Dear Kevin Sumlin,

Howdy. For someone who has been attending Texas A&M football games since before I was two months old, I really don’t know a ton about football, so bear with me as I write this.

I was only in junior high when you were hired, but even my naïve twelve-year-old self could tell something new and exciting was beginning. After years of listening to my dad’s frustrated phone calls over the lack of success in the program, there was now a little hope in his voice. We joined the SEC that year, and the pressure to succeed was sky high from the moment you set foot in College Station. At a school as passionate about football as Texas A&M, expectations are always high.

But you didn’t let the pressure get to you. We went 11-2 your first season as head coach as you brought a tiny taste of success back to a school who had been desperately seeking it for years. I was still young then, but I can remember the day we beat Alabama as clear as day. With that, Texas A&M made it clear they were an SEC team to be reckoned with, and you set a new era into motion.

The year ended with a win in the Cotton Bowl and your prodigy, Johnny Manziel, becoming the first freshman to take home that coveted Heisman trophy. 2012 was a great time for Aggie football.

Then a year later, Johnny Football left for, well, his endeavors, and things slipped a bit. And coaches in the SEC don’t have room for slip-ups, especially when they are going up against NFL programs like the one down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. You weren’t doing awful, and arguably you were doing better than the guys before you.

But this is an instant gratification society, and Aggie fans want to be able to yell for the winning team every Saturday night at Kyle Field, and they want it NOW. But you started to lose games, and people, as people do, immediately began doubting your abilities searching for the next big, flashy thing to give them what they wanted.

Fast forward to now. 2017. After an unfortunate shuffling of quarterbacks, you were left forced to play two inexperienced freshman QBs. And let’s be honest coach, it wasn’t too pretty. But in my personal life I try to not dwell on the negatives, and as a rather uninformed football fan, I don’t want to get lost in stats and I don’t want to argue like an ESPN sportscaster.

Coach Sumlin, I’m writing this to say, thank you. Thank you for the six seasons you dedicated to this school. Thank you for all the time and energy you put into producing a football team that can compete in the SEC. I would say I know it can’t be easy, but then I looked up how much you get paid and I would most definitely be a football coach for those kinds of funds. Honestly though, thank you.

On behalf of the Texas A&M student body, thank you for honoring our traditions and representing them well. Thank you for embracing and embodying the Spirit of Aggieland. I don’t have the knowledge of a sports analyst or the power of the college football playoff selection committee, but I know that I had boatloads of fun, despite the occasional heart attack, watching Aggie football with you as head coach.

I know that wins and losses matter a LOT to athletic directors and boosters and other important people, but for me, at the end of the day I just like to see people doing what they are passionate about and completely loving it, and I say with confidence that you did that.

I’m sorry it had to end this way and breakups are never easy, and frankly, sometimes they need to be done. But parting ways is still sad and hard and messy, especially with media the way that it is. But here at Texas A&M, we are family (and not because we marry our cousins, this isn’t the University of Arkansas), and family doesn’t leave family without at least giving a proper goodbye.

My intention with this letter is not to give a list of reasons why you should or shouldn’t leave or to tell you what an awful job you did as coach, but simply to say, goodbye Coach Sumlin. Texas A&M is thankful and grateful for you. You made a positive impact on this program and this university. I know you will be missed by many more than you realize. I truly hope you enjoyed your time here, and I wish you the very best at wherever you end up next.

Thanks and gig ‘em,

A Dedicated Aggie Football Fan