'The Aggies Got Punked!' Jimbo Fisher Hire Raises Questions Six Years Later

The last six years have raised questions regarding Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher and his ability to lead the A&M football program where he was hired to take them: to a national championship.

Six weeks into Jimbo Fisher's sixth season in College Station, the Aggies sit at a disappointing 4-3 on the year and fourth place in the SEC West. The last six years have also raised questions regarding Fisher and his ability to lead the A&M football program where he was hired to take them: to a national championship.

Fisher's tenure with the Aggies can only be called a massive failure to this point. And the program has become the subject of national jokes and ridicule.

One sports writer even said that the Aggies "got pranked" when they hired Fisher. This calls back to when former A&M athletic director Scott Woodward made the move from  College Station to Baton Rouge, and the Aggies feared Fisher would be hired away to LSU. As USA Today's Blake Toppmeyer writes:

"If Woodward had wanted to be Fisher’s boss so badly, he could’ve stayed at Texas A&M, where he’d hired Fisher, rather than leaving for LSU.

"Nonetheless, the Aggies must have felt threatened enough by the thought of Fisher fleeing that they extended his contract in 2021, upped his salary, and made the cost for firing Fisher more expensive."

Did the Aggies overreact? Probably so. But hindsight is 20/20 for sure, and Fisher was still considered to be the answer to halting years of mediocrity in both the SEC and Big 12. To what end?

"The joke was on the Aggies. Woodward worked behind a variety of smokescreens and supplied one of his most shocking hires — Brian Kelly — after A&M padlocked its wagon to a plodding mule. If the Aggies want to strive for something more than mediocrity, they’ll have to pay Fisher $77 million to get lost.

"The Aggies got punked, and that’s no surprise. College Athletics Inc. has turned bad contracts and negotiating against itself into an art form."

Jimbo Fisher was introduced as the head coach of Texas A&M on Dec. 4, 2017 / USA Today

Is Jimbo on the proverbial hot seat? Yes. Should he be? Absolutely. But is this a situation of the Aggies getting punked or punking themselves? Maybe both. Sure, A&M put a lot of faith - and a lot of money - in the Jimbo experiment, and with good reason. 

But this might be more of a situation of the program not doing enough due diligence before making the hire. Fisher was not loved in Tallahassee at the time of his departure from Florida State. A&M was doing Florida State more of a favor than anything when they hired him away.

The hire has been criticized ever since, and Toppmeyer summed it up nicely: 

"The Aggies averaged 7.5 wins the past 27 seasons, which accounts for their time in the Big 12 and the SEC. Texas A&M pays Fisher a king’s ransom to impersonate Dennis Franchione."

Fisher and the Aggies just lost their eighth straight road game dating back to 2021. And what were Fisher's comments after the game? "We gotta coach them better and execute better."

It's a story that's become tiresome for most Aggies fans. Is there a way out for A&M? Yes. 77 million of them.