Tag: Jimbo Fisher

ESPN identifies Texas A&M’s quarterback room as its biggest strength entering 2024 season

“The upside of all those quarterbacks getting thrown into the fire due to injuries is that there’s now a solid QB room full of confidence.”

ESPN college football reporters identified the biggest strengths of college football’s top 25 teams on Wednesday.

Coming in at No. 25, Texas A&M‘s biggest strength entering the 2024 season is its quarterbacks, according to Dave Wilson.

“The Aggies have been trying to find the right man for the job since the departure of Kellen Mond in 2020, and Jimbo Fisher‘s complex offense — combined with a struggling offensive line — did them no favors,” Wilson wrote. “But the upside of all those quarterbacks getting thrown into the fire due to injuries is that there’s now a solid QB room full of confidence.

“Starter Conner Weigman threw for 979 yards, 8 TDs and 2 INTs in four starts with a 68.9 completion percentage. Unheralded Fresno State transfer Jaylen Henderson got the job after an injury to backup Max Johnson, and Henderson completed 67.9 percent for 715 yards and 6 TDs to 2 INTs. When Henderson was hurt on the first play of the Texas Bowl against Oklahoma State, true freshman Marcel Reed completed 20-of-33 passes for 361 yards and added a 20-yard TD run.

“New offensive coordinator Collin Klein molded Will Howard and Avery Johnson before departing for College Station and Weigman could be the best Aggies quarterback since Johnny Manziel if he lives up to his potential.”

Johnny Football didn’t quite live up to the hype in the NFL, but will Weigman do so at the college level, led by new head coach Mike Elko? We’ll all find out together beginning on Aug. 31.

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What will Texas A&M safeties room look like if junior Jacoby Mathews transfers in spring portal?

Mike Elko, Jay Bateman, Ishmael Aristide and Jordan Peterson are assessing what the Aggies safeties room will look like if Mathews departs.

Following the 2023 regular season, former Texas A&M junior safety Jardin Gilbert returned home and chose LSU in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Now Gilbert’s presumed replacement at starting safety is potentially departing from College Station as well. Jacoby Mathews entered the spring transfer portal on Saturday afternoon.

While the incoming junior could still return, head coach Mike Elko, defensive coordinator Jay Bateman and co-defensive backs coaches Ishmael Aristide & Jordan Peterson are likely currently assessing what the Aggies safeties room will look like if Mathews does find a new home.

Gilbert is gone, Mathews is in the portal and incoming junior Jarred Kerr remains from the 2023 roster. Transfers include seniors Trey Jones from Central Michigan & De’Rickey Wright from Vanderbilt.

As a Texas A&M staff member texted Aggies Today on Saturday, “Don’t forget about (incoming sophomore) Dalton Brooks. He’s an all-conference player.”

According to TexAgs executive editor Billy Liucci on X, Mathews’ decision to enter the portal “had a lot more to do with no adjusting to heightened expectations inside the program in all areas.”

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Longhorns giving Sarkisian contract extension is eerily reminiscent to Texas A&M’s mistake with Fisher

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” and that quote could never be more true.

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” and that quote could not be more true when it comes to what’s reportedly going to happen in Austin this week.

According to Wescott Eberts, a team site producer at Burnt Orange Nation, the University of Texas System Board of Regents is meeting this week to give football head coach Steve Sarkisian a massive contract extension.

The decision is giving some Texas A&M fans deja vu to when Jimbo Fisher was given a big extension in 2021 after his third year in Aggieland.

Sarkisian led his team to No. 3 in the nation and the College Football Playoff, compared to Fisher who finished No. 5 and was left on the outside looking in. The overall point is that both Texas football programs chose to give their coach $50 million more in guarantees after a one-loss season in year three.

The Longhorns and their fans aren’t paying close enough attention to what’s going on in College Station. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doomed to repeat history.

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Coach Tommy Moffitt previews the strength & conditioning program for the Aggie Football team

New Director of strength and conditioning for the Texas A&M football team, Tommy Moffitt sat down with TexAgs to preview the strength program

Regarding collegiate strength programs, there are few better than veteran strength & conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt. He brings three decades of experience, multiple awards, and three national titles to Aggieland.

The Texas A&M football team did not lack toughness during the Jimbo Fisher era, but there always seemed to be a rash of injuries week to week holding the team back. Because of that, the hiring of Coach Moffitt is seen as not only head coach Mike Elko’s best staff hire but also the most important. It turns out that Elko’s reputation brought Moffitt into the fold without even having to reach out to him.

