Report: Philadelphia Eagles, Auburn Tigers offered Kevin Sumlin Head Coach Job This Offseason
By Josh Hill
When NFL teams were still searching for head coaches, Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin was a name that got kicked around as a serious possibility to fill one of the numerous vacancies. One of those teams, according to the San Antonio Express-News, was the Philadelphia Eagles and it sounds like he was the next best thing to the guy who got the job — Chip Kelly.
According to the News-Express, Sumlin was offered the job of the Eagles head coach before Chip Kelly was hired.
“Everybody knows what I do (now). I’ve never coached in the NFL,” Sumlin said in response to revealing he’d been offered the Eagles job before Kelly, via the Express-News. “I’ve had plenty of opportunities to do that, both as an assistant coach and even as a head coach. But there’s a reason I coach college football, and we’ve got a lot of work to do here. We’re still playing catch-up, and we finished third in the SEC West last year.”
But the Eagles job isn’t the only one he was offered as the Auburn Tigers also offered Sumlin the chance to fill their head coaching vacancy after they fired Gene Chizik after another failed season. But Sumlin ultimately decided to stay in the SEC and stay at Texas A&M when everything was all said and done.
A hefty raise from the Aggies likely helped ease his mind about the decision but he now knows that other jobs are out there for him, specifically ones at the highest level of his profession, and a raise might not be enough to keep him around next time he’s offered to leave.