Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp gave Jimbo Fisher a plaque with a strong message shortly after hiring the coach to a 10-year, $95 million contract in 2018.
The inscription on that plaque read: "Jimbo Fisher, Head football coach, Texas A&M University, 20— NCAA Division I football national championship."
Fisher, who won a national championship with Florida State in 2013, has not been able to fill in the blanks on that year, and the Aggies' 4-3 record has increased the hot-seat talk around Fisher through the bye week. The Athletic's Bruce Feldman reports: "Texas A&M, I'm told, will find the money to get rid of him if he can't get this thing going."
This talk could heat up in the back half of the season. Texas A&M's remaining schedule includes South Carolina (Oct. 28), No. 13 Ole Miss (Nov. 4), Mississippi State (Nov. 11), Abilene Christian (Nov. 18) and No. 19 LSU (Nov. 25).
Why is Fisher on the hot seat? What is the buyout? How does Texas factor in? A look at the answers to those questions.
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What is Jimbo Fisher's record at Texas A&M?
Fisher is 43-24 since taking over at Texas A&M in 2018. That is the sixth best record in the SEC behind Alabama (68-8), Georgia (67-8), LSU (51-21), Florida (46-25) and Kentucky (45-25).
The Aggies had their best season in 2020 when they finished 9-1 and nearly reached the College Football Playoff as an at-large team. Texas A&M capped that season with a 41-27 victory against North Carolina in the Orange Bowl.
The Aggies have proven they can compete with Alabama on a one-week basis the last three seasons. Texas A&M beat the Crimson Tide 41-38 on Oct. 9, 2021. The Aggies lost 24-20 on Oct. 2022 and 26-20 on Oct. 7, 2023.
After a 9-4 record in his first season, Fisher recruited four straight top-10 recruiting classes from 2019-22, according to 247Sports.com's rankings. That success in recruiting has not translated on the field.
| CLASS | RANK | RECORD |
| 2019 | 4 | 8-5 |
| 2020 | 6 | 9-1 |
| 2021 | 8 | 8-4 |
| 2022 | 1 | 5-7 |
| 2023 | 15 | 4-3 |
| 2024 | 5 | NA |
The consistency, however, has not been there. Texas A&M is 10-14 against ranked opponents under Fisher, and they are 3-15 as the underdog. The Aggies have neither made the SEC Championship game nor the College Football Playoff in that stretch.
The last two-plus seasons at Texas A&M have been subpar. The Aggies are 17-14 with a 8-12 record in SEC play and an eight-game road losing streak. That includes a 5-7 record in 2022 that led to Fisher revamping the offense with the hire of offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino. Texas A&M averages 32.3 points per game, which ranks 43rd in the FBS.
What is Jimbo Fisher's buyout at Texas A&M?
The terms of Fisher's contract are that the $95 million is guaranteed money. That means Texas A&M would owe Fisher a buyout of $76.8 million if he is fired before Dec. 31, 2023 – an absurd total that is way north of the record $21.7 million buyout Auburn's Gus Malzahn collected at Auburn in 2020.
According to BetMGM.com, Fisher's buyout will drop each year through 2030, but those numbers are not drastic changes. Fisher would still be collecting between $67-$29 million in buyout money from 2024-28. A look at those buyout numbers:
| Year | Money owed |
| 2023 | $76,800,000 |
| 2024 | $67,550,000 |
| 2025 | $58,000,000 |
| 2026 | $48,750,000 |
| 2027 | $39,200,000 |
| 2028 | $29,550,000 |
| 2029 | $19,800,000 |
| 2030 | $9,950,000 |
There are not too many arguments that support firing Fisher making financial sense, but this is Texas A&M were talking about. They are about to have new, old company in the SEC, too.
How will Texas, Oklahoma moving to SEC impact Jimbo Fisher?
Feldman also reports: "It absolutely does matter to important folks down there that Texas has a chance to be a College Football Playoff team this year, and Steve Sarkisian has been on the job for half as long as Jimbo."
Texas is 43-25 since 2018 – a half-game behind Texas A&M. That is an incredible stat given the uneasy sibling relationship between the two schools – and the Longhorns compiled an almost-identical record between Tom Herman and Steve Sarkisian. Oklahoma is 56-15 in the same stretch, and the Sooners have the best shot at the College Football Playoff among the three schools in 2023.
How will that relationship impact the Aggies when the Sooners and Longhorns get to the SEC? That starts with recruiting. Texas A&M has a top-five recruiting class for 2024, but Texas and Oklahoma had higher-ranked classes last season according to 247Sports.com. The SEC spotlight will improve recruiting for the Longhorns and Sooners, too. Will the Aggies be able to keep up if their record continues to slip?
Texas A&M will play Texas in 2024 for the first time since Nov. 24, 2011. That game could elicit all kinds of over-reactions depending on where Fisher's job status is a year from now.
Who would replace Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M?
That is the multi-million question. Texas A&M firing Fisher would be a splash move. Who would they hire that would create a cannonball effect across the FBS?
There is not a larger name than Deion Sanders right now, but ESPN's Paul Finebaum addressed that possibility this week when talking about how much Fisher's buyout looms as a hurdle in finding another coach.
"Maybe if there was one guy, Aggies would say, 'You know what? We'll do it. We've gotta save this program,'" Fisher said. "I don't see a guy. You could say Deion, but I don't know."
Oregon's Dan Lanning and former Florida coach Dan Mullen also will be big-name candidates linked to the Texas A&M job if Fisher is fired this season.
