Kevin Sumlin explains how he helped Johnny Manziel avoid suspension
Last week, it was revealed that Johnny Manziel came close to transferring from Texas A&M following an incident last summer that resulted in him being arrested at a College Station bar. Manziel was initially suspended by the university for the entire 2012 season, but he appealed the suspension and won. Without the support of head coach Kevin Sumlin, it probably wouldn’t have gone down so smoothly.
On Monday, the Aggies coach told NewsOK.com about how he wrote a letter backing Manziel during his appeal process. Sumlin said the reason he wrote the letter was because he felt he had disciplined Manziel enough.
“A lot has been said about discipline, but he went through all that, which is a little bit more than people think,” he explained. “That’s not a public deal, it’s just what I ask him to do. He did all those things and his parents were involved in all of that. So for him to go through that, then go through camp and those types of things and earn the job, that’s what’s brought him to where he is now.”
As you know, Manziel went on to morph into a star after he was reinstated and became the first ever freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. In retrospect, Sumlin probably could not be happier that he went to bat for the freshman. He did not say anything specific about Manziel’s punishment, but Texas A&M obviously thought it was sufficient.
Now if Sumlin could just keep Manziel from drawing unnecessary attention to himself, the sky could be the limit for the Aggies in 2013.
