Texas A&M fired coach Jimbo Fisher on Sunday, a move that will cost the school more than $75 million and end a tenure that began six years ago with the Aggies presenting him an engraved national championship trophy missing only the year, the AP reports. Instead of winning a title, Fisher went 45-25 and 27-21 in the Southeastern Conference, never winning more than nine games in any season. The Aggies are 6-4 with two games left, coming off a 51-10 victory against Mississippi State on Saturday night. Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork met with university president Mark Welsh and Texas A&M system chancellor John Sharp earlier this week and told them that a coaching change was "absolutely necessary."
"The assessment that I delivered was that we are not reaching our full potential," Bjork said Sunday. "We are not in the championship conversation and something was not quite right about our direction and the plan." Assistant Elijah Robinson will serve as interim coach for the last two games. Assistant athletic director for football operations Mark Robinson was also let go Sunday. Bjork delivered the news to Fisher on Sunday morning at Kyle Field in a meeting the AD called "quick and cordial." Bjork said there was no last straw that prompted Fisher's firing but rather the totality of how the program was operating.
Fisher was lured away from Florida State, where he had won a national championship in 2013, by a massive 10-year, fully guaranteed contract at the end of the 2017 season. That contract was extended back to 10 years after he led the Aggies to a 9-1 record during the 2020 pandemic season, by far A&M's best year under Fisher. According to his contract, Fisher is owed the entirety of what remains on his deal—regardless of whether he gets another job in coaching—a staggering buyout that is more than triple the largest known given to a fired head coach.
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Bjork said 25% of what Fisher is owed—about $19 million—is due within 60 days and the first of several installments of about $7 million must be paid within 120 days. "We will use unrestricted contributions within the 12th Man Foundation for the first one-time payment and the athletic department will fund the annual payments for the remaining portion by growing our revenues and adjusting our annual operating budget accordingly," he said. He added that the school "has to learn a lesson" from Fisher's contract and that the finances involving his firing are "monumental."
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