Keepin' It Cool: Jimbo Fisher fields questions submitted by TexAgs subscribers

The latest edition of Keepin' It Cool, presented by YETI, features Texas A&M head football coach Jimbo Fisher fielding questions submitted by subscribers for nearly thirty minutes with Billy Liucci.

What's the position group that has to take the biggest step forward for a successful 2020 football season?

I know this will sound cliche: it's all of them. Listen. People say you have to have a great offense to have a great team. You always got to have a great defense. The great teams I was on were great on offense, defense and special teams. We have to play better on the offensive line. We have to be more physical. We have to protect better. Our quarterback has to make better decisions. We got to throw the ball better. We have to have more plays at receiver, more plays at back and our tight ends got to grow up, block better and catch better. Defense, we got to rush better. Cover better at backer and play more consistent. We have to play well in the secondary and create turnovers. I can go down the list. We all have to. We have to learn. The level of ball it takes to play. We've played the schedule and we played the top teams in America. We were very close on some of those situations, but close doesn't get it. Sometimes when you get close, the hardest part of the mountain to climb is the last ten percent. You look at the draft yesterday. There were 15 first-round picks from the SEC. We played against 14 of them and we played against two of Clemson’s. We played against 16 of the 32. I’m saying that for this fact: We know the level we have to play at, so everybody has to improve. We have to play at that level, and we have to do it week in and week out.

What's the one quality you look for when evaluating a QB?

Well, first of all, obviously, the guy's arm. What does he do? He throws the football. He has to have a certain level of arm talent to be able to function at this level. People say, “What are the key intangibles that a quarterback has?” I think there is a whole conglomerate of them. I think very few of them have all 10, 12, 14, however many you want to say there are. A lot of them have five, six or seven of them and are good. The others, they can manage and have their own style. That’s why you see so many different styles of guys be successful. At the end of the day, you have to have a certain level of arm talent to be able to make the throws and hit the throws with the accuracy that you have to have. Then you get into balance, body control, decision making, leadership, toughness. You got to have a certain level of arm talent.

How excited are you to use Ainias in the backfield this upcoming season? He looked like an exciting/versatile weapon during the bowl game.

I really am because one, he is a natural runner of the football. We need depth there and we need a quality guy. This guy can do it all. You saw that in the bowl game. He can run. He can block. He caught balls. He gives you a lot of diversity and he gives you the diversity unlike a lot of backs. Some backs can catch slants and drags and spot routes and screens. This guy can go run a route tree like a receiver, so how you match him up and the things you do is going to allow you to expand his role from empty packages, things out of the backfield. At the same time, you can go back there and hand it to him and get in a two-back set with Isaiah in the game too. It can be in a one-back set or an empty and run true routes. He creates a lot of versatility within what he has.

Are you in favor of expanding the playoffs or leaving it as is?

Here’s my whole thing: I think we eventually have to expand. It's good right now. I like it. It’s doing well. What I don't like is the deemphasis of the bowl games. College football is about bowl games. If it’s only going to be about the playoff, let’s just have one giant playoff. The playoffs are good, but going to the Cotton Bowl, going to the Orange Bowl, going to the Sugar Bowl when they’re not in those playoff games or significant things, I just want to make sure that we don’t eliminate those things or expand the heck out of them. One of the two. It's going well right now, but I think it will expand eventually in time, I really do.

What position group is most hindered by the lack of spring football?

I say our football team, and here’s why I say that: I think we have some experience now that really understands what we’re doing. Our leadership was really good during the offseason, but we have some many young talented football players that are really talented but are learning to be football players at their positions. There is a lot of polish and a lot of little things that they need to enhance on. As I team, we have experience, which is good. I’ll take the experience that we have and all that, but I mean, I was really looking forward to taking a guy like Ainias really expanding his role. How Jalen Wydermyer, for instance, is really improving his blocking. Up front, getting our centers located. The defensive linemen really making a jump in the pass rush. Those backers and the young secondary guys getting back there and really understanding. I thought as a football team because of our talent overall as a really young group, I was really looking forward to it. But hey, I like what we have.

