While many will criticize and mock the less-than-stellar resume that Jimbo Fisher built up in his tenure at Texas A&M football, he should be just fine. The former national championship-winning head coach is set to earn a historic buyout that will induce strong feelings of nausea from the university's board.
After firing him on Sunday, Texas A&M will pay Fisher $77 million in guaranteed buyout money, per Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, which will cost its athletic budget an annual $7.3 million after taking $19 million out of the donor fund. Yikes.
That jaw-dropping amount of money is more than triple the second-highest coach buyout in college football history. Fisher left Florida State for the lucrative SEC in 2017 and then signed another mega deal a few years later. The program is only 19-15 since that unfortunate contract extension. Mandel effectively sums up the gravity of this situation.
“He will be paid a sum greater than a Mountain West school’s entire athletics budget and let someone else make gobs of money chasing glory.” Again, there is no need to shed a tear for Fisher.
The Aggies gambled on his reputation and did not even enjoy a double-digit win season. They believed that a 9-win 2020 campaign (COVID) foretold big things in the future and thus decided to double down on their already-sizable investment. Texas A&M football will probably be confined to ridicule for a long, long time.
But perhaps they should be given an iota of credit for their bravery. It would be all too easy to retain Fisher for at least another year in the hopes of a quick turnaround. Instead, the team is starting over again.
More hard times are due to follow in College Station. Well, not for Jimbo Fisher, of course.
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