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Wasson: Texas A&M proves to Mizzou, and college football, that buying out Jimbo Fisher was good investment
By David Wasson
Published:
Undoubtedly posted up at a swanky beach somewhere, sipping Mai Tais freshly fetched by uniformed staff, John James Fisher Jr. must’ve thrown a strong double-take at what he saw on the cabana-side big screen Saturday afternoon.
There was his former outfit, one that he underachieved at the helm of to the tune of a lackluster 45-25 record and a wallet-boggling $77.5 million buyout, looking positively legitimate on the football field.
Texas A&M, which in the recent past would’ve already lost the plot to the season by this juncture, was whipping No. 9 Missouri up and down and all around Kyle Field. 12th Man? Heck, by the time the Tigers finally triggered the ejection seat, they had to have felt like they were seeing 15 or 16 Aggies coming at them from all directions.
We invoke the once-mighty name of Jimbo Fisher because the Saturday was a stark illustration of What Could Have Been vs. What Actually Is – with reality beating the brakes off of the alternative for 60 solid minutes.
Texas A&M didn’t just smack around Mizzou like a very large feline playing with a very small mouse. The Aggies plain exposed coach Eli Drinkwitz and the visitors for the cosplay Top 10 team that they were.
And in the process, Texas A&M also served the following notice to the rest of the SEC: We are afterthoughts no more, so you best bring your A Game when testing 1st-year coach Mike Elko and the Aggies.
After the cannon smoke finished wafting into the late-afternoon haze, Texas A&M owned a 41-10 victory over Mizzou – snapping the Tigers’ season-opening 5-game winning streak and raising its own to 5 games after falling to Notre Dame to open the 2024 season.
Ah yes, the Notre Dame game. Various punditry out there (present company included) saw that 23-13 loss to the Irish at Kyle Field on Sept. 1 and figured “Yep, that’s just aTm being aTm again. Jimbo or no Jimbo, are they ever gonna get serious in College Station?”
It is that flawed assumptive logic that makes college football oh-so-unique. The Aggies dusted themselves off after the season-opening L to drill McNeese and then go on the road and handle Florida. Sure, Texas A&M followed that with less-than-spectacular wins against Bowling Green and Arkansas, but there the Aggies were entering Saturday back in the Top 25 and gaining a semblance of momentum.
Said momentum immediately became a tidal wave against Mizzou. Running back Le’Veon Moss gashed the Tigers for a career-high 138 yards and 3 touchdowns, Conner Weigman threw for 276 yards in his 1st start after missing 3 games. Amari Daniels added 2 rushing scores, and the Aggies’ defense was so stifling that the 97,049 denizens in attendance were chanting “overrated!” at Mizzou in the closing moments.
Mizzou certainly helped Texas A&M out during some critical moments, too. The Tigers were unable to muster 6 feet on a 4th-and-2 on their opening drive, and a 75-yard touchdown catch by Luther Burden III was wiped clean off the board for an illegal man downfield in the first half.
Still, no matter what Drinkwitz and Mizzou attempted, Elko’s Aggies were there for a definitive answer. The victory was well in hand by the time the Tigers mustered a 3rd-quarter TD, and another late defensive stand forced Mizzou into a meaningless (unless you were invested in the over-under, natch …) field goal.
Saturday’s Texas A&M triumph proved several items true. First, again, Mizzou – making its first journey away from ol’ Faurot this season – looked positively preseason FSU-like in its faux Top 10 robes. And second, this ain’t Jimbo Fisher’s team anymore.
Even with the wacky new economics of college football disproving conventional wisdom seemingly every week (Re: Sluka, Matthew at UNLV), it was still tough for Aggie Nation to digest the ridiculous buyout figure it gave Fisher to go away last season. That kind of dough, even for good ol’ Aggies who traffic in that sweet Texas tea by the barrel, isn’t insignificant.
But at least for a week, Texas A&M was finally the team it hoped it would be for years under Fisher. Yes, $77.5 million is a truckload of cash, but over Saturday’s 60 minutes in the sun, it also felt like money well spent.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
