This is part 4 of a series of possible candidates for the head Football Coach at Texas A&M-Commerce.
Candidate 4-Hal Mumme
Current Position: Head Football Coach at McMurry University
Alma Mater: Tarleton State University, 1975
Previous Schools: Tarleton State (Player) Assistant Coach at West Texas A&M, and UTEP, Head Coach at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State, Kentucky, Southeastern Lousiana, New Mexico State, McMurry University. Also Coached at Texas High School Programs Corpus Christi Moody HS, Copperas Cove HS, and Aransas Pass High School.
Overall thoughts: It is not a secret who I want to be the next football coach at Texas A&M Commerce. It is this guy. Every small school he has had the job of coaching, he took them and turned them around to become winners. Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State, Southeastern Lousisiana, and now McMurry. Now, Mumme has generated a ton of interest, despite not being interviewed yet, but he has an advocate in Commerce, his former understudy, Guy Morriss. Now, many people have said we should run the other way and that being close to Morriss is the nail in the coffin for Mumme to get a gig here. I disagree. I will start with this.
Mike Leach (Texas Tech and Washington State), Neal Brown (Kentucky), Dana Holgerson (West Virginia), Chris Hatcher (Valdosta State) Guy Morris, Sonny Dykes (Louisian Tech and Cal Berkley), Art Briles (Houston and Baylor), and Kliff Kingsbury(Houston, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech). What do these guys have in common? They all spring from the Hal Mumme coaching tree. Mumme is the man who created the offense that these coaches now cash their collective paychecks from, and it has made marginal quarterbacks super stars, and have put undersized and average speed WR’s in the NFL, along with a healty dose of lineman. These guys all mentioned above have had success at some point or another because of the offense they run. They were running it from Mumme’s base offense and his principles of offense. Spacing, making reads off defenders, giving complete latitude to the quarterback to change plays, good fundamentals from his skill players and ball distribution. This is what Commerce can grab a hold of and ride all the way back to not just conference, but national legitimacy.
Now, the two knocks on Mumme, hes old (hes almost 61) and he has a marginal head coaching record. In regards to age, I just have two words, Steve Spurrier. The ole ball coach is 5 years older than Mumme and has no problem putting good teams together at South Carolina still. You can make the same argument for Mack Brown, Joe Paterno (when he was alive), and a few others. The second is this. Hal Mumme is a good coach, but not fit for Division I FBS. His overall record with all his schools is 127-116-1. Take out the Division I FBS school and his record is 104-52. Of his 116 losses, 64 of them were at Kentucky and New Mexico State University, two of the worst historical FBS schools in college football history. At Kentucky, he was somewhat competetive and at NMSU, he won at least 4 times twice in four years, a huge accomplishment at NMSU.
I believe that Mumme would be great and get us back to where we belong, which is elite in the conference and the region. He would be walking into a tradition rich school that has hit hard times. I think that coming to Commerce, he would energize the fanbase. But Mumme is right up there with guys like Emory Ballard (the innovator of the Wishbone) in offensive innovations. College football spread offenses are what they are and pass based offenses thrive because of what Hal Mumme started in 1989 at Iowa Weslyan College.
Two counterpoints: 1. Mumme left Kentucky with a handful of NCAA sanctions against him, costing the program a bunch, and faced a lawsuit while he was at New Mexico State. 2. You said it yourself – he has a tie to Commerce in Morris. Wrong hire for A&M-Commerce.
Counterpoints to your counterpoints. Kentucky was found to have lack of instituational control over the Football program, but Mumme did not have one sanction or punishment leveled against him individually and was found to be blameless personally. Not one thing was substantiated against him. The programs other elements were found wanting. I am well aware of the NMSU lawsuit it came from a couple of Muslim players who objected to the team saying the Lord’s prayer, a Christian prayer, before and after the games. When 73 of the 75 players have no problem with doing that but 2 kids object I don’t mind Hal taking a stand, but The ACLU took it up in court and Mumme left when he realized for a program that was awful in a state that could not care less about football, it was not worth the trouble.
Yes, he has ties to Morriss and I am hoping that Hal is his own guy and not a carbon copy of anyone else. Remember, Guy worked for Hal, not the other way around.
Go Lions…..
Brian
As I stated a few days ago, this job is going to go to Hal Mumme, like it or not. I personally don’t think it’s a great hire, and I don’t even think it’s a safe hire. Morriss was a Mumme disciple, and look how that turned out. His “basketball on grass” sure produced a lot of wins in Commerce!!! They’ll hire Mumme no doubt, but the administration had better be prepared for even more fallout from alumni, when the same results are on the field. Remember, insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
I personally think they should hire a younger coach with some enthusiasm. Find a young head coach at a lower level, or a successful coordinator at Div 2. Someone who would fire up the alums and recruit some talent to Commerce. ETSU is surrounded by talented football players! But it’s obvious the last three “old” coaches couldn’t get those kids to come play there. Carthel would be an ideal hire, IMO, but they won’t be able to get him. Why would he leave WT, where he’ll probably soon take over for his dad as HC, to come to Commerce? WT is a much better program, and I seriously doubt he even applied for the job. But that is the profile they should be looking for… A young coach who can fire up the fan base/alums, recruit some talent, and have the energy to build a winner.
Why ride an old mule, when you could break a young stallion?
hello i am glad you did not hire the coach from Mcmurry i have seen him in action he is not a good coach for commerce he dont get along with administration and he is not what we need there is some talent at commerce we need someone who can coach as well as motivate lets try someone younger someone who really wants to turn the program around we are tired of losing lets get this right