Aggies endure fifth straight setback
COLLEGE STATION — Jimbo Fisher’s rebuild of Texas A&M is in bigtime need of a rebuild, and based on his whopper of a contract Fisher will be the one tasked with the overhaul.
In his fifth season the Aggies have lost five consecutive games for the first time since 1980. That A&M team under Tom Wilson was expected to lose — this one under Fisher started the season ranked sixth nationally before a momentous nosedive, including two straight losses at Kyle Field.
Florida and A&M both entered Saturday’s action having lost four of their five league games, but the Gators efficiently dispatched the Aggies 41-24 before more than 97,000 fans.
The 1980 Aggies lost five consecutive contests to Houston, Baylor, Rice, SMU and Arkansas. The current bunch has dropped five straight to Mississippi State, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and now Florida (5-4, 2-4 SEC).
The suddenly reeling A&M defense made Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson, who’d struggled in the passing game this season, look like a Heisman Trophy candidate. Richardson finished 17 of 28 for 201 yards and two touchdowns. He added two more touchdowns on the ground to go with 78 rushing yards on seven carries, including a 60yard dash along the right sideline against an overwhelmed A&M defense late in the first quarter.
“We tried to keep him contained as much as possible,” A&M linebacker Edgerrin Cooper said. “He’s a very impactful player once he gets out of the pocket.”
Over the first half of the season, A&M’s defense under first-year coordinator D.J. Durkin was the program’s lone saving grace, but the Aggies have allowed a combined 681 rushing yards in the last two games, including 291 on Saturday on 50 carries.
“We’ve got some young guys … and we’ve got to fit some things better,” Fisher said. “D.J. does a good job, and he knows what we’re doing. We’ll keep working on it.”
A&M played without starting quarterback Conner Weigman, starting offensive lineman Kam Dewberry and defensive back Bryce Anderson, among others, because of the flu, according to A&M officials.
Weigman’s replacement, former starter Haynes King, was 23 of 45 for 279 yards and a touchdown, but lost two fumbles in the fourth quarter under constant pressure behind a poor offensive line.
Weigman, a five-star signee in the class of 2022, was coming off his first start. He completed 28 of 44 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns in the Aggies’ 31-28 home loss to No. 11 Mississippi a week prior.
“He’d say, ‘Coach, I want to play,’ and then he’d throw up,” Fisher said of why Weigman ultimately sat against the Gators.
The Aggies (3-6, 1-5 SEC) must win all three of their final games to even qualify for a bowl. They last failed to qualify for a bowl in 2008, when Mike Sherman finished 4-8 in his first season. A&M plays at Auburn on Saturday night, returns home for a nonconference contest against Massachusetts and then hosts LSU to close out what the Aggies hope is the regular season — and not simply the season.
“We have no choice but to just keep digging,” Cooper said.
In addition, Fisher said Fadil Diggs, his top defensive lineman over the first eight games, and defensive back Deuce Harmon are both out for the season with injuries. Florida is under a first-year coach in Billy Napier, who won his first SEC road game following his hire from Louisiana-Lafayette.
“Ultimately when adversity is presented to you, it gives an opportunity to prove what you’re made of,” Napier said of the Gators trailing the Aggies 24-20 at halftime.
Florida outscored A&M 21-0 over the final two quarters, in an embarrassing second half for the Aggies. A little more than a year ago and with LSU in pursuit of Fisher, a former Tigers offensive coordinator in the early 2000s, A&M bumped Fisher’s contract back to its original 10 years and raised his pay to more than $9 million annually from $7.5 million.
A&M at the time was coming off a No. 4 finish in the final Associated Press poll of 2020, its highest final ranking since winning the national title in 1939 and why Fisher was a hot commodity. A&M would owe Fisher almost $90 million if he was fired at the end of this season — the primary reason why he won’t be.
“We’ll play hard and practice hard,” Fisher said of closing out this year. “We’ll … play for these seniors and play our tails off.”