STARKVILLE — The phone calls are still taken among the Wilson family in Starkville and the Sumlin family in College Station, Texas.
However, maybe just not this week.
“We still talk (but) it’s just more about family and fishing,” Wilson joked. “It’s just really more (about) us and our relationship. Kevin and I have known each other for a long time.”
In fact, that relationship takes both men back to the University of Oklahoma in 2005 when they were serving on opposite sides of the ball under Sooners head coach Bob Stoops.
Wilson was the defensive ends coach at his alma mater and Sumlin was the co-offensive coordinator at Oklahoma after serving on the offensive staffs at Purdue University and Texas A&M University.
To transcend business with friendship, it was partially Sumlin’s suggestion that Wilson’s son Caleb begin throwing in the offseason with redshirt freshman quarterback named Sam Bradford. After Sumlin left for his first head coaching job at the University of Houston, Bradford would go on to be the first pick in the 2010 National Football League Draft by the St. Louis Rams. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Caleb Wilson will be the starting quarterback in his junior season at Starkville High School.
Sumlin’s wife Charlene and Wilson’s wife Tina are very close and see each other on occasion during the offseason.
“Our friendship is our friendship, and this is business,” Wilson said. “We both understand that our families are close, our children are close. We just get prepared to go do what we do, and that’s to do our job.”
When the No. 17 Aggies (6-2, 3-2 in Southeastern Conference) visit Davis Wade Stadium, it will be be the third time a Sumlin-led offense will take on Wilson’s defensive scheme after the Bulldogs (7-1, 3-1) split a home-and-home series with Sumlin’s most recent employer, Houston.
Like Houston’s offense in the last couple of years, Texas A&M comes into Starkville this weekend leading the SEC in scoring offense (45.5 points per game), rushing offense (237.6 yards per game), total offense (542.9 yards per game) and third down conversions (54 percent).
“Kevin is a guy who knows what he wants to do. He’s got a great plan,” Wilson said. “The biggest thing is he’s a good communicator — communicating with his coaches, with the administration and with the players. That makes a good teacher. And when you can deliver your message and do it with accurate information, it definitely speeds up the process. He does that as well as anybody.”
When asked if Sumlin and Wilson give each other tips before kickoff Saturday (11 a.m., ESPN), Wilson’s answer couldn’t have been more clear.
“Kevin will come in here ready to compete in the West like we both are,” Wilson said. “This game is really critical to both our successes throughout these next four or five games. I expect it to really be a knock-down, drag-out Saturday.”
Last December Sumlin was named the next head coach at Texas A&M and its first coach that would lead them in the Southeastern Conference. Wilson, whose family keeps in close contact with Sumlin and his family during the season, was the first person to call his friend to congratulate him on his new opportunity.
“To have an opportunity to be the head coach at Texas A&M was something very special to me,” Sumlin said after donning a maroon blazer at the media conference on Dec. 13. “Being at one of the great traditional universities in the United States and playing in probably the best league in the country is just a great opportunity for me.”
Despite that success in Conference USA, many doubted he could replicate it in a league like the SEC where five teams finished in the top 10 nationally in defense last season.
“If we didn’t think it could work, we wouldn’t run it,” Sumlin told The Associated Press.
Most coaches wouldn’t pick up the phone when a coaching friend enters the league in which you’re employed as Sumlin did but the relationship between the Wilson and Sumlin family hasn’t gone through that scenario.
MSU (7-1, 3-1 in SEC) has certainly taken a professional interest in A&M’s high octane offense as head coach Dan Mullen has spoken highly of its spread-option concepts despite never working professional with anybody on the Aggies staff.
“The first part of that is, I’ve got a lot of respect for (A&M head coach) Kevin (Sumlin),” Mullen said. “He’s a very, very smart offensive mind. Their offensive coordinator, (former Texas Tech quarterback) Kliff Kingsbury, who I’ve never met but I’ve watched from afar, they’re a very innovative offense, very good offensive coaches.”
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