HOUSTON – Kevin Sumlin wears a black Houston Gamblers hoodie and a ballcap on a quiet afternoon inside the lobby of a hotel off I-610. Just 90 miles from here, Sumlin once coached Texas A&M to a No. 5 national ranking during a season in which he beat Nick Saban.
Not that he expects the players on his United Football League team to remember that.
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Led by a redshirt freshman quarterback turned Heisman Trophy winner who’d become known as Johnny Football, a player as talented as he was rebellious, Sumlin’s Texas A&M Aggies toppled mighty Alabama in the Aggies’ first season in the SEC.
Nowadays, Sumlin coaches a team filled with players in their mid-20s who harbor NFL aspirations.
Do those players know their coach once beat Saban, in a game played in front of 101,821 fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium?
“No,” Sumlin responds. “No. No. No. No. No.”
And, do the Gamblers’ quarterbacks ask Sumlin about his experience coaching Johnny Manziel?
“Not as much as (other) people” ask about it, Sumlin says good-naturedly.
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As I join the list of “other people” to ask Sumlin what it was like coaching Manziel, he wants to make one thing clear: Manziel was “a great teammate” at Texas A&M.
Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) walks by head coach Kevin Sumlin against the SMU Mustangs in the second half at Kyle Field in 2013.
Coaching Manziel “was certainly different, but he’s a great talent,” Sumlin said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “As much as people want to talk about his actions or anything else, he’s a great teammate. The players love to be around him on a practice field, because he loved to play football.
“When it came to football for him, he was as unselfish as there was, and the players respected that, and so did I.
“Now, the other part, you can’t deny that, but, as a teammate, we didn’t have any problems. Once he got on the field, he was great. Once he got in the building, great.”
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Sumlin’s career crescendo occurred while Manziel played for him, more than a decade ago. After Texas A&M won 20 games in two seasons with Manziel at the trigger, Fox Sports published a story under the headline, “It’s Kevin Sumlin’s World, Y’all.”
Sportswriter Clay Travis wrote of Sumlin achieving a “dynasty win” after the Aggies trounced a top-10 South Carolina team in their 2014 season opener, their first game after Manziel departed for the NFL.
Turns out, it was the start of an 8-5 season. No dynasty.
Sumlin never had a losing season at Texas A&M. He also never matched the comet ride of 2012, when his Aggies went 11-2 and Manziel won the Heisman.
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Eight years later, Arizona fired Sumlin after he went 0-5 in the 2020 season. He’s become something of a journeyman since then.
Sumlin, 61, doesn’t sound as if he’s itching to pivot back into college football.
“I don’t really like the direction” of college football, Sumlin says, although he adds he’s not closed that door entirely.
For now, he’s focused on helping Gamblers players turn their UFL performance into a spot on an NFL roster.
“It’s one of those deals where, you’re just trying to help these guys,” he said.
Do Kevin Sumlin and Johnny Manziel stay in touch?
This marks Sumlin’s second stint with the Gamblers. He also coached them in 2022, when they played in the USFL, before the league merged with the XFL.
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He’s got his work cut out for him. Injuries catapulted third-string quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa into starting duty, and the Gamblers are 1-3.
Sumlin last worked in college in 2024 as a Maryland assistant. He, like many coaches, is weary of the state of college football.
“Players should be getting paid,” Sumlin said. “Name, image and likeness is great, but what’s going on right now has nothing to do with that, and then the (roster) retention piece is even harder.
“The developmental player and the developmental program really doesn’t exist. You don’t have time to get a guy like an O-lineman who is 6-5 or 6-6, 240 pounds and wait on him. You’ve got to get a guy who’s 300 pounds right now or get him out of the portal, who’s played in Conference-USA or the Sun Belt. It’s a completely different game.”
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“I enjoyed the recruiting piece,” Sumlin adds, “and the relationship piece.”
Speaking of relationships, how’s Sumlin’s relationship with Manziel?
Two years ago, Manziel called his former coach a hypocrite during a podcast interview, and he questioned whether Sumlin retained a spark for coaching.
“We talk every now and then. Not as much as we used to,” Sumlin said of Manziel, who played two NFL seasons, filled with drama, controversy, and also a misdemeanor assault charge that ended in a plea deal.
“Every now and then, he may say something that I don’t like, and then, every now and then, I may say something that he doesn’t like,” Sumlin added. “So, we go through that. But, we have a lot of mutual friends, and we have our conversations and check up on each other, … but we don’t talk as much as we used to.”
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Why Kevin Sumlin once asked for ‘eight good cars’ at Houston
Ask Sumlin where he’s from, and he’d tell you L.A.
As in, Lower Alabama.
Brewton, Alabama, in particular.
But, Texas has been good to him throughout his career. It’s home to his professional peaks.
Even before he secured his first job in Texas, Sumlin knew firsthand the talent the state produced. He can rattle off all of the players from Texas high schools who played on the 2000 Purdue team that reached the Rose Bowl. Sumlin coached Purdue’s wide receivers, under his mentor Joe Tiller.
When Sumlin interviewed to become the Houston Cougars’ coach nearly two decades ago, he told the brass all he needed to succeed were “eight good cars.”
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His theory: Houston would build its roster with recruits from high schools within a few hours of campus.
Houston put Sumlin in a Ford F-150 Platinum. That suited him fine. He won 35 games in four seasons.
Houston Gamblers head coach Kevin Sumlin paces the sidelines.
Kevin Sumlin’s task with UFL’s Houston Gamblers: Build a following
Sumlin remembers Cougars crowds swelling to such size at the since-demolished Robertson Stadium, “the fire marshal had to show up to make sure the thing was going to stay up when we played Texas Tech” in 2009.
Sumlin’s experience in this city gives him hope the Gamblers can grow their following. Attendance for the UFL’s Houston and Dallas franchises lags behind the rest of the league. Houston played a Thursday night home game against Louisville on April 16 in front of 4,880 fans at Shell Energy Stadium.
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“This city has shown, no matter what it is, the support is tremendous — when you win,” Sumlin said.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppme
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kevin Sumlin goes deep on Johnny Manziel, UFL, beating Nick Saban
