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Each week, our Executive Director, Matthew Redding (5’11, 185, 4.78 40-yard dash, $4.99 on Wish, 5.49
on TEMU) sits down with a cup of coffee and ponders life in the world of College Football and beyond.
Ask him anything on Twitter (@TheBarningMan) and he may answer it next week over his breakfast. This
week, he’s thinking about the drama in Aggieland and what follows next...
This feels like one of my "open letter" pieces, so let's just treat it as such. First, we have to talk about what went wrong for Jimbo Fisher.
The $76 Million Man was not a bad hire. There, I said it. At the time, Jimbo was a four-time ACC Champion and 2013 BCS National Champion, who was arguing that his lackluster campaigns at Florida State in 2015 and 2016 were due to a lack of funding from the administrators and boosters to build better facilities to attract better recruits. Texas A&M had money growing on trees and had no problem letting Fisher call whatever shots he needed in order to win and win NOW, following the mediocre seasons under former HC Kevin Sumlin.
The only problem was that Jameis Winston wasn't coming with Fisher to win another Heisman. In fact, if you take Winston out of Fisher's coaching career, his average conference record in the ACC would have been somewhere in the 5-3 to 4-4 range, which is good for 9-3 or 8-4 seasons (sound right, Aggie fans?) and he probably isn't a topic of discussion right now, because he would have never been hired by TAMU to begin with.
Instead, he came in and inherited a roster that had enough talent to compete, led by former four-star dual-threat QB Kellen Mond, and set to work on bringing a title to College Station. There was nothing but support from the fans and administration this time, so there can be no excuses as to why he failed. The only blame for this whole mess is on Fisher himself for demanding too much control, and it's something he failed to acknowledge until it was too late. Bringing in Bobby Petrino as his OC sorta worked, rejuvenating the offense to averaging 40 points per game, but there were times when Fisher's teams looked woefully unprepared or unenthusiastic about playing. And, even though he recruited the #1 class in 2022, many of them transferred before they even got to see the field. Hayes King went from five-star QB to transferring to Georgia Tech because Fisher failed to develop him into what he promised. Connor Weigman couldn't stay healthy, and Max Johnson always looked like a deer in the headlights when taking over for him.
Sure, the injuries didn't help, but that's why you devote as much time developing your backups as you do the starters. Nothing about Jimbo's Aggie teams the last 3 years would suggest they were once top-10 recruiting classes. In the end, Jimbo is why Jimbo got fired, and that's why the administration made the right call to pay his buyout and show him the door.
Right, hire? Absolutely. Right fire? Also absolutely.
See you in Tuscaloosa next year, Slim Jim.
Now, anyway. It's time to fix the Aggie program with an open letter...via Matt's Musings.
DEAR TEXAS A&M
Hire Urban Meyer.
Yes, I know, after the disaster that was Jacksonville and his final season at Ohio State, nobody wants to touch him with a 10-foot pole, but here's the deal;
You just fired the guy who just brought in the 2022 #1 overall recruiting class in both 247 and ESPN composite rankings, and while many of those players are gone, many are still there and the current recruiting class is gonna need a coach that already has a proven track record before deciding to stick with TAMU. Will it be controversial? Absolutely, but do you want people to shut up about the buyout already? Do you want people to stop posting pictures about the "National Champions" plaque you gave Jimbo when he was hired?
You have shown that you want to win and win BIG, as you should expect to when you have as much money as you do. You have also shown that you want to win NOW and not go through another year 1 rebuild, as you would want to if you've had to sit through your team putting up numerous 8-win campaigns with 12-win rosters. I get it, it's fair.
Mike Elko is the safe (probable) hire, Dan Lanning is the good hire, Lane Kiffin is the sexy hire, Deion Sanders is the wishful hire, and Jeff Traylor is the logical hire. All of them, however, will present you with one of the pains I mentioned above. Do you want a coach that'll skip all of that?
Hire Meyer.
At this point, what more do you have to lose? Texas A&M would be back in the spotlight and for the right reasons. The man can recruit, he's a talent developer, and heck, he may bring his old OC Dan Mullen with him, and BOOM! Welcome to the unstoppable 2000's days of Florida Football.
If you need to know how good his quarterbacks are, just remember Ohio State won the 2014 National Title with Cardale Jones, the third-string backup.
If you need to know how good his recruiting is, just look at how he convinced both JT Barret and Braxton Miller to STAY at Ohio State AFTER losing their starting job to Jones.
No matter who was under center, Meyer averaged 10 wins per season at OSU, went undefeated against their main rival Michigan, and always had the Buckeyes in playoff contention come November.
Isn't that what you need right now? No more days of looking unprepared for the next opponent, no more lackluster outings against inferior teams. Just winning, plain and simple.
Sure, he may have a "health concern" and bounce after five years or so, but if history means anything, he'll at least win you a title or two in that span. Wouldn't that be worth it after sitting through Sumlin and Fisher in back-to-back cycles?
Aggie fans wouldn't complain. Well, they will at first, but once the wins start pouring in, who cares who he kicked in the head at Jacksonville?
It's controversial. It's a deal that would arguably cost more than what you paid Fisher, but in the end, it would be everything you thought you were getting with Jimbo.
Winning, winning big, and winning it all. Don't ask too many questions about the PR recovery from it, don't check the temperature on Twitter about the public perception of Meyer, and don't watch Swamp Kings on Netflix.
Just make that call. Sometimes, in college football, the only deal is a deal with the devil.
But once Meyer hoists that playoff trophy (for the second time in his career, this time wearing Texas A&M gear), he'll be viewed as a saint.
- M
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