Inside The Knights

College Football 'Hot Seat': Jimbo Fisher at the Top

Jimbo Fisher needs to win soon or he’s in trouble at Texas A&M.

Brian Smith

Many college coaches are under pressure to win. That comes with the territory. 

Many coaches fall short of expectations at a school and are relieved of duties. Current UCF head coach Gus Malzahn was asked to leave Auburn before coming to Orlando, and there's recent Florida head coach Dan Mullen being let go after last season at Florida. 

There are some coaches that might deserve to have their responsibilities taken away even more than either of those two or ther coaches.

When the Texas A&M Aggies hired Jimbo Fisher to be its head football coach for the 2018 season, one that came with a massive $75 million dollar contract, many thought he would be the savior for the Aggies.

That has not turned out to be the case as A&M is struggling yet again. After losing 17-14 to Appalachian State, it’s time to start questioning just how hot Fisher’s seat is in College Station with even the website All Aggies questioning his job status.

Hard to deny that the Aggies are probably worse off right now than at any point in Fisher's tenure. This is Year 5 for Fisher. How can that even be a possible consideration?

According to The Tennessean, “Jimbo Fisher is proving to be a more expensive Kevin Sumlin.”

Ouch. Sumlin was fired as the leader of the Aggies after going 51-26 from 2012 through 2017. That’s winning at 66.2% clip.His replacement, well, he’s not doing much better in terms of winning percentage.

Sumlin was fired for his efforts not living up to what the A&M brass truly wanted. So what will A&M do now with Fisher? Look at the following data and let the reader decide.

Fisher has a 35-15 record since the beginning of the 2018 season began, reaching exactly 70%, barely surpassing Sumlin. It gets worse when investigating the first 50 games of Sumlin’s and Fisher’s A&M tenures. Hats off to Kyle Umlang for the research, and it's eye opening.

Two notes from that tweet that stand out. Zero wins against ranked opponents on the road? How mentally prepared have the A&M players truly been based on that statistic?

Also, say what one will say about Sumlin, but he did produce some exciting offenses during his time in College Station. Fisher, meanwhile, is continuing to struggle with producing good offenses despite his reputation as a top-notch quarterback coach.

During Appalachian State’s upset win over A&M, the Aggies could muster only 186 yards of total offense.

That’s not a misprint. The quarterback that Fisher decided to go with is truly struggling. 97 yards passing from quarterback Haynes King certainly needs to be scrutinized. Not only because of the young signal caller from Longview, Texas either. Before going deeper into King’s struggles, it’s important to note that Fisher’s history shows a pattern of concern with quarterback development.

For years, Fisher has commonly discussed and boasted how his offense uses post-snap reads within the offensive passing game. Great, it’s similar to the NFL. Now, how well has that done for Fisher, his signal callers, and the Aggies overall?

In the NFL, there’s far more time to prepare a quarterback because of fewer time restraints as compared to the college game. That’s why so few teams at the college level use a pro-style scheme.

Look no further than Stanford and its use of the complicated West Coast Offense. The Cardinal’s overall record of 31-8 from 2009 through 2011 is impressive. That’s also the three years that prodigy quarterback Andrew Luck was the starting quarterback.

Fair enough, a few quarterbacks like Luck can figure out NFL offensive strategies. Luck’s success in leading Stanford’s complicated offense should be considered the exception, not the rule. Still, Fisher is using some NFL strategies with his offense. It’s just that those concepts are not working.

Let’s take a look at where A&M has ranked as an offensive unit with the so-called quarterback guru Fisher manning the head coach’s headset. Texas A&M total offense, by year, with ranking among FBS programs:

2018: 471.6 yards per game (15).

2019: 394.5 yards per game (72).

2020: 439.2 yards per game (33).

2021: 391.6 yards per game (71).

2022: 341.5 yards per game (102), through the first two games of the season.

The only truly top offensive unit came in 2018 when Fisher had the electric Trayveon Williams as a junior running back. He rushed for 1,760 yards, averaged 6.5 yards per carry and 18 touchdowns before turning pro and heading to the NFL.

If a person desires to give Fisher some of the credit for Williams’ success, go ahead. He probably deserves distinction for giving him the football instead of getting too fancy with the passing game. That does not explain the following, however.

That 2018 season saw a raw and unproven sophomore quarterback by the name of Kellon Mond have a good season. He did well for a second-year signal caller in the always difficult SEC West by passing for 3,107 yards, 24 scores and nine touchdowns. Oddly enough, that would be his highest passing total despite starting again in 2019 and 2020.

Mond’s final season in College Station saw him pass less and run more, but how does one account for just 2,282 yards and 19 touchdowns?

At least he only threw three picks, but that offense could be why an otherwise successful Texas A&M team was not voted into the College Football Playoff over Notre Dame.

The Aggies averaged 36 points per contest in 2018, and two years later with a far more experienced signal caller behind center, A&M scored 32.6 points per game and missed the Playoff.

No wonder the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum went off on Fisher. 

Going back to the current season, it’s obvious that Fisher is not what many believed he was when he took over the A&M head coaching position. Fisher is not learning his lesson like so many other college coaches that are operating true college offensive schemes that can be learned quickly, and it’s hindering the offense. Check out the quarterback rating for King so far this season:

King is a young quarterback that missed the majority of the 2022 season and he’s not ready to be the guy. That’s fine. It’s time for Fisher to figure out how to help King or whichever signal caller he placed behind center to make the Aggies a more productive offense. If not, this is going to be a long season, starting with the Sep. 17 contest against Miami

If the Aggies cannot show some offensive firepower and do not come out with a victory, and that’s certainly not a given that they will, how hot will Fisher’s seat be?

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Brian Smith
BRIAN SMITH

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