Kyle Allen points to problematic culture at Texas A&M, so what should we take from that?

Photo by Will LeverettCulture is a hard thing to define. Former Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen referred to the notion of culture in his comments to CBS Sports about his transfer from College Station to the University of Houston. In no uncertain terms, Allen faulted the culture leftover from Johnny Manziel’s time at Texas A&M for the recent failures. Sour grapes must be addressed here. Allen transferred from Texas A&M despite being in line to star in College Station in 2016. There must be personal reasons for the transfer, and Allen alluded to coaching concerns in his interview, stating, “I think that, once you get all the right coaches there and get the vision right, you can do a lot of things.” He didn’t specify whether this meant head coach Kevin Sumlin or the assistants in the program. Either way, it is clear Allen didn’t trust the process in College Station and his side can’t be completely taken as gospel considering Texas A&M probably has rebuttals towards the claims. That bit of fairness is very important. The truth rarely matters. The details matter even less. It doesn’t matter why Texas A&M didn’t continue an upward trend after the Manziel years. It doesn’t even really matter if Sumlin lost control of the locker room or if the culture did change and allow players to feel entitled. All that matters is the win-loss record and perception. In many ways, those two things go hand-in-hand. Sumlin will turn it around or he won’t. If he does, the quarterback drama including the transfers of Allen and Kyler Murray will be chalked up as random events in an unpredictable college football landscape. If Sumlin doesn’t start contending for SEC West championships, we’ll all point back to the 2015 season as cause for the collapse. Manziel is an easy target. His off-the-field issues as a professional have made him an even easier target. Manziel wasn’t the first or last college football player to get in trouble off the field or to be given a little extra rope by his coaches because of his talent. That happens at your favorite college, too. We rarely ask questions about how a team goes about winning unless the team is losing. Not many questions are being asked in Waco right now and very few college coaches get fired with winning records. Culture becomes a convenient word we use as a failed coach walks out of the door. Two weeks later, that same culture is usually hired by a different school. Allen’s best point will be drowned out by the questions he raised around the culture left by a hot-button topic like Manziel and the comments he made about the coaching staff. Allen wrapped up Texas A&M’s struggles when he pointed out a lag in recruiting. “They [could] do that and still win games because they had Johnny … and five offensive linemen playing in the NFL right now,” he told CBS Sports. Building a foundation for your program is important. Having the entire roster buy in to a vision and a direction is the first-goal of every head coach. Those things are undeniable. It is also undeniable that talent can trump it all, and a really good coach can get put on the hot seat for striking out at the quarterback position. That is Sumlin’s current issue. The culture of a team tends to improve when the right guy is taking the snaps.