“…I became a fan of Duke and Coach Elko and so all you had to do was turn the TV on and watch how they played, how well they were coached and I knew that when this job came open and I found out Coach Feeley wasn’t coming, then I did everything possible to uh to get him on the phone and talk to him.”

Below, you can take a look at the entire interview Coach Moffitt did with the TexAgs crew.

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Former Texas A&M defensive coordinator DJ Durkin has found a new home

Former Texas A&M defensive coordinator DJ Durkin with still in the SEC and join Hugh Freeze at Auburn to run his defense

With a few of the higher profile names from the Jimbo Fisher era finding jobs relatively quickly, one name that lingered out there for a while was the former Texas A&M defensive coordinator DJ Durkin. Bobby Petrino landed in a familiar place to him, returning to Arkansas as their offensive coordinator, and Elijah Robinson left for Syracuse University to join his longtime friend, Head Coach Fran Brown.

The veteran coordinator has officially found his next job and didn’t go far staying in the SEC. Per Chris Low, Durkin will be the next DC for the Auburn Tigers once the 2024 season starts. After a rough start in College Station, Durkin turned the Aggies into one of the better defenses in the conference over the last two seasons. If he had better talent in the secondary, they might have been one of the better defenses in the country overall.

This closes the door on the bigger-named assistant coaches from Jimbo’s staff and we can turn the page to fully concentrate on the stellar job new Head Coach Mike Elko is doing so far. That is until Jimbo decides to get back into the coaching game.

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Texas A&M coach Mike Elko has quickly revamped the football program’s roster with 32 additions

Coach Mike Elko got countless 4-star prospects to commit in December and then capped it off by recruiting the No. 1 rated transfer class.

The days of Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M are long gone.

Head coach Mike Elko returned to Aggieland in November guns a blazing. He has brought in 32 total players, 23 from the NCAA Transfer Portal and nine high school enrollees.

Elko started by filling out his coaching staff, got countless 4-star prospects to commit on National Early Signing Day and then capped it off by recruiting the No. 1 rated class from the portal.

The full list of 23 transfer portal commits include CB Dezz Ricks from Alabama (4-star), TE Tre Watson (3) from Washington, IOL Dorian Hinton (3) from FAU, LB Scooby Williams (4) & CB Jaydon Hill (3) from Florida, CB BJ Mayes (3) from UAB, IOL Ar-maj Reed-Adams (3) from Kansas, WR Jabre Barber (3) & IOL Derrick Graham (3) from Temple, EDGE Nic Scourton (4) & TE Garrett Miller (3) from Purdue, EDGE Cashius Howell (4) from Bowling Green, DL Rodas Johnson (3) from Wisconsin, S Trey Jones (3) from Central Michigan, K Jared Zirkel (2) from Georgia, LB Alex Howard (3) from YSU, S De’Rickey Wright (3) from Vanderbilt, CB Will Lee III (4) & WR Wesley Watson (3) from Kansas State, WR Cyrus Allen (4) from LA Tech, CB Donovan Saunders (4) from Cal Poly, S Marcus Ratcliffe (4) from San Diego State and RB E.J. Smith (3) from Stanford.

The recruiting class of 2024 prospects include enrollees OT Blake Ivy (4), EDGE Solomon Williams (4), WR Izaiah Williams (4), LB Tristan Jernigan (4), S Myles Davis (4), DL Kendall Jackson (3), OT Ashton Funk (3), S Jordan Pride (3) and LB Jordan Lockhart (3).

Five players have signed their letter of intent: DL Dealyn Evans (4), IOL Isendre Ahfua (4), WR Ernest Campbell (3), TE Eric Karner (3) and QB Miles O’Neill (3). Two prospects are hard commits: CB Terry Bussey (5) and OT Robert Bourdon (3).

The Maroon & White spring game is scheduled for April 20.

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Report: Former Texas A&M defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin emerges as target for Auburn DC job

According to 247Sports college football reporter Matt Zenitz, D.J. Durkin has emerged as a target for the Tigers defensive coordinator job.

Former Texas A&M defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin may be coaching in the same role at another SEC university coming up in the 2024 season.

According to 247Sports national college football reporter Matt Zenitz, Durkin has emerged as a target for the Auburn defensive coordinator vacancy. Durkin spent the last two seasons in College Station on former head coach Jimbo Fisher‘s staff as DC and linebackers coach.

Before coming to Aggieland, Durkin was co-defensive coordinator and LBs coach at Ole Miss from 2020 to 2021. He served as head coach at the University of Maryland from 2016 to 2018, compiling an 11-15 overall record. Durkin was a consultant for the Atlanta Falcons in 2019.

