Through the bloody November twilight, aftermath of a 1-2 October slate, Sumlin looks out the bus window onto the pine forests bracketing the old highway and thinks, “I have come from Texas: a fur piece.” Thinking although I have not been quite a year on the hotseat I am already to the Ole Miss game, further from beating Alabama in 2012 than I have ever been before. I am now further from the Cotton Bowl than I have been since I was a sought-after coach on the carousel.
He had never been to Oxford until he took over the Aggies, though since starting there he’d ventured to the hamlet three times before.