What is your best fishing story? Biggest bass you ever caught?

I have caught very few this time around. Ethan and Keller have been catching bass. I haven't been fishing as much. The largest one I've ever caught was right at 7.72.

How do you like hunting in Texas?

I love it because of the deer season and the extended deer season. It goes a little later after the season and into January a little bit. Of course, you can always hunt hogs. I love Nilgai hunting. That’s one of the most fun things. What I don't get much here because we don’t have as much of it is turkey. I love to turkey hunt.

Favorite Aggie non-football sporting event you have attended?

l've gotten to baseball a couple of times. I need to get to more. Women’s softball, I love. I was able got to track more this season for some reason. The SEC meet and a bunch of the indoor meets. I love watching people run, men and women. Of course, basketball. I need to get to more women’s basketball game. I got one this year. We have some phenomenal players. I don't know if I have a favorite. I love watching the other sports. I really do. I love watching them all compete and do things.

How grateful are you to be able to retain Mike Elko for a third year, and hopefully more?

I think it's huge because of the continuity it creates. The nuances of a defense or an offense really come in to play in those second, third, fourth years, and then the carryover within the organization with coaches, with players, everything happens. The ability to keep Mike, as you call games on offenses, you get to learn the players even better the longer you have them and depending how you bring them along. It’s huge to get him to say. Very big. Which he wants. He wants to be here and does a great job. It’s great to have him.

What's an activity, process, or idea that you or the staff have implemented/changed during this period that you'll utilize in the future once things are back to normal?

I think the technology part of with reaching out to all of your players even more. Recruiting is very similar because it's still facetime and all of those types of things. The virtual videos and things that you can get to recruits and the enhancement of that. Getting guys on campus is going to be hard, so for people who are visiting from far off or for who haven’t been here, I think the enhancement of the virtual and really making it detailed because we might not get them in until the season, and guys are going to make decisions before then. Some of that stuff would fit into that.

Players having the flexibility to play multiple offensive positions during the same drive is a huge plus for your offense to create mismatches. Who are some players that you're excited to utilize in those types of situations/roles?

Spiller does too. Spiller can catch the football. That’s where your tight ends and your backs come in. Wydermyer, the young tight ends and all of those guys can catch the ball but can be split out like wideouts and put in the slot. How people play them with safeties, with corners, they play them with linebackers. I think their knowledge and now they’re old enough that they can do that and their skill level. Even the receivers and our young receivers you can even put in the backfield and hand them the ball. Reverses and things of that nature. All of our skill guys offensively.

If you could only pick one thing about A&M to convince a recruit to play here, what would it be?

I think it's the Aggie Network. I think this is a lifetime decision, not a four-year decision. I think you can enhance anything here in as good as anybody can and win championships. If we do it right - and we have to keep recruiting and player developing and expanding our resources as far as facilities and things to do to get guys here. It's still a 40-year, lifetime decision, not a four-year decision. I think the Aggie Network and the people and the life after ball and the education. The ability to have a lifetime of a network of people to take care of you is as good as anywhere in the country.

Ever since you were old enough to start watching college football and enjoying it until you were hired by Texas A&M, were there ever any Aggie football moments, games, players, or coaches that stuck out to you for whatever reason or caused you to be aware of A&M? Maybe in the ‘80s?

When I was at LSU and I was first there in 2000, we were recruiting over here so much. We were trying to get into Texas in recruiting. We went head-to-head with a lot of those A&M guys in the early 2000s. We went head-to-head with a lot of them. At LSU, they had like two or three winning seasons in the ‘90s. They had two wins and three wins in the previous two seasons before we got there. When we first got there and were recruiting for LSU, we were no big deal. In this state, we had to fight A&M a bunch when I first went to LSU. I always knew of A&M's great defenses and how they were playing in the '90s when I was at Auburn. I was a fan of Florida State and keeping up Coach Bowden, and I remember when A&M played Florida State in that kickoff classic in the late '90s too. Wasn’t A&M winning at halftime? That was a very good game in the ‘90s. The biggest thing that showed me how powerful and strong A&M could be was when I first got to LSU and was trying to recruit this state.

