Texas A&M football head coach Jimbo Fisher has the largest single contract in all of college sports.
With a national championship under his belt from his time at Florida State, Fisher was a frequent target of other schools trying to lure him away from Tallahassee. He always said no. That is, until the Aggies came calling.
After the 2017 season, Texas A&M was looking to make a change and move on from Kevin Sumlin. The Aggies and then-athletic director Scott Woodward had only one target in mind - Fisher. Though the national media and those in Tallahassee made light of the idea, A&M was not going to take no for an answer. Before the regular season was even over, the Aggies had their man.
The previous season had seen A&M finish 7-6 overall, including blowing a 34-point third-quarter lead to UCLA. Nobody expected an immediate miracle in College Station. However, with a young roster, Fisher came in and led the team to a 9-4 record and its first-ever finish in the College Football Playoff top-25 rankings.
The 2019 season saw a step back, at least in terms of record, as A&M finished 8-5. However, those five losses were all to teams that finished in the final top 14 of the rankings. Three of them were top-5 finishers, including both participants in the national championship game. Other than that, the Aggies won every game they were supposed to.
The 2020 season has always been the one that those familiar with both the roster and schedule in Aggieland have pointed to as the big one for Fisher and A&M to break out. There are a number of experienced veterans on the team and Clemson and Georgia are both now off the schedule. In addition, the rest of the SEC West contenders all have major question marks.
With those factors, the low expectations for the past two seasons and the performance of those teams, it is hard to say that Fisher fell short his first two years at the helm. Nobody thought it would be an immediate turnaround. It is a bit surprising, then, at the category he is listed in when Dennis Dodd of CBSSports ranked every FBS coach as to where they stood on the 'Hot Seat.'
Fisher has proven to be a winner in the past and is one of only a handful of active coaches with a national title. He also has eight more years on a fully-guaranteed contract that pays him $7.5 million per season. But, on a scale of 0-5, Dodd has Fisher's seat at a 3.
Dodd has six FBS coaches at Level 5, which he labels as 'Win or be fired.' He has five more at Level 4, which is 'Start improving now.' Then, Level 3 has 12 more coaches and is labeled, 'Pressure is mounting.' Level 3 is where he includes Fisher. A year ago, Dodd had the A&M head coach at Level 1, which is labeled 'Safe and secure.'
While it is understandable for some to look at the results in isolation and wonder if Fisher still has his magic, the factors leading up to those results make it seem a bit odd to include him among the 23 hottest seats in the country. If he were to be changed from Level 1, a move to Level 2 and it's description of 'All good ... for now' would probably have been more fitting.
The truth is, no matter what, A&M is not firing Fisher anytime soon. The University would be on the hook for the entirety of his remaining contract, which sits at $60 million right now. The Aggies would then have to pay a new coach a lot of money as well. No matter the results of the 2020 season, that just is not happening. But, looking ahead to the season, there just does not seem much likelihood that A&M comes out and falls flat on its face, so that is almost assuredly a moot point.
As for the hottest seats in the country, the coaches at Level 5 are UTEP's Dana Dimel, Connecticut's Randy Edsall, Nebraska's Scott Frost, USC's Clay Helton, UCLA's Chip Kelly and Vanderbilt's Derek Mason. The coaches at Level 4 are Miami's Manny Diaz, Texas' Tom Herman, Tulsa's Philip Montgomery, South Carolina's Will Muschamp and Arizona's Kevin Sumlin.
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July 30, 2020 at 11:08PM
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CBS Sports hot seat ratings: Is Jimbo Fisher's ranking correct? - 247Sports
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