Kevin Sumlin flashes the smile — the smile that’s won over many a mom, the smile that’s going to serve Texas A&M well — when the question of Aggie fans comes up.

“I don't know,” Sumlin says when asked how Aggie devotees view his hiring. “The people I come across are the people who like me.

“Nobody’s come up and thrown anything at me yet.”

Sumlin is back in Houston for the Bear Bryant Awards, one of eight finalists for college Coach of the Year honors for the job he did at the University of Houston this season. But he’s knee deep into recruiting for Texas A&M now, completely focused on the maroon and white.

As the kids might say . . . AWKWARD.

“I never said it was a stepping stone job,” Sumlin barks to a radio reporter who asks if UH is poised to be thought of as more than a stepping stone job. “You said that.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

Houston did turn out to be a launching point for two of the eight Bear Bryant finalists, of course. The last two Cougar ex-coaches — Sumlin and Baylor’s Art Briles — represented other schools on the big dinner stage Thursday night. A night in which Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy ultimately walked away with the Coach of the Year prize in front of a sellout crowd.

At this rate, new University of Houston coach Tony Levine will end up repping UT at the 2015 Bear Bryants.

And yes, UH is a stepping stone job. A move to the floundering Big East (as Sumlin notes Conference USA had more teams in the final Top 25 than the Big East this season) is not going to come close to changing that.

But why get caught up over semantics?

The University of Houston just might be the best stepping stone in the country. No other program has direct ties to so many of the Bear Bryant finalists. This is something to embrace rather than run away from.

UH . . . the new cradle of coaches.

Who cares if those coaches bolt Cullen Boulevard after becoming stars? The point is they won enough at Houston to become hot commodities for college football’s giants. That’s a win for the Coogs.

UH fans should be praying that Levine gets the chance to pull a Briles or a Sumlin. If he doesn’t, something’s gone wrong.

Sumlin’s done almost everything right since taking over the Aggies — after a UH departure that left blood on his hands. He’s won over some key upperclassmen, or at least convinced them they should stay in College Station. He’s kept the great recruiting class that Mike Sherman's staff was set to bring in, and even added to it, giving Texas A&M a class that ranks in the Top 10 in the entire country.

And, he’s deflected any worry about how difficult moving into the SEC is going to be.

“I think your first year starting out is tough anywhere,” Sumlin says.

Instead of dwelling on LSU or Alabama, Sumlin flashes that smile and talks about how tough it is to recruit assistant coaches.

"As hard as recruiting players is, recruiting coaches might be even harder," Sumlin jokes. "Convincing coaches and their wives. Let me just say that."

On a serious note, Sumlin points out that he has more resources to attract top assistant coaches at Texas A&M than he did at the University of Houston.

Who cares if LSU coach Les Miles (another Bear Bryant finalist) will later point out that the SEC West — the division Texas A&M is moving into — had "the No. 1, the No. 2 and the No. 3 ranked teams in the entire country" in it at one point this season? Sumlin's not going to freak.

This aura of confidence is one of the things that makes players want to play for this 47-year-old with an attacking offense.

They Don't Forget

Sumlin recruited Jake Matthews — the son of Houston Oilers Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews — hard for UH when Jake was coming out of high school, did everything he could to convince him that playing at home made sense. Jake went to Texas A&M instead, but that doesn't mean he wasn't impressed by the effort and the man delivering the sales pitch.

"I know Coach Sumlin some from the recruiting process and got comfortable with him," Jake Matthews told CultureMap at the Meineke Car Care Bowl at Reliant Stadium. "When I heard he was going to be our next coach (at A&M where Matthews is in his sophomore year) I felt better about things.

"Coach Sumlin's a good guy and I think a lot of the guys are going to find out they love playing for him."

Sumlin isn't naive enough to believe that all of Sherman's guys — and he knows that's exactly what the returning Aggies still are, Sherman's guys — are going to embrace him. At his first real team meeting on Monday night, Sumlin talked about how proud he was "as an Aggie" to see how Texas A&M played in its bowl game under an interim coach. He will be careful to make sure the players get the credit for any success in his first season.

"To be frank, there are a lot of guys who didn't sign up for me," Sumlin says. "They signed up for Coach Sherman and the other staff and feel loyalty there. As they should.

"I told them a lot of how we do this season is going to depend on how we gel together."

Sumlin is still smiling. He's wearing a black suit on this night, largely neutral colors. He'll defend UH, talk highly of Levine's bowl game gameplan against Penn State. But there's little doubt he's moved on. Completely.

Just another coaching star on the rise, looking forward rather than back at the University of Houston.

To read more about the Bear Bryant winner check out CultureMap's story: Mike Gundy gets his LSU revenge: Touts Houston while beating Les Miles