Fisher’s recruit philosophy paying dividends
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher was a persuasive recruiter in Florida for a decade, when he was Florida State’s offensive coordinator and ultimately head coach from 201017. Then he moved three hours west of the Sabine River three years ago.
“Texas is probably the best football in the country,” Fisher said this week of recruiting high schools in the Lone Star State. “There’s more emphasis on it and (more) players.”
What’s happened since Fisher’s shift to the westernmost post of the SEC has given A&M the best of both recruiting worlds — Texas and the South — which the Aggies will happily accept in their quest to win the program’s first national title since 1939. No. 7 A&M (4-1) plays at South Carolina (2-3) at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“You’ve got to have a nucleus right around you close,” Fisher said of recruiting within a couple hundred miles of campus. “We’re always going to do that.”
In that sense, Fisher or any coach at A&M, the state’s largest university, is fortunate. Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, is about 100 miles from Kyle Field. So is Austin, 11th on the population list. San Antonio (seventh), Dallas (ninth) and Fort Worth (13th) are about 175 miles away, meaning five of the nation’s top 13 most populous cities are a Saturday morning’s drive from the Bright Football Complex.
That doesn’t mean the Aggies will be native Texans from one to 85 on the scholarship list, Fisher added.
“Some guys don’t want to come or don’t fit your situation
or whatever it may be,” he said. “To be able to reach out nationally … if you look at every team in the country that’s having a lot of success, they’re able to do that.”
The indefatigable Fisher has reached out nationally, certainly, but his short reach into Houston alone since his arrival from Tallahassee, Fla., has been remarkable, revealing the fast-talking West Virginian possesses solid situational awareness far from the football sidelines.
To wit: Fisher’s top two running backs, sophomores Isaiah Spiller and Ainias Smith, are from Klein Collins and Dulles, respectively. A rising star at the position, with a highlight-reel 30-yard
touchdown run Saturday against Arkansas as evidence, is true freshman Devon Achane of Fort Bend Marshall.
In addition, the all-purpose Smith, a three-star recruit in the class of 2019, leads the Aggies with 290 receiving yards and four touchdown catches. Sophomore JalenWydermyer of Dickinson has been one of the nation’s top tight ends halfway through the season and leads the Aggies with 25 catches.
Five-star prospect Demond Demas of Tomball was rated the nation’s No. 3 receiver in the class of 2020 and is a true freshman fighting for playing time early in his career. All are recruits of
Fisher, who is working on his third full class in his relatively short time in College Station. His first two full classes ranked fourth and sixth nationally, according to 247Sports.com, two of A&M’s top three rated classes this century.
Wydermyer was asked why he ultimately chose A&M.
“Coach Fisher and coach Fisher’s offense,” he responded. “And it’s close to home, and my family comes to every game.”
On the same day Spiller, Smith, Achane andWydermyer helped blast the Aggies to a double-digit victory over Arkansas at Kyle Field, Fisher received verbal commitments from Floridians and high school teammates Yulkeith Brown and Amari Daniels, giving A&M 18 pledges in the class of 2021 to date.
Brown is a four-star prospect who can play receiver or running back, and the three-star recruit Daniels projects as a running back. Both attend Miami Central High.
That’s where the second part of Fisher’s extended recruiting reach comes in, based on his longtime links to some of the nation’s most bountiful recruiting grounds. Six of the top eight states in the nation in recruiting from the class of 2020, for example, are in the South: Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee, according to 247Sports.com.
Most of Fisher’s staff has deep ties in the South, which is why at least 16 of the players on the roster hail from that area, most still working their way up the depth chart considering plenty of former coach Kevin Sumlin’s players remain on the roster as upperclassmen.
“There are a ton of football players in the South, and a lot of my ties (are from there), and our assistant coaches have a history back there, so that makes it a big deal,” Fisher said. “When you have a bigger blueprint of where you’re trying to get players from, it makes (recruiting) better.”