After loss to LSU, Kevin Sumlin says he believes Aggies should retain him

— -- BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Texas A&M?football coach Kevin Sumlin said Saturday night that he's unaware of what his future holds and is proceeding with business as usual following the Aggies' 42-21 loss to LSU at Tiger Stadium.

After the game, Sumlin -- whose job status has been the subject of heavy speculation -- indicated he has no meeting on the books with A&M officials about his future, though he noted that could change.

"I don't know anything," Sumlin said. "It's just business as usual. I don't have any scheduled meeting. That could probably change in the next couple minutes or whatever. But as of right now, the [recruiting] contact period starts."

Asked if he believes he should be retained as the Aggies coach, Sumlin said: "I always think I should be retained. Otherwise I wouldn't do this job."

Saturday's loss dropped the Aggies to 7-5 overall, which ties Sumlin's lowest regular-season win total at the school; they also went 7-5 in 2014. In six seasons, the Aggies are 51-26 under Sumlin, including 25-23 in SEC play, but his job status became common fodder for speculation after athletic director Scott Woodward said in May that Sumlin "has to do better than he has done in the past."?

After his 11-2 debut season in 2012, Sumlin's teams have not reached double-digit wins again, winning nine in 2013 followed by three consecutive 8-5 seasons.

"Every year is different," Sumlin said. "I think in a way, we established a standard and kind of came on the scene right off the bat. Because of that, you look at trends. That's what people look at. Our trend is we flattened out from a wins standpoint, based on having the best player in the country the first year, first couple years. That's part of it."

Sumlin, who spent four seasons at Houston before moving to Texas A&M, is 86-43 in 10 years as a head coach. He noted that despite the plateauing win total, he believes the Aggies are better off than they were when he arrived. He is the second coach in A&M history to win at least eight games in each of his first five seasons with the Aggies.

"No matter who you are or what you do, you can live with yourself if you leave something better than what it was when you got there, whatever you do for a living," Sumlin said. "To be able to move into a new league, and probably, arguably, the toughest division in the toughest league in the country, never have a losing season, watch the renovation of Kyle Field, watch the change of culture into, really, a national brand. The things that may or may not have been there before I got there, you go to sleep at night knowing that things are in a better place than certainly when I got here six years ago."

Asked of his emotions following Saturday's loss, Sumlin said: "You work really, really hard, and it's a results-oriented profession, just like everybody else's. Life pays off on results. We didn't get it done tonight. That's always difficult."