With some members of The Football Beat staff actually in College Station, having covered Saturday night’s Veterans Day game between Texas A&M and Mississippi State here at Kyle Field, we weren’t necessarily expecting the news we got today coming out of A&M administration.
Some of us were expecting a coach being dismissed, but the coach we were expecting was in the visitors’ locker room.
Instead of Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett, whose team has lost its last two Southeastern Conference games (to Kentucky and A&M) by the combined score of 75-13, and who abandoned late coach Mike Leach’s offense for something that looks more like – I don’t know – a train wreck, it’s A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher that’s on the way out.
Fisher – who succeeded Bobby Bowden at Florida State, who won a national championship there, and who for many years, was the right-hand man of Alabama coach Nick Saban at other stops – was dismissed Sunday morning by Texas A&M University officials.
Speculation had been running rampant about Fisher’s future on sports talk shows locally, and shows like The Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network for a couple of seasons, but had cooled after Fisher hired former head coach and offensive coordinator at multiple locations Bobby Petrino.
And the timing is somewhat odd, considering A&M defeated Mississippi State, 51-10, on Saturday, and without its starting quarterback, Max Johnson – and with a huge game upcoming in a couple of weeks, at LSU.
Still, ESPN’s Pete Thamel and others reported Sunday Fisher was fired and will be paid the $76 million buyout.
Here’s the three questions universities should always ask prior to making this move, not necessarily in order of import:
- Can we afford it financially?
- Can we afford it in the court of public opinion?
- Who in the heck are we going to get if we fire the guy?
In the case of number one, the answer is a resounding yes. And don’t kid yourselves. The coffers at A&M are full.
In the case of number two, the answer is another resounding yes, although myself – Mitch Lucas – writing this piece, a bit of news with opinion thrown in, disagrees. I have met coach Fisher, think he’s an excellent coach and recruiter, and I think this is far too early to make this move, way too early. The man has won everywhere he’s ever been.
And that leads me to number three.
Who would that be?
- Dabo Swinney? IS HE REALLY that disgruntled at Clemson to go ahead and leave, not knowing when Saban would retire from Alabama, the job he’s (privately, we’re hearing) coveted forever, his alma mater? Here’s the deal: his mentor, coach Gene Stallings, of course, coached at Texas A&M, played at A&M, was in leadership at A&M, and also coached at Alabama, was the head coach at ‘Bama, coached Swinney at Alabama, and won the national title there.
His opinions matter to Swinney. Could he sway Dabo to come to College Station? Is that in play here? Has this rabbit trail even been chased?
- Sam Pittman? He HAS a job, at Arkansas. He feels like an A&M guy. He’s had moderate success in the league, but not enough, it doesn’t feel like, to warrant what A&M boosters would want enough for them to make this move. And he would need to be either fired or bought out to make this happen. That’s a ‘no.’
- Promote Petrino? I’m guessing average A&M fan would say not only ‘no,’ but HECK NO. (Or something else.)
- Urban Meyer, who won national titles at Florida and Ohio State, and might come out of retirement if the price was right. But would A&M want that baggage?
- Chip Kelly, who is having NO fun at UCLA, is not winning and I’m hearing is not crazy about moving to the Big Ten.
- A wild card, someone I’m not thinking of.
At any rate, big news out of College Station today, a decision that will, to be certain, move their program.
Now, will it move it forward?
Or did it just set it back, with Texas and Oklahoma coming into the league next season?
