a coach to satisfy the thought that change for the better is coming. For the Aggies, change is seemingly all that has taken place in College Station with the program dipping from 11 wins in 2012, to nine in 2013, eight in 2014, and another eight in 2015 after losing their final two games of the season to LSU and Louisville in the Music City Bowl (27-21).

Kenny Hill was a first-year starter in 2014 but was benched in favor of then true freshman Kyle Allen, a former 5-star recruit, midway through the season. Hill left the program for TCU leaving Allen as the starter in 2015. Allen started the season in a quarterback battle with Kyler Murray, another former 5-star recruit, but eventually won the job. Another mid-season losing streak prompted Sumlin to change quarterbacks again, this time frustrating both Allen and Murray enough by season’s end to look for a new opportunity. Murray left after Allen asked for a release from his scholarship heading to Oklahoma. Allen has not picked a new school yet but has openly discussed talking to Colorado State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Houston and visited an Ohio State practice when the Buckeyes were in Arizona for their Fiesta Bowl matchup against Notre Dame.

If another opinion helps add fuel to the fire, a tweet from Kyle Allen might help set the speculation straight. In response to Spavital’s “parting of ways” from the Aggies, Allen tweeted out, “My guy for life @JakeSpavital we’ll be back on top soon.”

The temperature on Sumlin’s proverbial hot seat is warming up. The 2015 season starts off rough and stays tough opening with UCLA, followed by Prairie View A&M, but then the Aggies get Auburn, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, have a bye, followed by Alabama, New Mexico State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, UTSA, and finish with LSU again. The Aggies will be in a dogfight in five of the first six games of the season. If Sumlin starts off 3-3 or 2-4, will the fan base call for a change in midseason? Don’t be surprised if it happens.

Photo credit: blackshoediaries.com; Spavital with Kenny Hill.