There’s a reason why they call it the “dreaded vote of confidence.” No coach wants to be in a position where job security is even a talking point.

But that’s where Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin is entering Year 6. His 44-21 record means he wins two out of every three games, which is good on paper. The more detailed version of his record shows he hasn’t been able to get back to double-digit wins like A&M did in 2012, its first in the SEC with Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel at the helm. There have been no SEC West titles under Sumlin, let alone anything bigger.

There have also been regular late-season tumbles. In particular, November has been a dreadful month for the Aggies. That’s led to questions about Sumlin’s job security, which athletic director Scott Woodward has answered with the so-called “dreaded vote of confidence.”

“I’m very proud of the job Coach Sumlin has done building this program and getting what we’re doing,” Woodward told The Eagle. “I, like him, am very disappointed in what’s happening with these late-season swoons and we have to figure it out. We have to get it right.

“But I have full confidence that coach will figure it out and will get it right. And he will continue doing the things that we do well, which is give our kids a great experience, compete at the highest level.”

Receiving the vote of confidence isn’t an automatic precursor to being fired -- just ask Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn -- but history suggests it doesn’t carry a tremendous track record, either. And now that Sumlin’s enormous buyout is a thing of the past, the hot seat chatter becomes extremely real.

If there’s any hope for Sumlin, though, it’s that the expectations to get off the hot seat are clear.

“People forget up until November, we were fourth in the nation,” Woodward said. “Now, we’ve got to figure out how to stay there. And that’s going to be an important fact going forward. We have that pressure and I say a collective we, Coach Sumlin, the program, the athletic department, that hey, we have to take it to the next level. It’s an expectation that we have.”

It’s not often an athletic director will spell out what a coach needs to do to keep his job, but we basically know the criteria with Sumlin. The Aggies can win and dazzle early. They’ve shown they can time and time again. However, late-season slides have become the norm for one reason or another.

It’s not fair to pile all of them in the same category. Last year’s team was hindered by injuries, which is not the same as, say, 2014 when A&M simply was outclassed by better competition.

Still, the L’s count all the same. Whatever Sumlin’s magic number is to keep his job, avoiding the November slump will be part of it.