Who would you give a "most improved" award for any player you've seen in your career for their growth from the first time you met them in high school to their peak?

There is a lot of guys. I'm trying to think quarterback-wise. Stan White, Pat Nix, they were all phenomenal. Rohan Davis, Josh Booty. Matt Mauck, it wasn't his improvement, but it was his drive to really understand. He came out of baseball and hadn't really played. He struggled a little bit throwing the ball. As a matter of fact, in the spring game, he never completed a pass his freshman year. We had a good defense. In the second year, he threw five or six picks. He wasn’t the starter. He went 19-2 in his career and got drafted and played in the NFL about four or five years and took us to a national championship. Threw for 28 touchdowns as a junior and had another year left, but came out early. Christian Ponder. They had a bunch of five-star guys and I fell in love with him. He didn’t play his first year but took off in his second year. It was just athletic. We had some great players around him. He could run. He was athletic. He could make all of the throw. My god, he was smart. They asked him to be a Rhodes Scholar and he declined it because he knew he was going to play in the NFL. His ability to develop was amazing. Wideouts, Kelvin Benjamin really game on. There have been some phenomenal ones. Josh Reed was a guy that developed like crazy. He played receiver for us at LSU until we moved him, and he was the all-time leading receiver in SEC history in just two years. His record stood for a while and you have to remember that they didn’t count his bowl games. They did not count bowl games then. If you go back and count his bowl game, he got a 14 for 239 and a 9 for 99 in two bowl games that don’t count. Just phenomenal. I go back and Auburn had some. I mean, there have been so many. Defensively, I remember Tyson Jackson when we were at LSU. He ended up being a top-five pick in the draft. There was a point and a thing where he was doing good on defense, but we thought he might be better as an offensive tackle. We were about ready to move him and all of a sudden, he took off and became a top-five pick in the draft. There are so many of those. Corey Webster; a first-round pick as a corner and an All-American. When we found him, the only offer he had was Southern Miss. That was two weeks before signing day. We brought him in and he played receiver for me for two years. We were short on corners. He was playing good, but we had a bunch of receivers. We thought he would be a heck of a corner. He played corner for two years and becomes an two-time All-American, plays 12 years in the league and wins two Super Bowls. There are so many of those stories. It’s fun to look back and watch those guys.

What do we need to address next to ensure we have the best football facilities in the country?

Don't build facilities just to build them, but build them for player development and why they’re making decisions and make it efficient. The thing about the time constraints that you have in college, your time management and the ability to keep things accessible and close together and functional so you can get a lot done in a short period of time because you don’t have all of that time you do in pro ball or even high school. I think we have to keep up with the modernization of things, the technology of things and the location of things. You can’t landlock yourself. I think we have to have good experiences and we have to plan out. I always say this: You have a one-year plan, a five-year plan and a ten-year plan the way you see your program growing. That way you can start raising money and going different directions for your team and your organization where the facilities and things you need can touch different donors so you’re not always hitting the same people all of the time.

How do you create a physical football team? Does it have more to do with style of play, practice, strength and conditioning, or something else?

Yes. If a man don't think tough, live tough and practice tough, he's not going to play tough. Toughness is something that you can’t hide. You’re either tough or you’re not. You like it or you don’t. You have to think that way, and you got to recruit that way. I think mentalities and people and the way they play, the styles that have the ability, and do the things you got to have. I think that’s one the things that separate this league is the physicality of the front people on the offensive and defensive lines. There were only four D-linemen taken last night in the NFL Draft and three of them were from the SEC. The other one was Chase Young from up there. There were three offensive linemen taken from the league, and there were only a couple taken from the other leagues. I mean, you’re always going to have that. The defensive linemen in the south; there are so many of them at so many schools. That’s what makes this league so different, along with the speed and everything else. Those linemen are... The size potential. You have to recruit that nastiness.

Bama and LSU have multi-players selected in the first round of the NFL Draft every year. Do you foresee A&M having the same kind of talent to do the same in the near future?

