Fisher begins tenure with unclear timeline
ATLANTA — Jimbo Fisher and three of his Texas A&M players were so close to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday they could inhale its shiny new dome smell.
The foursome helped kick off SEC media days at one of the stadium’s neighboring hotels, and the $75 million question is whether Fisher can one day — and for A&M fans preferably someday soon — bring the Aggies back to Atlanta for an extended visit under the Mercedes-Benz roof.
The stadium is home to the Southeastern Conference title game, and nine times in the past 12 years a SEC team gone on to win the national title. Asked his timetable for returning A&M to a national title — the Aggies haven’t won one or even played for one since 1939 — Fisher shrugged.
“Your timetable is as quick as you can put things in place, and everyone buys into what you’re trying to do,” he said. “Your timetable is now. … You want to
win immediately, but is that realistic? I don’t know. Could it be? Yes. Could it not be? Yes. It’s all about the process of putting things in place.”
The Aggies believe he can, why they lured him from Florida State in December and signed him to a $75 million contract over 10 years.
“It’s never about the money — it never is,” Fisher said to broad smiles from a roomful of reporters on Monday. “When I first started coaching back when I was at Samford University and I was making less than $15,000 as the offensive coordinator, I didn’t do it for the money then and I don’t do it for the money now.
“Those contracts are great and all that works out, but at the end of the day it’s about what you do. You’re putting your stamp and your name on something, and as long as I’m putting my name on something, no matter what I’m getting paid and what goes on, we’re going to try and be the best we can be.”
Fisher is one of four active coaches to have won a national title, along with Alabama’s Nick Saban, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. A&M fired Kevin Sumlin in December after six seasons, primarily because he failed to compete for an SEC title, and partly because he never beat LSU.
The Aggies draw the Tigers at Kyle Field on Thanksgiving weekend this season, and LSU coach Ed Orgeron addressed Fisher’s hiring on Monday.
“Jimbo is a great coach,” said Orgeron, who was 2-0 against Sumlin with a combined score of 99-60 the past two seasons. “He’s won a national championship, and he’s a proven recruiter. He’s in the hotbed of recruiting near Houston. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge.
“I have a lot of respect for what he does.”
Fisher will find out exactly what he inherited from Sumlin in the first month of the season. The Aggies face Clemson, which won the 2016 national title, in the second game, and play at reigning national champ Alabama in the fourth game.
“(Clemson) makes for a great nonconference opponent,” Fisher said. “Two of our first four games are against the top two teams in the country. We’ll find out where we are at really quickly.”
The fast-talking Fisher was careful to praise his prior stop of FSU — “It’s a tremendous place, it really is” — and his predecessor at A&M.
“He was very successful and won a lot of games,” Fisher said of Sumlin, Arizona’s new coach who was 51-26 at A&M. “He’ll do a great job at Arizona.”
Fisher is new to the SEC as a head coach, but he’s an old hand in the league overall.
“I grew up in the SEC — I was there 13 years,” the former Auburn and LSU assistant said. “I was in the ACC 11 years and I was in the SEC 13 years. I understand what it is. You have to line up and play every week.”
Defensive lineman Kingsley Keke, who joined running back Trayveon Williams and center Erik McCoy in making up A&M contingent for media days contingent, said lining up and playing physically every week under Fisher won’t be an issue for the Aggies.
“He’s a real tough guy,” Keke said. “He’s all about business. He demands excellence, toughness and grit — all of those good things — both physically and mentally.”