The former Bowling Green defensive end and outside linebacker has had previous coaching stops at his alma mater, Notre Dame, Stanford, Florida and Michigan.

Wesley McGriff nearly left the Tigers this offseason to become co-defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator for head coach Mike Elko and the Aggies. He ultimately decided to return to Auburn and now may be joined by Durkin.

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Report: Wesley McGriff reverses course and returns to Auburn after accepting Texas A&M job

After agreeing to leave Auburn for Texas A&M on New Year’s Eve, Wesley McGriff has apparently changed his mind according to Justin Hokanson.

After agreeing to leave Auburn for Texas A&M on New Year’s Eve, Wesley McGriff has apparently changed his mind.

According to Justin Hokanson, the Auburn reporter for On3 Sports, McGriff has reversed course and will be returning to the Tigers to coach defensive backs. He had agreed to work for head coach Mike Elko and serve as co-defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator on the final day of 2023.

McGriff was supposed to work alongside Ishmael Aristide, who was hired in early December to coach cornerbacks and followed Elko from Durham after coaching on his Duke staff for one season. The move comes one day after Elko retained Bryant Gross-Armiento to serve as a senior defensive analyst after coaching defensive backs on Jimbo Fisher‘s staff.

As pointed out on New Year’s Eve by Billy Liucci of TexAgs, McGriff has more than just SEC coaching experience, he is also a talented recruiter who has developed elite prospects into dependable NFL players.

McGriff returns to Auburn to continue his third separate stint with the Tigers, including 2016, 2019 to 2020 and 2023 to the present day. He served as the secondary coach at Lousiville in 2022. McGriff also has previous experience at Florida and Ole Miss.

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Opinion: USA Today gives Texas A&M football program a harsh grade for 2023 season

USA Today college sports reporter Paul Myberg released his 2023 season grades for all 133 Football Bowl Subdivision teams on Wednesday morning and the grade he gave Texas A&M is harsh, to say the least.

USA Today college sports reporter Paul Myberg released his 2023 season grades for all 133 Football Bowl Subdivision teams on Wednesday morning and the grade he gave Texas A&M is harsh, to say the least.

The Aggies were 1-of-12 teams that Myberg gave a solid D to. Texas A&M (7-6) had the second-most wins in the group, only trailing USC (8-5). However, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and consensus No. 1 overall pick was not under center at Kyle Field this season.

Former head coach Jimbo Fisher was fired on Nov. 12, hours after the Aggies smashed Mississippi State by a final score of 51-10. At that point, Texas A&M was 6-4 overall with three of its losses against ranked teams: No. 11 Alabama, No. 19 Tennessee & No. 11 Ole Miss. The other defeat came in Week 2 at Miami.

Whether or not Fisher should’ve been dismissed is an argument for another day. The overall point is that a D grade is a bit harsh in my opinion. If the Aggies were still in high school, that would be considered a passing grade.

Texas A&M is a university though and to say the 2023 season was a complete failure is inaccurate. The Aggies lost their starting quarterback, sophomore Conner Weigman, in Week 4 to a season-ending foot injury.

Even after firing its leader, Texas A&M completed the campaign with a winning record. So to say the season was a complete failure is inaccurate. In my opinion, the Aggies should’ve received a C- for what they overcame during 2023.

Nevertheless, the Mike Elko era is officially underway and everyone in Aggieland is moving on to greener pastures in 2024.

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Bryant Gross-Armiento retained by Texas A&M to serve as senior defensive analyst

Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko is a very smart man and knows when you have a good person already in your building, you do everything you can to keep them, which is exactly what he did this week.

Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko is a very smart man and knows when you have a good person already in your building, you do everything you can to keep them, which is exactly what he did this week.

According to Carter Karels, the Texas A&M beat writer for 247Sports, the Aggies will retain Bryant Gross-Armiento in an off-field role. Gross-Armiento previously served as defensive backs coach under Jimbo Fisher. As noted in the report, the Aggies Athletics website recently updated Gross-Armiento’s title from secondary coach to “senior defensive analyst.”

After serving as cornerbacks coach for Elko at Duke, Ishamael Aristide was hired to the same role in Bryan-College Station on Dec. 5. In the final hours of 2023, Wesley McGriff was hired from Auburn to serve as co-defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator. Per Karels, Gross-Armiento is expected to work directly under Aristide and McGriff.

Gross-Armiento has been in Aggieland since 2021 and boasts an impressive factoid. Back in July, he was named the fifth-best recruiter in the country and fourth-best in the SEC.

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