Now-former Texas A&M head football coach Jimbo Fisher has been relieved of his duties for nearly two weeks as the Aggies 2023 football regular season ends on the road Saturday vs. No. 13 LSU.
While Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork is hard at work during the expansive coaching search, Fisher’s underwhelming six-year tenure is still being examined with a fine-tooth comb, as The Athletic (Subscription required) writers, including Sam Khan Jr., Bruce Feldman, and Max Olson recently wrote yet another in-depth look at what when wrong in College Station under the West Virginia native.
From Fisher’s undeserved massive contract extension to his blatant lack of quarterback development after the departure of former Kevin Sumlin recruited signal caller Kellen Mond, it was Fisher’s ignorance when recruiting some of the top classes year after year, most notably the historic 2022 recruiting class.
Known to the public and mentioned in the article, since singing the 2022 class, then director of player personnel Marshall Malchow departed to join Oregon head coach Dan Lanning in Eugene, leading to the hiring of Kevin Mashack from Indiana, who barely lasted a full year before his sudden dismissal back in June.
As Ross Bjork noted, this position is vital in the raucous transfer portal environment that will likely impact the Aggies once the portal officially opens on Dec. 4. With the lack of stability hindering any actual progress, Fisher reportedly took the same approach most college football fans take when researching their favorite team’s recruiting success, while completely ignoring any red flags tied to the various five-star rated prospects in the 2022 cycle.
“But the pursuit of the top-ranked 2022 class, which is the highest-rated in the modern era, became an obsession for Fisher and his staff, to the point that Fisher inquired about the 247Sports Class Calculator and how certain commits would affect A&M’s recruiting ranking. The former A&M recruiting staffer said Fisher ignored character questions if the recruits were five-star prospects.”
“He’s like, ‘Nope, he’s a five-star, we wanna take him,’” the staffer said.
Four of the seven players who left the program from the 2022 cycle were indefinitely suspended at various times last season, while wide receiver Chris Marshall entered the JUCO ranks after being dismissed from Ole Miss, cornerback Denver Harris is no longer on LSU’s active roster after both transferred last offseason.
Texas A&M has not dealt with the same suspension-based issues during the 2023 season. Still, more than anything, the close losses, nine-game road losing streak, and insufficient on-field development were the final straw for a program needing an infusion of new blood at the top of the mountain.
Ranging from vast resources to fan support, everything is in place to be successful for whoever succeeds Fisher in the coming days or weeks; a new era of Texas A&M Football is finally coming in 2024 and beyond.
Texas A&M will take on 14th-ranked LSU on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 11 a.m. CT., and ESPN will carry the game.
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