SEC Football: Put up or shut up time for Jimbo Fisher in College Station

John James Jimbo Fisher has a tiger by its tail in College Station. The Aggies already had the nation’s top, 2022 recruiting class before adding another 5-Star recently.

Alabama football fans follow recruiting carefully and know that while the Aggies’ No. 1 class is impressive, it was built with 30 recruits, compared to 25 for the Crimson Tide. The average player rating in the 247Sports Composite is actually higher for Alabama players than it is for Jimbo’s class.

With the addition of 5-Star, defensive lineman, Lebbeus Overton, 247Sports commented,

"The best recruiting class in modern history didn’t just improve, the Aggies again showed rivals they aren’t shying away from their insatiable desire to outswing every rival in the rough and dirty trenches of the SEC."

Alabama Crimson Tide fans can argue that Jimbo invested too much treasure in defensive linemen over the last two recruiting cycles. The game has changed enough that defense no longer is the main factor in championships. Whether that represents a miscalculation by Fisher or not, he has a bigger problem.

Jimbo Fisher must win in Tuscaloosa

Now the Aggies must win in Tuscaloosa in October. If Jimbo fails to do that and the loss is followed by another loss in College Station in 2023, Fisher’s tenure will become – tenuous.

GigEmGazette, elaborating on a statement by Matt Hayes wrote,

"To bring it back to the words of Hayes in the title of the article — Jimbo Fisher has built Texas A&M into a monster. Now it’s time to eat.In four years of Jimbo Fisher, his teams have lost at least four games in three of those seasons. If Fisher can’t get it together with the elite talent that he has in College Station right now, it may never happen."

When a team’s top fansite is already willing to discuss the challenge facing Fisher it shows the seriousness of Jimbo’s situation. What could go wrong, and how soon, are two good questions. The big ‘go-wrong’ could simply be the Aggies’ offense not being good enough. Fisher apparently has great confidence in quarterback Haynes King. That confidence did not deter him from adding former LSU starter, Max Johnson. Johnson’s LSU performance did not put him in the upper tier of SEC quarterbacks.

Does Jimbo have a QB who can win in Tuscaloosa? Very few college football pundits are predicting an Aggie victory next fall. If the Aggies lose that game as expected, they could come up short again of a CFB Playoff berth. If so, Jimbo will have exactly one more season to prove his worth to the program.

The tiger mentioned at the top of this post is no worn-out Bengal Tiger or a loud but toothless Auburn Tiger. It is instead a Tiger built from insanely high expectations for Texas A&M football.