Meet the New Hires: Kevin Sumlin

1988-1990 Washington State (Grad Asst.)
1991-1992 Wyoming (WR coach)
1993-1997 Minnesota (WR/QB coach)
1998-2000 Purdue (WR coach)
2001-2002 Texas A&M (O. Coordinator)
2003-2005 Oklahoma (Special Teams, TE)
2006-2007 Oklahoma (Offensive Coordinator, WR Coach)
2008-Present- Houston Head Coach

Kevin Sumlin became Houston's 11th head coach this past offseason after a successful stint as co-offensive coordinator at Oklahoma. Sumlin takes over for the recently departed Art Briles, who will be taking over at Baylor starting in the Fall of 08'. This will be Sumlin's first shot at head coaching. The 86' Purdue graduate has worked his way up from graduate assistant at Washington State, to positional coach at Minnesota and Purdue, to offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, and finally as co-offensive coordinator at Oklahoma before taking the Houston job.

Sumlin had great success in his one season as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. Once he took over the offense, A&M's points per game average rose from 16 ppg in 2001 to 33 ppg under Sumlin. It was his only year as OC at Texas A&M as he was released along with the departure of RC Slocum.

After Texas A&M, Sumlin joined Bob Stoop's staff at Oklahoma as Special Teams coach. During that time he lead the nation's top 10 punting unit. During his time as offensive coordinator/WR coach, his offenses continued to shine despite the abrupt departure of blue chip quarterback Rhett Bomar. In fact, the two receivers he worked with, Malcolm Kelly and Juaquin Iglesias, became the #5 and #6 all time leading receivers at Oklahoma in one season.

The very offensive minded Sumlin will need some help on the defensive side of the ball at Houston. He's hired John Skladany, who was last at UCF as the defensive backs coach and prior to that was defensive coordinator at Iowa State. Another thing which will be critical to Sumlin's success at Houston will be his ability to recruit against all the other Texas powerhouse programs. Briles was able to do this fairly well due to his ties as a famous high school coach in the state. Either way, this is a strong hire for Houston. However, as is usually the case with mid major coaches, there's always going to be some level of doubt as to how high the program could get before he bolts for greener pasture.