That's what we have to do. We have to continue to recruit, get them to understand that and the develop guys. Like I say, you’ll look at that and a lot of them are high guys, but then Edward-Helarie was a lower-level guy that they didn’t think would be there. They’re around other guys and seeing their work ethic, all of a sudden, their talent level comes out. You got to be able to see what a guy can possibly be. It’s player development and evaluation and recruiting. It’s got to happen and if we want to win the league, we have to right guys and continue to develop guys.

How good was Chuba from Ok State- compared to other backs we faced recently? He sure looked fast

He's one of those guys. For a first-rounder on a back, sometimes that’s hard. That may be one of the hardest positions to predict because people don't do it enough as much, and I don’t know why. Does he have that capability? Yes. I still think he will be a top couple of round guy because of his size, speed, athletism. He's a good player.

I know the schedule is booked pretty far in advance, so I'm curious what do you look for in future opponents, and do you like the non-conference neutral site games?

I think there is an advantage to both. With the home-and-home, you can control when you schedule it. Sometimes, having those early games with a certain team is great and other times, when you have an inexperienced team, it’s not. You say it’s an early loss. One, a team has never made the playoff with two losses. There is an advantage to both. The thing I used like about [the neutral site games] is it put you a a major site so it felt like a bowl game or a playoff game or a major game. You could get that excitement. It seems like it’s going back to the home-and-homes now. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Both types are there to stay. I don’t really have a preference anymore. I may say home-and-home. It’s interesting.

What's the biggest challenge in recruiting right now, given that you can't talk to recruits in person?

That right there: Not getting guys on campus and finalizing things. One of the great things that A&M has to sell is the family atmosphere and the people and the culture. It’s not just the facility, but the feel you get when you walk into A&M. I really do think with the eye-to-eye presence, our staff does a tremendous job recruiting. When you're around our guys, you feel the genuineness of our staff, the people here and how much they love it. I think that’s part of the recruiting world and the buy-in to A&M. I really do. That’s the hardest thing right now. The ones we get here on campus, we have a heck of a shot at getting.

How much more dynamic can the offense be this season with so many new weapons coming in?

We have to be able to create big plays. Turnovers and big plays affect the game more than anything, but then you got to have a physicality and be able to run the ball when you got to run it. Third down, red zone, short-yardage and the last four minutes of the game. You got to be able to find those times to be able to run the football. I think that is the key. We got to be physical up front, but we got to create big plays and create space and have to have diversity on offense. I think we are running really good at wideout. We got some really good young guys that can run and can play. The backs have diversity. Kellen in his third year. Our line hopefully being physical when we get things going in the right way. Some of our young tight ends have diversity. It’s going to be huge. We got to be dynamic on offense.

Which player do you expect to make a big impact this year that didn't see the field much last year? New additions or returning.

Some of your young wideouts. Chap outside. Chase Lane has done a good job. JP has a chance to be a good player. You know the other guys. I’m hoping the young tight ends come on and keep playing well. You saw Ainias. Some of the new guy. We will have to see how Moose and Devon and Demas and all of those guys do. Cam Brown, I like some of the things he does. Those guys all. I’m trying not to miss anybody. That group up front hopefully gets some of the younger quarterbacks in there. Get Baylor and some of those guys at tight end going. Defensively, you know Leal, but Ardarious and some of those guys back. A-White and those guys. Erick Young; get him in the mix and get him going. Isaiah and some of those JUCO corners and the young DBs with Jaylon and Antonio and Moten. I think all of those guys will make contributions. Just watching them in practice, Diggs and Raikes, you'll see them on special teams and in rotations. There are guys in there like Jaylon Jones that have such an ability to make plays. I was excited about that young group of guys. I know there are some that I’m missing. Hopefully, they don’t hold that against me. There are so many good young guys that I think will have a chance to be good players.

What would you be doing if you weren't a football coach?

I couldn't imagine a job. Somebody would think I’m crazy or a football coach probably. I'd have to be doing something outdoors. I’d have to be doing something outside. Hunting, fishing, farming. I'd be doing something of that nature.

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