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OU assistant Sumlin agrees to 5-year deal to coach Houston Cougars

OU assistant Sumlin agrees to 5-year deal to coach Houston Cougars

December 14, 2007



HOUSTON (AP) -- Kevin Sumlin wants to turn Houston into Conference USA's version of Oklahoma.
Sumlin, an assistant under Bob Stoops for the past five seasons, was introduced as the Cougars' new coach Friday after agreeing to a five-year deal.

"If there's someone you want to model yourself after that's a pretty good model," Sumlin said of his former boss. "It's hard to argue with the way he's done things. I was looking in my office the other day -- I've been there five years and played in four Big 12 championships. Pretty good model."

Sumlin was an assistant at Washington State, Wyoming, Minnesota, Purdue and Texas A&M before Stoops hired him before the 2003 season. He was the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach before he was promoted to co-offensive coordinator, passing game coordinator and receivers coach in 2006.

Sumlin helped OU rank third nationally in scoring offense at 44 points a game. Houston routinely had one of the nation's top offenses under coach Art Briles, who left Nov. 28 to become the coach at Baylor. But the Cougars always struggled on defense, something Sumlin plans to handle the way Stoops did.

OU assistant Sumlin agrees to 5-year deal to coach Houston Cougars - NCAA Football - Yahoo! Sports