When Texas A&M and Mississippi State played this past Saturday in College Station both teams head coaches were off to get a big win and answer questions about their job security and futures at their respective schools. Fisher and Texas A&M got a 51-10 win and seemingly to most did enough to kick the can down the road for a few more weeks. But as of Monday morning just over 24 hours after that game went final, both coaches are unemployed and both schools are on the market for a new head coach.
Jimbo Fisher’s tumultuous tenure at Texas A&M.
Sunday morning despite coming off a big victory at home vs a division opponent Texasags.com reporter Billy Liucci was the first to report that this past Thursday the Texas A&M Athletic department and university president had decided at a board of regents meeting to move on from Fisher just before the end of his sixth season as head coach of the Aggies and just before the end of his third year of a massive 10 year 95 million dollar extension that will pay him a 77 million dollar buyout to go away and coach elsewhere as there was no offset buyout protection as is typical in these situations. This is the largest buyout in college football history far surpassing the 21.5 million Auburn paid Coach Gus Malzahn after his firing following the 2020 season. Fisher bolted from Florida State in December of 2017 leaving his Christmas tree out with the garbage after a successful tenure with the Seminoles that included an 83-23 record and a 2013 undefeated season and National Championship victory. Fisher arrived in College Station with immense hype and pressure to produce and was even given a plaque that declared A&M the National champions and had an undetermined year when this would take place (spoiler alert: it still hasn’t) and was viewed by many as a home run hire for the Aggies and got off to what many viewed as an exceptional start at A&M with a 9-4 record and Gator Bowl victory in year one as well as signing the number 4 recruiting class in the nation in the 2019 cycle (on3). It turned out as the rest of Fisher’s tenure went on, 9 wins was going to be the peak as he only achieved this feat once more which came in the Covid-marred 2020 season which included an Orange Bowl victory. Fisher continued to sign top 10 recruiting classes every year from 2019-2022 which reached a fever pitch going into the 2022 season as A&M signed the number one class in the nation and was coming off a season in which they defeated Nick Saban and Alabama and after Saban gave criticism to Fisher/A&M and accused them of underhanded recruiting tactics to sign the number one class in the nation which led to Fisher going on a heated tirade on Saban in the middle of the summer in 2022 in what’s typically a quiet time in the college football world, expectations were sky high going into the 2022 season. But this is where the implosion begins. After entering the 2022 season with a number 6 ranking in the AP poll the season proved to be an unmitigated disaster for Fisher and A&M that was the beginning of the end of Fisher’s tenure in College Station. The Aggies had an embarrassing loss to the Sun Belt’s Appalachian State week 2 of the season and after 2 ugly wins over Miami and Arkansas the Aggies began a 6 game SEC losing streak that culminated with an embarrassing loss to what was an awful Auburn team on the road with an inexperienced but beloved interim coach Cadillac Williams coaching his 2nd game. A&M finished the 2022 season 5-7 and Fisher’s seat was red hot entering 2023 and the team began to lose players to the transfer portal and was no longer having the same recruiting success as their NIL money began to take a hit and people realized the writing on the wall for Fisher’s future in College Station. And that brings us to now as A&M sits 6-4 now searching for a new head coach and Fisher is unemployed but soon to be 77 million dollars richer. It will be interesting to see if he decides to coach again and where he goes from here but he certainly will be under no financial burden to do so. As for A&M, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd published a list of potential successors for Fisher at A&M that includes Duke head coach Mike Elko, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, Florida State head coach Mike Norvell, Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer, UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, USC senior analyst Kliff Kinsgsbury and Georgia Co-defensive coordinator Glen Schumann. In my personal opinion as well I think it would be smart for A&M to reach out to former Florida and Ohio State head coach and current Fox Sports TV analyst Urban Meyer and gauge his interest in returning to the sidelines. Fisher finished his tenure at 45-25 at Texas A&M and both sides will be spending a lot of time now wondering where things went wrong.
Zach Arnett out at Mississippi State less than 1 year into his tenure.
There’s not near as much to say on Arnett’s firing at Mississippi State as there is on Fisher’s at Texas A&M. The 37 year old Arnett got his first career head coaching job after three years as a defensive coordinator at the school. Arnett took the reins last December after the tragic passing of head coach and college football icon Mike Leach. Arnett coached the Bulldogs to an emotional ReliaQuest Bowl win over Illinois weeks after Leach’s passing and many in the media and community praised Arnett for his ability to rally his team after taking over impossible circumstances. Arnett entered his first full year as head coach in Starkville with low expectations due to the aforementioned impossible circumstances. Arnett got a great non conference win over a very good Arizona team week 2 this season and things seemed to be heading in a good direction but that abruptly changed the next week after a 41-14 home loss to LSU. Arnett was only able to achieve one SEC conference victory a 7-3 triumph over Sam Pittman’s Arkansas team; another SEC coach with a red hot seat, more on that later. Many will argue that Arnett’s firing is premature and he didn’t deserve but the unfortunate reality of the situation is that Athletic Director Zac Selmon was hired weeks after Arnett and Selmon in all likelihood from the start wants to make his own head coaching hire to tie himself to because he didn’t make the decision to hire Arnett. The good news for Arnett is that he is a very young coach at age 37 and will be a highly sought after Defensive Coordinator candidate already being mentioned for possible openings in the position at USC and LSU. If Arnett is able to go to a school and find success as a DC he shouldn’t have any issue landing a new head coaching gig down the road that he will then be better prepared for. As for Mississippi State they join their SEC West rival A&M in the coaching search; CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee published an article listing Ex Mississippi State-Florida head coach Dan Mullen, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee, Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell and Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby as the top candidates. Dan Mullen seems to be the popular choice here as he had a successful 9 year tenure in Starkville from 2009-2017 that included a College Football Playoff number 1 ranking in October of 2014, now looking to get back into the coaching ranks you have to imagine he’d be a popular choice to take the reigns once again at Mississippi State.
Other SEC coaches with hot seats?
There are three more SEC coaches to watch over the next few weeks on potentially hot seats and jobs that could open up. Arkansas’ Sam Pittman tops this list sitting at 3-7 after a 48-10 drubbing at the hands of Auburn as this program has taken a big step back, he seems the most likely to join the ranks of the unemployed. Next on this list is Florida’s Billy Napier who in year 2 in Gainesville has a 5-5 record, 11-12 overall and 6-9 in the SEC over 2 years. Napier currently has the number 4 overall recruiting class in the 2024 cycle which may be enough to buy him more time in Gainesville. The third and final coach I have my eye on is South Carolina’s Shane Beamer. The Gamecocks are currently sitting at 4-6 and 2-5 in the SEC and currently at 19-17 overall in Beamer’s tenure and 9-14 in the SEC. The biggest issue that Beamer is facing is that last year coming off a massive win vs Clemson and great performance in a loss vs Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl to end 2022, expectations were high coming into 2023 with QB Spencer Rattler returning and were expected to be a dark horse SEC East contender but things in Columbia have gone in the complete wrong direction which has raised questions on Beamer’s future. All three names mentioned here have 2 weeks left in the regular season and big rivalry games coming up that can quiet a lot of doubters and cool off their seats
Image of Arnett and Fisher meet following Texas A&M’s victory over Mississippi State. Credit to USA Today’s Maria Lysaker for the image
