Expectations high for next Aggies coach
Officials, Fisher remain coy about job status after regents confer to dot i’s and cross t’s
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M got the fine print out of the way Thursday concerning a new football coach, right in time for A&M chancellor John Sharp to make a bold proclamation following a board of regents meeting.
“Nothing serious,” a smiling Sharp said, when asked his expectations for the new guy. “We just want him to win a national championship.”
Sharp offered as much in a joking manner, but he’s serious when it comes to what A&M eventually expects from Jimbo Fisher, as multiple people with knowledge of the situation continue to claim the Aggies are on target to lure the title-winning coach from Florida State. The move could come as soon as Friday but no later than Sunday.
Sharp declined to name names to succeed the fired Kevin Sumlin, citing an ongoing, detailed process that included Thursday’s paperwork during an extended closed-door regents meeting on the A&M campus.
“It’s real sensitive right now, so we’re going to make sure we do this right,” Sharp said.
The brunt of Thursday’s sensitivity came from the other side of the Gulf of Mexico, as a resolute Fisher once again stayed mum on the hot topic, and the Seminoles coach appears determined to not leave his current team prior to the end of the regular season.
FSU hosts LouisianaMonroe on Saturday, in a game originally canceled because of Hurricane Irma in September.
The Seminoles in early November wound up tacking the contest back on the schedule knowing it might help them get to a bowl.
Sure enough, the Seminoles (5-6) need a victory Saturday to make a bowl for a 36th consecutive season.
If Fisher sticks around to coach the game and the favored Seminoles prevail, it will guarantee he won’t have a losing season in his eight years in Tallahassee, Fla. — a nugget that’s of great importance to him.
Fisher briefly fielded questions from FSU reporters following the Seminoles’ Thursday practice, and he stuck to his mantra of not discussing any other openings.
“We’re trying to finish the season,” Fisher said. “We’re trying to win the game and get to a bowl game.”
FSU has tried in recent weeks discussing with Fisher bringing the university’s lagging football complexes up to snuff with an ACC foe like Clemson, which won the national title last season, but it’s been to no avail. Fisher made up his mind about the move “months” ago based on his frustrations with FSU’s administration, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
Name surfaced early
About the same time, A&M blew a 34-point lead at UCLA in the season opener, and days after an A&M source told the Chronicle to “remember the name Jimbo Fisher.”
Representatives from both sides then began working toward a possible deal at season’s end, and the Aggies’ consecutive home losses to Mississippi State and Auburn by a combined 36 points sealed Sumlin’s fate after six seasons and zero SEC titles.
Fisher won a national title in 2013 with FSU, in the middle of winning three consecutive ACC titles.
He’s won at least 10 games in a season in six of his eight years with the Seminoles, the kind of consistency the Aggies are searching for in offering Fisher between $7 million and $7.5 million over at least five years, sources have said.
He makes $5.5 million per year with FSU, and Sumlin made $5 million annually prior to his firing on Sunday by A&M athletic director Scott Woodward.
The Aggies haven’t won a conference title since 1998, when they competed in the Big 12, and they haven’t won a national title since 1939.
Fisher, 52, is 83-23 over eight seasons at FSU, and this year is easily his worst with the Seminoles.
Aggies have young team
Fisher will inherit a young and talented squad from Sumlin, as 55 of the Aggies’ 82 players on a recent traveling squad were underclassmen.
Fisher is divorced, but his two sons and former wife are expected to move to Texas so the family can stay close.
Fisher has flirted with other programs, notably LSU and Texas, but this time seemed different from the start, based on his unwillingness to proclaim his unbridled happiness for being at Florida State, as he has hammered home in the past when the possibility of his moving on has become a storyline.