Johnny Manziel discusses his relationship with former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin during his time at College Station, says he has lost the spark

Johnny Manziel and Kevin Sumlin achieved something unimaginable together at Texas A&M. The two arrived at College Station in 2012 and helped give the Aggies a memorable start to life in the Southeastern Conference, where it was thought they would be underdogs.

However, Manziel believes what made Sumlin a successful coach is now absent, and as a result, he now finds himself in an assistant role. The former quarterback can no longer see the fire in him, and he said as much on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast:

“I think what made Coach Sumlin so great is no longer really with him right now where his focus is,” Johnny Manziel said. “I think life has gotten the better of him a little bit.

“I don’t want to sit up here and be a preacher, I don’t want to sit up here and tell anybody they’re living wrong or anything like that, because that’s what it used to feel like for me back in the day when people were doing that to me. I don’t see the same spark."

Following his first season in College Station, there was a noticeable decline in the performance of the Aggies. Nonetheless, he recorded a winning season all through at Texas A&M and Kevin Sumlin finished his tenure at the program with a 51-26 record, winning three of his five bowl games.

Since he was fired by Texas A&M in 2017, the trajectory of Kevin Sumlin’s coaching career hasn't been a good one. He moved to Arizona in 2018 and was just there for three seasons. He also coached USFL’s Houston Gamblers in 2022 before becoming Maryland's offensive coordinator.

Johnny Manziel calls Kevin Sumlin a hypocrite

Johhny Manziel and Kevin Sumlin's relationship was a rollercoaster during the time they spent together at the program. In his recent appearance on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast, Manziel disclosed that the intention of Sumlin to control his way of life broke the relationship they had.

“I think where our relationship fell out a little bit was... how do you have a guy who’s a grown man, telling me what I should do?" Johnny Manziel said.

"My coach, my guy I’m looking up to, my head football coach is telling me to live a certain way and put all this partying behind you, but if you know anything about Kevin Sumlin and what he’s doing behind the scenes … From my eyes, it’s hypocritical.”

Regardless of whether the advice was hypocritical or not, it would be bad coaching on Sumlin's behalf to not at least broach the subject with Johnny Manziel, who had quite the reputation.