Texas A&M made the decision to fire Jimbo Fisher in his sixth year and now begins the coaching search for his predecessor. The SEC Network's Peter Burns joined Wednesday's edition of TexAgs Radio to discuss the Aggies' potential with the right coach at the helm.
Key notes from Peter Burns interview
- Have you guys hired a head coach yet?
- If they get this hire right, you are a College Football Playoff contender on day one, especially in a 12-team playoff. It comes at an interesting time. College football will be completely reimagined this next year. They have a clean slate. There is an opportunity for Ross Bjork and his Board of Regents to make a splash hire.
- I find some of the names funny. I don’t think Lane Kiffin is going. I don't think Dabo Swinney or Deion Sanders is going. These names get a lot of buzz, but I don't think see any of those three calling plays next year calling plays in College Station.
- The two names that make the most sense on paper are 1. Mike Elko because he has been there before and the success he has had at Duke. 2. I love Jeff Traylor at UTSA. Some will say they are unfamiliar. Everything you want out of him is what you are looking for. A guy who had success and recruits extremely well. That's the no-brainer in my mind.
- I don't think it's that much different from Scott Frost not working at Nebraska. On paper, it made perfect sense. You had a coach that had a national championship pedigree and was offensive-minded. You think, in general, it will work. What won football in the early 2010s is not what wins football now.
- The fit for Jimbo Fisher at A&M felt close but never 100 percent in. It felt like Jimbo did as much as he could, but some people are natural fits. That's why I keep going back to the Jeff Traylor thing. Texas A&M is so uniquely Texas. You need someone that will tap into that. You can throw out a bunch of names that make sense, but Traylor is the guy I can picture at the Alamo back in the day. He loves the state through and through. That is a marketing tool that A&M has not really used a lot.
- I think we all understood the conversation had prior to the Mississippi State game. If he won against ACU and LSU, which is not out of the realm of possibility, do you find yourself in the same situation Les Miles was in a couple of years ago? They were already firing him, and then we won, and they fired him the next year. The timing makes sense. Jimbo has $75 million in the bank account and went out with a monster win.