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All is not well in College Station for the Texas A&M Aggies. The problem looming over the entire program goes by the name Jimbo Fisher. In five seasons at the helm of the Texas A&M, Fisher has only once not lost more than 4 games in a season. The weird covid 2020 season, netted Jimbo a contract extension that most of the university is now regretting. In five seasons with the Aggies, Fisher is currently 37-18 and the team has routinely plagued by the same problems. Texas A&M will beat up on the bottom portion of the SEC and non-conference opponents, but when it comes to play the powerhouses in the SEC, Jimbo is constantly shown to be outcoached. This isn’t to say that Jimbo Fisher is a bad coach, he does have the 2013 FSU National Championship to his name. But after the 2022 season, he will also be remembered like Michigan for losing at home to Appalachian St. This is not the type of things that make you one of the premier coaches in the SEC.
The Good
Things are all bad with Jimbo Fisher at College Station. He normally wins the games that the Aggies are supposed to win. His teams will usually look like world beaters against lesser opponents. He has also shown that he’s a good recruiter. He’s delivered top 10 classes since 2019 and even had the top class in 2022. There is definitely a great deal of talent at College Station, but it has failed to excite the fanbase to even the tune of Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans. Jimbo Fisher is making sure that Texas A&M is always respectable, but this is a fanbase that will demand more than respectable in the SEC.
The Bad
People forget that the year Jimbo Fisher left Florida St., the Seminoles were 5-6 after beating the Florida Gators in the rivalry game in the Swamp. It then took a make up game vs. UL-Monroe for FSU to move to .500. Then they had to beat Southern Miss in the Independence Bowl to post a winning record. Say what you will about FSU, but a great coach does not lose at Boston College 35-3. People know that there was definitely drama going on at FSU. But it’s still a head scratcher that Texas A&M truly believed that a coach that went 25-12 in his last three years at FSU deserved to become one of the highest paid coaches in the SEC. The question can legitimately be asked if the 2013 and 2014 Seminoles were really a outlier instead of who Jimbo Fisher is as a coach.
The Ugly
Texas A&M needs to move on from Jimbo Fisher. In two years or less, Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC. Lane Kiffin has Ole Miss trending up, Brian Kelly is showing he can put LSU back in the top of the conference and now Arkansas and Mississippi St. are very dangerous teams year in and year out. The problem is to get rid of Jimbo Fisher, the price tag is $86 million. Even if the university was able to spread that out over 8-10 years, it’s becomes an exorbitant amount of money to pay a coaching staff. Whoever would replace Jimbo, would command at least $6 to $8 million a year. Even the deep pockets of the Texas A&M boosters don’t want to shell out that type of cash for two sets of coaches. And if the university were to demand changes to how Fisher runs his program, they have almost zero leverage for him to make changes. Fisher could easily say it’s going to be my way or write me the check. Fisher has shown that the problem is the inability to develop players to perform at a superstar level. This situation really has the potential to get a lot worse before it gets better.
What’s next for Texas A&M?
Unless one of the boosters hits the Powerball or Mega Millions, Jimbo Fisher will continue to be the coach at Texas A&M for the immediate future. Unfortunately for Aggie fans everywhere, that means the frustration will continue. The Aggies have embraced NIL and have extremely talented players coming to College Station. Fisher just needs to do a better job developing the players or risk of running another marquee program into borderline extinction with all the new expansion. For the fanbase of Texas A&M, let’s hope that the coaches can rebuild the tornado destruction done in the first five years.
