Texas A&M and its new head coach Jimbo Fisher might have led off SEC Media Days Monday morning in Atlanta, but Fisher was the talk of the town throughout the week.
After 11 years in the ACC, Fisher found his way back to the league he said “he grew up in,” and fellow SEC head coaches, some of whom Fisher once coached with in the league, had the utmost respect of what Fisher brings to the conference.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban recalled having a “great working relationship” with Fisher when he served as Saban’s offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000-04, helping lead the Tigers offense to the 2003 national championship.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him,” Saban said of Fisher. “I think he did a fantastic job at Florida State, won a National Championship there. And I think he’ll do a really good job at Texas A&M. Jimbo’s a really good quarterback coach and he’s a really good play caller.”
On that title-winning staff in Baton Rouge with Fisher was current South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp. He recalled having intense battles in practice with Fisher while serving as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator.
“He’s an outstanding friend and outstanding football coach,” Muschamp said of Fisher. “He’s a great developer at the quarterback position and outstanding play caller. Going against him every day for four years at LSU made me a better football coach. I can assure you of that. He’ll do an outstanding job. I think of him as a very good friend.”
During his tenure at Florida State, Fisher discipled two other current SEC head coaches – Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops.
As defensive coordinator at Florida State in 2013 when the Seminoles brought home a national title, Pruitt took away the toughness aspect of Fisher’s coaching tactics.
“Jimbo, kind of from the same tree, hard-nosed, competitor, great evaluator,” Pruitt said of his former boss. “His teams play great.”
Pruitt’s predecessor as the Seminoles’ defensive coordinator, Stoops, said he has no doubt Fisher will do well at A&M but is questioning how the Wildcats’ trip to Kyle Field on Oct. 6 will go for him in a recent conversation he had with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
“He said do you know all of Jimbo’s secrets,” Stoops said. “I said I know all of his secrets, but it doesn’t make it any easier. He’s a pretty good football coach. That’s a tough environment going down there and playing at A&M. He said does he know mine, and I said yeah, but I’m not sure how that’s going to play out.”