Kevin Sumlin Fired by Texas A&M, Jeff Banks Named Interim HC

Texas A&M University fired head football coach Kevin Sumlin on Sunday following the Aggies' 45-21 loss to LSU on Saturday. Special teams coordinator Jeff Banks will take over as interim head coach in place of Sumlin.

Texas A&M athletic director Scott Woodward confirmed the move in a statement, via Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle:

Zwerneman noted Texas A&M will honor the remainder of Sumlin's contract, paying him "about $10 million with two years remaining."

Sumlin joined A&M ahead of the 2012 season after a four-year stint as the head coach of the University of Houston. His run with the Aggies comes to a close after posting a 51-26 overall record across six seasons in College Station, including a 7-5 mark this year.

The move doesn't come as a major surprise. In July, the 53-year-old Purdue product said he planned to remain focused on the 2017 campaign despite the constant outside noise about his being on the hot seat after three straight 8-5 seasons, per Edward Aschoff of ESPN.com.

"We all want the same thing, and I came here to do a job and win a championship, and we haven't done that yet," Sumlin said. "That being said, we've won more games than anyone [at Texas A&M] in the last 20 years. Are we better at Texas A&M than when I got here? You bet. Is it where we want to be? No."

He added: "Nobody puts more pressure on me than I put on myself and nobody wants to win more than I want to. Whatever's said, whatever the conversation, whatever's written, it's not going to affect how I do my job. It's not going to affect my day-to-day operation."

Those comments came after Woodward made pointed remarks about the coach's job status on the SEC Network's Paul Finebaum Show in late May.

"Coach knows he has to win," Woodward said. "And he has to win this year. And we have to do better than we've done in the past."

Sumlin, who led the Aggies to a 6-2 mark in SEC play during his debut season before failing to crack .500 in conference play in the subsequent five years, didn't show enough progress this year to save his job.

The Alabama native accumulated a 35-17 record during his previous stop with the Cougars. He made stops as an assistant with Washington State, Wyoming, Minnesota and Oklahoma as well as the Aggies and Boilermakers before getting his first shot as a head coach with Houston in 2008.

All of Sumlin's work as an assistant came on offense which, when combined with his experience at Houston and Texas A&M, could make him an attractive option as an offensive coordinator for a Power Five program if he's not able to land another head coaching gig right away.