Buffs Snare Former A&M, Purdue Assistant
SUMLIN NAMED CU RECEIVERS COACH
BOULDER - The University of Colorado has named Kevin Sumlin as its new wide
receivers coach, head coach Gary Barnett announced Sunday.
Sumlin, 38, joins the CU staff after serving two years as assistant head
coach and receivers coach at Texas A&M, where he also served as offensive
coordinator for the last nine games of the 2002 season.
All hirings at the University are subject to the approval of CU-Boulder
chancellor Richard Byyny and subsequently by the Board of Regents.
"Kevin is an excellent coach, a tremendous role model and a great teacher,"
Barnett said. "We are extremely fortunate to be able to add him to our
program. He finished the year as the offensive coordinator at A & M, and
one of the things he accomplished in that role was their win over Oklahoma."
He replaces Jon Embree, who joined the UCLA staff as passing game
coordinator under its new head coach, Karl Dorrell. One vacancy remains on
the Buff staff, as Barnett also must replace running backs coach Eric
Bieniemy, who also joined Dorrell in his native Los Angeles for family
reasons.
"I'm extremely excited to come to Colorado, and be a part of a staff and
team that has won consistently in the Big 12," Sumlin said Sunday from
College Station. "It's a nationally recognized program, and I'm honored
that coach Barnett considered me to come there and even happier that I am
going to be joining the program."
Sumlin lettered four years as a linebacker at Purdue from 1983-86, ending
his career ranked in the top 10 all-time in tackles by a Boilermaker. He
walked on as a freshman, made 91 tackles and earned mention on Sports
Illustrated's All-America walk-on list. He earned honorable mention all-Big
10 honors as a sophomore (109 tackles) and as a senior (114, which ranked
fifth in the league). He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in criminology
and criminal justice from Purdue in 1988.
He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Washington State in
1989, helping on defense with the linebackers, and coached the junior
varsity team his second season with the Cougars. His first full-time
position was as wide receivers coach with Wyoming in 1991-92, moving on to a
similar position with Minnesota, where he spent four seasons (1993-96)
coaching the receivers, and in 1997, he switched to mentoring the
quarterbacks. He returned to his alma mater in 1998, coaching receivers at
Purdue for three years (1998-2000). His 1998 group set school records with
377 receptions, 4,208 yards and 43 touchdowns.
Sumlin was named assistant head coach at Texas A&M in 2001, also tutoring
the receivers for his position assignment. When former coach R.C. Slocum
shook up responsibilities after the third game last fall, he moved into the
offensive coordinator role. Prior to the switch, the Aggies had scored just
48 points in three games (16.0 per), but afterwards, A&M put 297 points on
the board, or 33.0 per contest. When Slocum was fired after the season,
incoming coach Dennis Franchione retained none of the assistants, as he
brought most of his Alabama staff with him.
He was recruiting the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the Aggies, and will cover
the Houston area for Colorado.
Sumlin is a native of Brewton, Ala. He is married to the former Charlene
Sirois, and the couple has three small children, two girls and boy.