The Athletic: Jimbo Fisher isn’t the only one with a massive contract, but Texas A&M is at the inflection point first

BleedGopher

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per The Athletic:

Jimbo Fisher is in the middle of his fifth season at Texas A&M. Following Saturday night’s 30-24 loss at South Carolina, Fisher’s team is 3-4 this season. He is an offensive guru whose team has yet to score more than 24 points against an FBS opponent in 2022. Fisher is 37-18 in his career at Texas A&M. Sumlin, who was fired after Year 6, was 39-16 in his first 55 games at the school and never finished worse than 7-5 in the regular season. With Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn and LSU remaining on the schedule, 7-5 seems a fairly high bar to clear in 2022. And even though the Aggies’ recruiting rank surged in the class of 2022, the product on the field seems to be regressing. The offensive line seems perpetually young. The receivers have yet to develop. The Aggies are beset by first- and second-year problems in Year 5.

What can the school and the athletic department do about it? Nothing.

No one is firing Fisher. And Fisher doesn’t have to listen to anyone in College Station if he chooses not to listen. Fisher certainly can make changes to improve the program, and he’ll almost certainly try to do that. But everything has to be his idea. He has all the leverage, thanks to a contract extension last season that fully guaranteed him an average of $9.5 million a year through 2031. Note that word “fully,” because it has to do all the lifting. If Texas A&M officials wanted to fire Fisher without cause after the regular season, they’d owe him an $85,950,000 buyout.

That number effectively makes Fisher the football equivalent of a Supreme Court justice for the next five or six years. You may not like what he’s doing. You may disagree with his philosophy. But he doesn’t have to care because he’s basically untouchable. He doesn’t have to listen to anyone. Not athletic director Ross Bjork. Not chancellor John Sharp.

Texas A&M donors may wish Fisher would adapt his offensive philosophy or hire someone else to call plays, but unless they want to pool what amounts to the cost of a new football building, he doesn’t have to worry about their anger, either. Texas A&M handed Fisher every bit of leverage, and now program and coach are stuck with one another.


Go Gophers!!
 

An $86 million buyout. Oh my.
 



This is on A&M’s AD and President. They’re obviously total boobs. Can’t blame Jimbo for taking the money they offered.
 


This is on A&M’s AD and President. They’re obviously total boobs. Can’t blame Jimbo for taking the money they offered.
Yup. Same can be said at MSU with Tucker. The question is whether schools start to learn from these mistakes and get sane about contract length and guarantee. My guess is no... You'll always have a few ADs who think they know best and can do no wrong. Coupled with deep pocketed boosters, we likely waved goodbye to sanity years ago.
 




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