Can Texas A&M finally make a run?
Time is now for new coach Jimbo Fisher
ATLANTA – As if Jimbo Fisher didn’t already understand the stakes — you might have heard about his new contract for 10 years and an astounding $75 million, and, sure, he knew exactly what that meant — there was the presentation in February.
He’d been Texas A&M’s coach for all of two months. Everyone already knew the Aggies had landed the biggest hire in college football’s annual coaching carousel, and maybe the biggest in recent memory. But Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp left no doubt what everyone expected as a result, presenting Fisher with a plaque commemorating the Aggies’ national championship in “20--.”
It was similar to one Sharp had given a few minutes earlier to Texas A&MCommerce coach Colby Carthel to commemorate the 2017 NCAA Division II national title. The only difference, Sharp told Fisher, “is you get to fill in the date.”
Fisher laughed along with the assembled crowd. Then he nailed the landing: “I hope I fill in a couple.”
Time will tell if the presentation was a super cool moment or a really good Aggies joke. For sure, it was a topic on Monday when Fisher kicked off SEC media days at the College Football Hall of Fame.
In a league with five new coaches (a sixth, Florida’s Dan Mullen, moved from Mississippi State), there will be plenty of questions about competing in the Southeastern Conference and plenty of answers referencing the league’s strength and pointing to building a culture and a program and how all that takes time. First, let’s back up. Fisher opened things up by showing his Aggie bona fides:
“Howdy,” he said, and then added, “If you all don’t know, you’re supposed to ‘howdy’ back. That’s an A&M thing.”
About bona fides: Fisher won three Atlantic Coast Conference champion- ships and a national title in eight seasons at Florida State, rebuilding the program into a national power it had been under Bobby Bowden. A year ago at the ACC media days, he proclaimed that league the best in college football. On Monday he tossed red meat to the SEC fans, saying, “The ACC’s progression to where it has become in football is because of the SEC.” And also: “Every week (in the SEC West) is for the national championship because the teams you play have the capabilities of being there.”
And he sounded very much like any other coach who is undefeated and optimistic at his new school but wants to keep expectations realistic. They all emphasize changing the culture of the program. Fisher said he is emphasizing toughness (he used that word 22 times during his main interview session). He talked about attitude and insisted “there is no shortcut” to success.
Change the tie color and the school references, ignore the fact that Fisher talks faster than virtually any other college football coach and yet somehow maintains a West Virginian’s drawl, and it could have been any of the other new guys we’ll hear from this week.
But Fisher is likely the only one who’ll be asked this:
“Coach, what’s your timetable for winning the national championship?”
It goes back to the perception that Texas A&M — at least around Texas A&M — is a giant waiting to be awakened, a place with all the necessary resources to be elite but which somehow hasn’t been. It’s why after going 51-26 in six seasons Kevin Sumlin was paid
$10.4 million to leave town.
It has plenty to do with Fisher’s mega-contract: at an average of
$7.5 million a year, he ranks behind only Nick Saban among coaches’ salaries. And also with this:
“You have one of four active coaches to win a national championship,” A&M offensive lineman Erik McCoy said. “That’s a blessing brought to our program.”
If it all sounds good, it remains a steep climb. It’s not just salary; like everyone else, Fisher ranks behind Saban and Alabama in the SEC West hierarchy (and college football overall. At least going in, the Aggies also rank behind Auburn and on the other side of the league Georgia. And we could probably argue about three or four or five or more other SEC programs. None has supplanted Alabama as the league’s titan. As Alabama has won five national championships in Saban’s 11 years, the rest of the SEC has seen 27 coaching changes. They all have similar aspirations as A&M’s.
It’s why, even armed with that 10year deal, Fisher’s answer to the question was correct.
“You have a timetable, your timetable is now,” Fisher said.
But he added: “You want to win immediately and that’s your place, 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.”
Still, he sounded confident. And it tracked with something he said in May at the SEC’s annual spring meetings.
“If I didn’t think it was capable of being done there, I wouldn’t have went,” Fisher said then. “That’s what I want for myself. I want to build a program, not a team.”
Which brings us back to February and that faux national title plaque. Fisher said he “loved it,” adding, “I thought it was a cute thing to do.”
Really, what else could he have said? When the chancellor hands you something in a public forum, you accept. But if there was the slightest doubt about the Aggies’ expectations, that ended it. To Fisher, it meant Sharp and the A&M administration shared his commitment.
“I thought it was kind of nice myself,” Fisher said. “(I’m) hoping we can fill that in quickly.”