Houston, TX -- (Sports Network) - The University of Houston named Kevin Sumlin the school's new football coach on Friday.

Sumlin, 43, is the first African-American to be hired as head man of a Division I-Football Bowl Subdivision program in the state of Texas.

"As I spoke with people around the country about Kevin, he is very highly regarded by his peers, by head coaches, by assistant coaches and by athletic directors," said Houston director of athletics Dave Maggard. "He has been in programs that have been very strong programs (and in) programs where success has taken place and have continued the success. He has a great deal of success in recruiting, and he has been recruiting the Houston area for a number of years during the time he was at Texas A&M and the University of Oklahoma."

Sumlin spent the past five seasons at Oklahoma, where he has served as both the co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach (2006-07) and special teams coordinator/tight end coach (2003-05).

Prior to taking a job in Norman, Sumlin spent two seasons at Texas A&M, as the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.

Sumlin also has coached at his alma mater, Purdue, (1998-2001), Minnesota (1993-97) and Wyoming (1991-92). He began his career as a graduate assistant at Washington State.

"This is a great University and a great city," said Sumlin. "This is a place that has won conference championship in recent years, and we want to continue down that path and play for a conference championship every season. This is Dave Maggard's vision, and I share the same vision. I bring both energy and excitement to the program, as well as an aggressive style of offense and defense. It will be a style that the players will want to play and a style that our fans will like to watch. What excited me (about coming to Houston) was a chance to play for a championship every year."

Sumlin replaces Art Briles, who resigned to accept the head coaching job at Baylor. Briles was 34-28 in five seasons at Houston.