At his introductory news conference in January 2018, the first question Kevin Sumlin received was a familiar one:
How significant is it to you to be the first black head football coach at this university?
The newly minted coach of the Arizona Wildcats had answered some variety of that query two previous times. He was the first black head coach at Houston. He was the first black head coach at Texas A&M.
The question didn’t come until the final minutes of Sumlin’s introduction in College Station. Part of his response consisted of this appeal:
“Hopefully, in the next five years or so, that won’t even be a discussion.