Texas A&M to hire Florida State's Jimbo Fisher as head football coach

Jimbo Fisher, who led Florida State to the college football national championship during the 2013 season, has resigned as head coach of the Seminoles and will be named Texas A&M’s next head coach. ESPN's Mark Schlabach first repoorted Fisher's resignation Friday afternoon. Fisher's move ends weeks of speculation and discussion about whether he would really leave Florida State, where he posted an 83-23 record in eight seasons as head coach. He will be introduced Monday at a 10 a.m. press conference in College Station.

As TexAgs Billy Liucci reported earlier this week, Fisher is expected to receive a 10-year contract worth more than $7 million per year. He replaces Kevin Sumlin, who was fired after a 45-21 loss to LSU in Texas A&M's final regular season game. The Aggies have won no more than eight regular season games in each of the past five seasons. While Sumlin managed just one season with a double digit win total (11-2 in 2012), Fisher’s teams posted at least 10 wins in six of his eight seasons as a head coach. 

Fisher’s consistency was very attractive for A&M, which finished unranked the last four seasons. Under Fisher, Florida State had four Top Ten finishes (2012, ’13, ’14, ’16) and three other Top 25 finishes.

After a series of injuries to significant players, the Seminoles slumped to 5-6 this year with a final regular season game against Louisiana-Monroe upcoming on Saturday. Reports indicate Fisher will not coach in that game despite his expressed desire to do so. Starting quarterback Deondre Francois suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game. The Seminoles later lost guard Landon Dickerson, center Baveon Johnson and tackle Jauan Williams to season-ending injuries. They’ve also had several other players miss games with injuries.

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A&M's laser focus on Fisher was no doubt because of his two national titles, one as LSU's offensive coordinator in 2003 and the other as Florida State's head coach in 2013.

A&M also has had a tumultuous quarterback situation since Johnny Manziel departed after the 2013 season. By contrast, Fisher developed three Florida State quarterbacks who were NFL first round draft choices, including Christian Ponder (2011), E.J. Manuel (2013) and Jameis Winston (2015), who won the Heisman Trophy a year after Manziel. As offensive coordinator at LSU, he also developed JaMarcus Russell, who was the first player selected in the 2007 NFL draft.

Fisher has served as offensive coordinator at Samford from 1991-92, quarterbacks coach at Auburn from 1993-98, offensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 1999 and offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000-2006. He was offensive coordinator under Nick Saban when LSU won the 2003 national championship.

In 2007 Fisher left LSU to take the offensive coordinator position on coach Bobby Bowden’s staff at Florida State. The next year he was designated as Bowden’s eventual successor and was named “head coach in waiting.” When took over as head coach in 2010 the Seminoles improved to 10-4 from 7-6 the previous season.

Despite his success, Fisher was vocal in his opinion that Florida State’s facilities are inferior to those at Clemson, Florida State’s primary rival in the Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division. He articulated his concerns in September, saying "We haven’t done anything for a long time here. We did when we first got here. We made a few little adjustments. Since then we really haven’t. We’ve got to get caught up in that area."

He repeated his views a few weeks ago when asked about Clemson's success.

"I think their rise has come from their commitment to football," Fisher said of the defending National Champion Tigers. "They've been committed, but their administration has done a tremendous job of spending and doing and building. Not just building, but all the things behind the scenes."

Texas A&M recently completed a nearly $500 million renovation of Kyle Field, and their football facilities are considered to be among the best in the country. Athletic Director Scott Woodward, who was hired in January of 2016, appears to have the kind of commitment to football that Fisher has coveted.

Woodward and Fisher also have a personal history. In 2000, both began working at LSU, where Fisher served as Nick Saban's offensive coordinator for six years, including during the Tigers 2003 National Championship season. Saban has referred to Fisher as the best offensive coordinator he's ever had.

Much more to come for TexAgs Premium subscribers.