Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times? I should never be allowed to make a decision again.

That’s how every analysts who bet against Texas A&M and Kevin Sumlin this year should feel right now.

It started in the offseason the minute Johnny Manziel left College Station. We heard the talk all summer long about how the Texas A&M Aggies would fall back to the bottom of the SEC. They were just lucky to have Manziel for a couple of years to make a difference.

This was the SEC team everybody picked would have a fall-off this year.

They ignored the fact that Kevin Sumlin has brought in two straight top 15 recruiting classes and a No. 6 class this year. They ignored the fact that he was picking between two highly recruited young quarterbacks to replace Manziel, ultimately giving the nod to Kenny Hill. And most importantly, they ignored Sumlin’s track record.

When Sumlin was at Houston for four years, where he posted a 35-17 record, three winning seasons, and two seasons with 10 wins or more. Under his leadership, quarterback Case Keenum turned into a superstar as he used an air raid offense to adapt to Keenum’s abilities. Fool me once. Then he took over the Texas A&M Aggies, who were very mediocre in Big 12 play and about to go into the SEC. Nobody expected them to do anything, yet with a freshman quarterback all they did was go 11-2 and beat the national champions in Alabama that year. That quarterback was Manziel, who obviously won the Heisman. Fool me twice.

That should have been enough for everybody to realize how brilliant of an offensive mind Sumlin had. But despite constant production his brilliance is almost never brought up.

And it should be noted that his track record was blatantly ignored in the college football world. Take 2010 for instance, when Lane Kiffin departed Tennessee. Athletic Director Mike Hamilton had been reached out to David Cutcliffe, Troy Calhoun, and Will Muschamp, and al turned down the Tennessee job. Then came Sumlin, who had a better winning track record than all of them, and…wait for it…Hamilton settled on a guy who had a losing record at Louisiana Tech in Derek Dooley. Let’s all think about the dumbest decisions in college football history. This has to be near the top. One day somebody will look back and laugh hysterically that Dooley was hired over Sumlin.

And as Sumlin continued to win, he finally found a higher profile job with the Aggies, and despite doing amazing things his first two years there, it wasn’t enough for the college football world to hype him up as a great coach.

For yours truly, it was. But for some reason all the credit from everybody else had to go to Manziel. So as Sumlin entered this season without Manziel, every analyst once again bet against him.

Then came Thursday night, when the Aggies entered South Carolina as a 10.5-point underdog, one of the worst Vegas lines in sports history. South Carolina had to replace its quarterback as well. South Carolina had to worry about a transition in a defensive scheme as well as the loss of superstar Jadeveon Clowney. But they got to be hyped up as a potential SEC contender, while Texas A&M continued to be slighted.

SEC analyst Paul Finebaum called for a blowout in South Carolina’s favor, falling victim to group talk. He was on First Take two days before, saying that Texas A&M has shown him nothing to hint that the defense would do any better this year. Had he followed recruiting and Sumlin’s history, he would have known better.

And with a sophomore quarterback, Sumlin coached up Hill well enough to serve every skeptic a large plate of crow on his behalf.

In one night, Hill made Aggies fans completely forget about Johnny Manziel, and Sumlin looked like the offensive genius going up against the greatest offensive mind the SEC has ever had.

The 52-28 blowout of South Carolina is not something analysts should have seen. As much respect as I’m giving them now, even I thought the Aggies would lose a close one. But to call for a South Carolina blowout was just ignoring any and every fact about these two teams going into this game.

It was also blatantly ignoring what Kevin Sumlin can do. He’s got the Aggies in prime position to remain a powerhouse program in the SEC, and he’s out-recruiting Texas in the state of Texas. Hopefully now, people will be able to see what he can do.

Texas A&M still has a brutal schedule and likely won’t go undefeated, but they have lots of very young talent, and the future only looks better. You can thank Sumlin for that.