It’s unlikely that Jimbo Fisher will look back on Saturday with any fondness, at least as far as football is concerned. His Texas A&M Aggies were upset, losing 17-14 at home to Appalachian State. In the aftermath of that loss, the A&M coach is coming under heavy criticism.
A lot of attention in the offseason was devoted to the epic battle of words between Fisher, Nick Saban, and Deion Sanders. A key trigger in all of that was the Aggies landing a top recruiting class. While Texas A&M had its skeptics, it also came into the season with high external expectations as a team that could compete for a national championship.
If Saturday’s result didn’t completely squash those hopes, it put them on very shaky ground. When the game was over, Fisher put a lot of the blame on himself.
The college football world agreed. Fisher was slammed by several people in the college football world in the aftermath of Saturday’s loss.
https://twitter.com/FunnyMaine/status/1568736540859195393
The criticism of Fisher is fair. He’s in his fifth season with the Aggies. Texas A&M doesn’t have a single season of 10 wins or better under Fisher (though the Aggies were 9-1 in 2020’s COVID-19 shortened season), have no College Football Playoff appearances, and have only finished in the top-10 once and played in one New Year’s Six bowl game.
Texas A&M is now definitively Fisher’s team with his guys in there. He’s also making a lot of money. To have a chance at the playoff, A&M will likely have to run the table (not easy given the remaining teams) and likely come through with some convincing wins against at least some of its tougher opponents. That will be a challenge. But if Fisher doesn’t meet that challenge, the criticism of his performance will only grow louder.
[TexAgs]