Fisher strikes out for another coach
Montgomery’s return to the NFL leaves A&M with staff opening
COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator, only a few weeks on the job, pointed at his heart and pledged that’s where the “Wrecking Crew” nickname would abide in his new players.
The group of Houston boosters absorbing Reggie Herring’s every word 10 years ago had no idea at the same time Herring was preparing to act on a change of heart, as a day later Herring bolted A&M to coach the Dallas Cowboys’ linebackers.
Then-A&M coach Mike Sherman, fresh out of the NFL, figured out fairly quickly this whole A&M thing might not be as easy as he had envisioned, in trying to get the Aggies back to competing for conference titles.
Jimbo Fisher found out as much this week, in what’s become a once-adecade Aggied tradition: a coach with a high-falutin’ title deciding he’d rather work in the NFL than help tackle a restoration job of the Wrecking Crew.
A few weeks ago, Fisher coaxed Jerry Montgomery from the Green Bay Packers with the title of “associate head coach” along with tutoring the defensive tackles. Montgomery had been a low-falutin’ “defensive front assistant” with the Packers, who were in the midst of changing coordinators under longtime coach Mike McCarthy.
Fisher scrambling
Montgomery had earned a reputation as an ace recruiter at Oklahoma and Michigan before heading to Green Bay in 2015, and Fisher has lined his new staff at A&M with those kinds of go-getters on the recruiting trail. He’s one less, however, after the Packers announced this week that Montgomery was returning as defensive line coach, sending Fisher scrambling for a replacement with national signing day approaching on Feb. 7.
Just prior to Montgomery posting via Twitter, “Rise and Grind, Houston here I come” a week ago, a tell-tale sign from the dithering coach occurred in another post.
“I already miss my guys, but now it is time to mold and develop the future Aggies to the NFL,” Montgomery wistfully wrote while posting a picture of his defensive linemen at Green Bay.
Staying on the trail
With a no-doubt happy reunion since taking place 1,200 miles above the home of the 12th Man, Fisher has been back on a recruiting trail of his own, in searching for a replacement. A big difference between Fisher and Sherman, however, is Fisher’s prior knowledge of the travails of a college head coach.
While Sherman, who’d win up 4-8 in his first season at A&M and 25-25 over four seasons, had zero experience as a college head coach after serving as Green Bay’s head coach and the Texans’ offensive coordinator, Fisher spent eight seasons at Florida State handling such duties at a Power Five program.
Still, there’s no doubt Fisher’s eyes have been opened to his vast task at A&M, which hasn’t won a league title in 20 years and a national title since 1939. The Aggies’ current recruiting class has slid from No. 11 nationally at one point while the sincefired Kevin Sumlin was still running the show to 35th overall in the latest 247Sports rankings.
Brian Perroni, a 247Sports recruiting analyst, said he still expects A&M to work its way back into the top 20 prior to signing day. A&M was one of the nation’s handful of programs, too, to find out the downsides of the new early signing period in December, considering Fisher had all of about two weeks to evaluate what he’d inherited at A&M in the class of 2018, following the coaching change.
A bridge to recruits
The Aggies signed 10 players early and currently have a class of 14 total pledges. One of the smartest things Fisher has done in his nearly two months on the job is retain defensive ends coach Terry Price, considering Montgomery also helped coach the defensive line. Price has been able to provide a bridge between staffs for recruits, especially since no one had dealt with the early signing period before.
Montgomery’s hasty exit isn’t nearly as big a deal as when Herring abruptly left a decade ago, considering Sherman suddenly was searching for a defensive coordinator. Fisher this month had already hired Mike Elko from Notre Dame, who’s considered a rising star in the business.
Back then, Sherman went with Joe Kines, who was near retirement and fundraising for Alabama after new coach Nick Saban didn’t retain Kines from the staff he inherited from the fired Mike Shula.
Things have worked out for Alabama and Saban, with five national titles in the past nine seasons, while A&M is hoping its third head coach in the same span is the charm. One thing is certain around the Bright Football Complex: There’s never a dull moment concerning Texas A&M football, not even in the offseason, as Fisher works to round out his new staff. Again.