Late Kick's Josh Pate discusses the national perception of Jimbo Fisher

He may be the future CFB commissioner, but right now, he is the beloved head coach of the Pate State Freights. Josh Pate of CBS Sports and Late Kick joined Tuesday's edition of TexAgs Radio to talk all things college football and what to expect with Week 0 just 67 days away.

Key notes from Josh Pate interview

• I had a question about the workout pictures that were taken at the Miami football weight room. It is so easy to look great in a college weight room cause it’s like a triple injection of pre-workout. That’s the fule and adrenaline that's flowing through your body. The biggest perk of our job and going on the road and some of these people let me work out in their weight rooms, it’s awesome. Those are the only pictures I send to my dad. He asks me for pictures of so many other things, and I say, ‘No! Look! These dumbbells go up to 200, Dad. Is this not amazing?’ He just says he doesn't care.
   
• You are dead on the money. I did this thing a couple of weeks ago because I had coaches talk to me about Dabo Swinney. They were saying that he may be misunderstood, but partially it's on him because he doesn't present himself publicly in this altruistic manner. That lead to me tweeting out, ‘What’s your opinion on Dabo Swinney?’ We got thousands of responses, so much so that I did a segment on it.
   
• Someone said I should do that about Jimbo Fisher. So I did it. It was about 90 to 10, negative. There were several reasons given, but when you boil it down, it's what you said. He doesn't do what people want him to do. I listen to what comes out of Jimbo's mouth, and that's a lot, by the way. I listen to the takes about him nationally. It's like having a Nick Saban attitude but not Nick Saban's record. The difference is Saban has multiple trophies in his trophy case. You cannot question Saban’s methodology. Whereas with Jimbo, he may say the same things, just a little faster, maybe with different nomenclature, but the same messaging, and it’s ‘Who is this dude to talk to us like this?’ Especially nationally.
   
• I struggle when people call someone overpaid. I never have had a fascination with how much other men make. I care about how much I make. To hate someone because they are overpaid, I have never really gotten into that. A lot of people do. I also got comments saying he is just unlikeable.
   
• I watched professional wrestling growing up. If you were to call Jimbo Fisher a bad guy when it comes to the college football public, we are setting up for one of the great face turns in the history of college football. We just had one with Kirby Smart. Kirby was the dude that couldn’t win the big one. He couldn't beat Saban. Now, all of a sudden, it's, ‘Saban is scared of Kirby.’ What changed? One game. One season. That's how easily this stuff can happen.
   
• Let's go down that road for a second. Let’s say Bobby Petrino is the guy who ups the level of offensive production. What, 15 percent? A&M lost five or six games by six points or less. It doesn't take a quantum shift in the trajectory of the program. Just fractional changes here and there. Let's say they are in the thick of it in mid-November. Let's also say Fisher has kept his end of the bargain, delegated playcalling duties, and the offense is humming along good enough. Then, all of a sudden, the country does what it shouldn't do and realizes A&M has a ton of talent. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it will. Imagine it's not Alabama or LSU. It’s A&M that's in Atlanta, representing the west come December. Hit the pause button right there. What that country is saying? They are saying, ‘Wow, Jimbo Fisher! Took a little longer than we would have liked, but he finally hit the right buttons.’ They would sound the same way about him as they do about Mike Norvell right now. ‘Good for them for having patience. Look at finally paying off.’ As hypocritical as that may be as a national narrative, that would happen. People would look at Jimbo in a different light. You add back in the same jovial attitude that he takes into the press conferences, and all of a sudden, people see that for what it is. Then Jimbo becomes that dude I used to hate, but now, I kinda like him. ‘He’s grown on me.’ What changed? They won. 
   
• It's the Ryan Day thing. Not in my opinion but in the opinion of some, he is fighting for his job at Ohio State this year. I cannot stress how ludicrous that is. I was in Atlanta on New Year's Eve when they were playing Georgia, standing under the upright, watching Ohio State’s field goal go a little wide. I, thought to myself, that guy's life just changed so drastically based on whether that kick went in. That's the same thing with Jimbo. You change one or two things. It's trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. There's a line between having it figured out vs. being a choke artist. 
   
• Just because it hasn't been, doesn't mean it can't be. For instance, when Dirk Nowitzki won that championship, he was the same player. He was cable of it two years prior. If Jimbo wins this year in the SEC West, he didn't become a 30 percent better coach all of a sudden. He is the same coach. It's the same with Kirby Smart. When coaches say, ‘You have to stick to the process,’ that stuff is real. 
   
• There’s a question I will address later in our Late Kick mailbag, and it's what is the highest and lowest point in your career. I have never talked about it publicly. I got taken off the air one time. Just told, you are flat out, not good enough. It was in Columbus in 2015. Local news at the No. 3 station in Columbus, Georgia. Now we have the No. 1 college football podcast in the world. I am the same person. It’s funny how life works.
   
• Lane Kiffin is that guy that everyone always wanted to like. There are people out there that do things constantly that you disagree with. You look at it like, ‘Why did you do that? Why did you have to say that?’ Kiffin has always had that. When his career was dead in the water, Saban plucks him and brings him to Tuscaloosa. It’s like oil hiring water or vice versa to work together. He goes to FAU because he screwed things up in Tuscaloosa, some would say. He goes to Ole Miss and gets another shot. He wasn't at Tennessee for five minutes before he started going after Urban Meyer. Meyer didn't know who Lane was. Lane will work you. He understands it's kind of an entertainment-based business. If I were in College Station, I would want to take his head off. 
   
• Billy Napier has a quarterback taken from him who reclassifies by two years to go to Ole Miss. Then Napier goes into Mississippi yesterday and takes a five-star EDGE player. That’s deep in the recruiting weeds. I don't like that A&M and Ole Miss won't play every year.
   
• I’m not crazy about the college football expansion. Let’s go back to the way it was with the BCS. I don’t value our postseason. I’d be fine with the regular season, and the media could crown a champion. Not because I think the media is qualified, I just don’t care enough to sacrifice the integrity of the regular season of our sports. I think the great unknown is what the future holds for that playoff. This is a 2-year contract. It has to be re-upped for 2026. This a rental car. The current format is six auto bids for the highest-ranked conference champion and six at large. We will watch the SEC, adding Texas and Oklahoma, be the strongest and deepest conference it has ever been. We will watch some 9-3 team that we know is better than some 10-1 conference champion on the west coast that might not get an auto bid, and the conference champion does. That doesn't seem right. Then comes 2026. The Big Ten and SEC will walk into the room with all the weight. They may not be on board anymore. Either give us the top 12 best teams, period, or the top eight teams, period or go back to the old format. Then you got the whole media rights deal. The playoff should never dominate the conversion because it's a regular-season sport, but I'm in the minority there.
   
• I go to the gym six days a week. I isolate muscle groups. I go back, chest, legs, then arms, shoulders and legs. I hit legs twice a week, every 72 or 96 hours.