Kevin Sumlin is a respectable 44-21 as Texas A&M’s head coach. He’s also only 21-19 in the SEC, with three straight five-loss seasons and a history of collapses. It’s no secret that this will be another high-pressure season for him, especially after A&M athletic director Scott Woodward told Paul Finebaum at SEC spring meetings in May, “Coach knows he has to win and he has to win this year.”

Texas A&M AD Scott Woodward didn't mince words on Finebaum today. "Coach knows he has to win and he has to win this year." #12thMan pic.twitter.com/Qopj1oV1rB — Colin Deaver (@KAGS_Colin) May 30, 2017

“Last year was extremely disappointing,” Woodward began, “We were as highly ranked as 4 and got up there and played very competitive games and fell off, like we’ve been doing.

“We just wanna make darn sure that we’re gonna get it right. We’ve had a heck of a spring. Recruiting continues to go well.”

At SEC Media Days on Wednesday, Sumlin was asked about his AD’s comments. The head coach had a long response.

“Scott and I have known each other for a while,” Sumlin said on Wednesday. “Even before he came to Texas A&M. So, we've had a lot of conversations before that. Might have been conversations after that. I'm not going to get into what those conversations were about, but, you know, it's -- like I said, for me, my job, nothing changes for me.

And, you know, you've been around me a long time. Nobody puts more pressure on me than I put on myself and nobody wants to win more than I want to. And so whatever's said, whatever the conversation, whatever's written, it's not going to affect how I do my job and it's not going to affect my day-to-day operation. So I've been doing this almost 30 years.”

“Nothing is going change the way I approach life,” Sumlin continued. “And nothing is going to change the way I approach my job. I've known what's at stake ever since I got into this.”

Woodward said during the interview there isn’t a specific wins mark A&M has to hit and that he has “confidence” Sumlin can get it done.

His reference to the Aggies continually falling apart after hot starts has got to be a sore spot after four straight years of this:

This isn’t the first time Woodward — who arrived in 2016 from Washington, where he hired Steve Sarkisian and Chris Petersen — has referenced the pattern (emphasis mine).