COLLEGE STATION, Texas — After a dramatic season for Texas A&M fans hoping and aspiring for better results in the Southeastern Conference, Director of Athletics Ross Bjork has announced that head coach Jimbo Fisher will not be leading the team going forward.
The news was initially broken by Billy Liucci of TexAgs and later reported by multiple major outlets, including ESPN and Yahoo! Sports. A verdict on Fisher's future at A&M was reportedly decided on Nov. 9 during a Board of Regents meeting.
"After very careful analysis of all the components related to Texas A&M football, I recommended to President Welsh and then Chancellor Sharp that a change in the leadership of the program was necessary in order for Aggie football to reach our full potential and they accepted my decision," said Director of Athletics Ross Bjork on 12thman.com "We appreciate Coach Fisher's time here at Texas A&M and we wish him the best in his future endeavors."
As a part of his contract agreement, Fisher will be paid out the remainder of his $76 million contract, which was extended in 2021.
A press conference was held at the Kyle Field media center at 5 p.m. on Sunday regarding the matter. The full press conference can be viewed below on the Texas A&M Athletics YouTube channel:
In his six seasons at the helm, Fisher has accrued a 45-25 record since joining the program from Florida State in 2018, a team that he won a national championship with in 2013. However, as a national championship winning coach, expectations were high for Jimbo, as many at Texas A&M looked to him to bring the program to heights that previous head coach Kevin Sumlin was unable to reach.
In 2022, the program had an underwhelming 5-7 season in which the Aggies missed a postseason bowl game for the first time in over a decade. Pressure also continued to mount after the offensive front--a side of the ball Fisher was known to excel on--drastically underachieved. That would later prompt A&M to bring in Bobby Petrino as the team's offensive coordinator and inject new life into the Aggie offense.
With new weapons, a mostly injury-free team, and many freshman that started in 2022 now with a year of experience, hopes were high that Texas A&M could break their cycle of mediocrity and underperformance compared to the talent that they had on their roster.
Those aspirations would be short-lived, as the Aggies would lose tough games against the Miami Hurricanes on the road, Alabama Crimson Tide at home, Tennessee Volunteers in Rocky Top, and Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford. In fact, three of A&M's four losses have come by less than one touchdown. The only game that was outside that one-touchdown score differential was against Miami, where the Hurricanes defeated Texas A&M 48-33.
Texas A&M will face off against Abilene Christian University on Nov. 18 and travel to Baton Rouge to play LSU for their final game of the 2023 season the week after.
In 2024, A&M's schedule will drastically change, but will still contain high-profile opponents. Florida, Missouri, and former Big 12 rival Texas will join the conference slate, while Notre Dame will headline the team's non-conference schedule. Alabama and Ole Miss will rotate out to play other opponents, while Arkansas, Auburn, South Carolina, and Mississippi State will remain on the schedule from the past couple of seasons.
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