First I'd like to apologize as this is not formatted well and it's a large wall of text. Or if not a wall, than a shoddy looking picket fence. I think the impetus for this post is in response to some of the burgeoning aggression to see Sumlin on the hot seat. Part of this is kind of a defense for Sumlin, or more properly, it's a call for calm and consideration.

Now you may take that how you will because I thought Spav was doing a nice job through the first 5 games of the season. Now I don't purport to be an offensive coordinator (I just play one on TV), but I will boldly claim that 3 touchdowns in the last 3 conference games is bad. Football is a complex game involving coaches and players having bad games and it's sometimes hard to figure out who should be more responsible for your alcoholism/castration. But when the team plays as well as it did in games 1-5 and recruits as well as this team has done, a common denominator can be ascertained. However, before we blame Sumlin as the progenitor of Spav and therefore equally culpable and bad and downright offensive to our eyes and livers let us consider the following...

The Main Thrust

We can agree that Sumlin is a better recruiter than at least his previous 2 predecessors (Slocum left right around the time recruiting websites became more popular and ratings became easy to track). To his credit he has averaged more wins per season with that talent.

Fran averaged 6.4 wins a season winning 53% of his games. Sherman averaged 6.25 and winning 50% of his games.

Sumlin (pending the bowl game) is averaging 9 wins a season and winning 70% of his games. You can plead Johnny and Kliff if you want but that still gives Sumlin two 8 win seasons, which neither of his predecessors had.

Also to Sumlin's credit, he made a hire that vastly improved the quality of defense in John Chavis. And remember, Snyder was a handpicked guy by Sumlin from day one. The defense got marginally better in the run game giving up 216 ypg in 2014 to 202 ypg in 2015. However the pass defense dropped from 234 ypg in 2014 to just 168 ypg in 2015. The scoring defense improved from giving up 27.3 ppg last year to 21.8 ppg this year. None of this is news if you watch the games.

However the offense saw a similar precipitous drop (again if you've been watching this is a no doy). Last year they averaged 34.4 ppg and this year they averaged 28.3. In fact they've declined every year since 2012, which is arguably the biggest cause of concern in re Sumlin. It dropped by maybe a point in 2013, but dropped by 9 in 2014 from 43 ppg to 34 ppg (Part of that we'll have to acknowledge was because of Johnny/Evans and I'm sure part of the reason Spav stuck around this year was because Sumlin didn't want to react too harshly to an offensive coordinator who lost a Heisman winner).

They lost about 50 yards in the pass game but gained about 30 in the rush.

Based on the fact that Sumlin found a hire to improve the defense as quickly as he did, there's plenty of reason to have optimism in him hiring an effective offensive coordinator. Spav may have been handpicked, but so was Snyder. This is what happens with (most) coordinators. The good ones get hired away for HC jobs and the bad ones get fired. A head coach needs to be able to find multiple coordinators during his tenure.

With that said here are some (hopefully not stale) names that are worth OC consideration.

Shiny New Coordinators

Brad Cornelson from Memphis. Don't know if Fuentes gets to bring him with him to Va Tech. He's a co-coordinator/passing game guy and QB coach. His QBs have broken records ever since he's gotten there. Good Stuff to read here: http://gotigersgo.com/coaches.aspx?rc=10&path=football

Tyson Helton from Western Kentucky. QB coach/offensive coordinator type. Hilltoppers offense has been stupid good the last two years, which is the exact time frame Helton's been there. I think the stat was that Brandon Doughty is the first back to back 4000 yard 40 TD passer in FBS history? http://www.wkusports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/tyson_helton_881936.html

Doug Meachem OR Sonny Cumbie. TCU co-coordinators. Cumbie's the playcaller and would therefore be more desirable, but that may mean Meachem's more of an option. I would bet these guys give a hard look at other jobs since Boykin is gone after this year (…wait a minute. What's that? That's Kenny Hill's music! Hold everything!). You don't get lateral moves like this too often. Remember, Chavis basically became available because of a contract dispute. But they would be well plugged into Texas recruiting and and you gotta imagine A&M will outpay whatever TCU's offering. Wouldn't be surprised to see them get HC attention.

Major Applewhite: OC/QB coach at Houston Though he coaches at Houston he doesn't have direct connections with Sumlin. Add to the fact that whole UT lifer thing. Not that it's a disqualification, but…I mean don't you think he lets the 979 call go to voicemail and see what other area codes call him. Y'know just in case? Still his offense IS putting up 42 ppg. And one of those games his offense came back from 20 down to Memphis, WITH A BACKUP QB. This is the same guy that went 7-2 with Case McCoy at one point in 2013.

Leaving off the Holgorsons, Spurriers and Manginos b/c it seems like the lazy, first answer people reach for.

Sources for Stats

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/texas-am/2015.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/stats/byteam?cat1=offense&cat2=Total&conference=I-A_all&year=2015&sort=537