Jimbo Fisher was formally introduced as Texas A&M’s head coach Monday, just a few days after he accepted the historic 10-year, $75-million deal. During his first press conference in College Station, he was asked, expectedly, about the decision to leave Florida State, a place he called home for the last eight seasons.
2 ways this Jimbo Fisher quote about choosing Texas A&M over Florida State is probably true
The Aggies’ new head coach said he “couldn’t pass up” the opportunity.
C. Morgan Engel-USA TODAY Sports
There are a couple of reasons why he probably genuinely means this.
1. His situation in Tallahassee had really gone sour, probably to the point of him having no choice but to take the A&M job.
As Tomahawk Nation reported last week, things had become “untenable”:
What I did find, however, was multiple players who stated firmly that they can no longer trust Jimbo Fisher, and that if he comes back, they intend to transfer. They spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“If he’s back, I’m out.”
This is a changed sentiment from earlier in the year, when I reported that they would plan to transfer if their position coach was retained for the 2018 season. Much of the staff should have probably been dismissed following the 2016 campaign, and the message has gone stale.
Now the sentiment has changed, and these players do not want to play for the head coach. He failed to satisfactorily address his future status in an awkward team meeting Thursday.
There was also Florida State’s 2018 class losing a handful of verbal commitments while the rumors of Fisher-to-Texas A&M picked up steam last week, too. And second, stating the obvious here, but it also helps that $75 million is a deal you can’t exactly pass up, either.
Fisher also mentioned TAMU’s administration during his presser, which was interpreted by some to be him indirectly mentioning the Florida State administration.
As ESPN’s Andrea Adelson points out, this wasn’t exactly the case in Tallahassee:
Elliott expanded on this, adding that Florida State’s administration also gave the program brand new player dorms and a new player lounge. FSU also spent the sixth-most money in college football on coaches.
Any time a head coach leaves a successful program, these things sometimes happen. In Fisher’s case, there’s a very good chance he had no choice but to leave FSU, regardless of the money TAMU had for him.
2. SEVENTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS.
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