Texas A&M faithful were ready to build a statue in Jimbo Fisher’s honor over the offseason when the Aggies’ head coach won a verbal spat against Alabama’s Nick Saban. Two games through the season, those same fans worry that Fisher’s offense is outdated. 

A 17-14 home loss to App State appears to be the straw that broke Fisher’s invincibility cloak in College Station. The offense only scored one touchdown in Week 2 – a 26-yard touchdown run by Devon Achane. He also returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the loss. The Aggies only ran 38 offensive plays in the entire game. Quarterback Haynes King was 13 of 20 for 97 yards. His long completion was 19 yards. 

Fisher still calls the plays. He was hired, and given a 10-year, $75 million dollar contract by the Aggies late in 2017, for two reasons: To acquire talent and build a national championship offense. Fisher led Florida State to a national championship in 2013. He was 83-23 in eight seasons in charge of the Seminoles, winning three conference titles during that span. He won at least 10 games in six of the eight years in Tallahassee. 

He’s done the first part. Texas A&M was the fifth-most talented roster in the country entering the 2022 season, according to the Blue-Chip ration put together by Bud Elliott at 247Sports. Exactly 70 percent of the roster was either a four- or five-star prospect coming out of high school. The 2020 class ranked sixth in the nation and included a pair of five stars. The 2021 cycle finished with a ninth-ranked class with one five-star prospect. That number jumped to eight five-star signees in an historic 2022 class that ranked first in the nation. 

But what about the offense? Fisher was known as a quarterback whisperer and offensive guru dating back to his days as a play-caller under Saban and as the head coach at Florida State. The 2013 offense led by Jameis Winston accounted for 316.6 passing yards. The most his offense has achieved through four full seasons at Texas A&M is 252.62 passing yards per game, and that was in Year 1. In fact, the Aggies’ offense averaged fewer yards passing per game than the previous year in every season since Fisher took charge. 

Most chalked up the 2021 dry spell to poor quarterback play. King was injured early against Colorado, and backup Zach Calzada never seemed comfortable or fully trusted in relief duty, despite an upset win over Alabama. He started 10 games for Texas A&M in 2021, leading the team to a 6-4 record in that span. Calzada completed 56 percent of his attempts for 2,318 yards (154.5 per game over 12 games) for 17 touchdowns to nine interceptions. 

Texas A&M finished 8-4. It was the third time in four years under Fisher that A&M has lost at least four games. The only season that didn’t fall in that category was the 9-1 record in the pandemic-shortened 2020. The Aggies have lost at least four games in every season since joining the SEC except for 2020 and 2012, which was the first year Texas A&M was in the SEC. 

King isn’t Johnny Manziel, and neither is LSU transfer Max Johnson or true freshman Conner Weigmann. Johnny Football helped Kevin Sumlin build a 36-14 record through his first 50 games at Texas A&M. Fisher sits at 35-15 following the loss to App State. 

So, is this a quarterback issue or an offensive system issue? Maybe both? 

The stats suggest it might fall more on Fisher than the quarterbacks he recruits. The trend is obvious. Fisher was 68-14 in his first six seasons as a head coach (2010-2015). His teams won three conference titles and one national championship during that span. Five of those six seasons ended with at least 10 wins. Fisher’s pinnacle was 2012-2014 when his team went a combined 39-3, only lost one conference game, and reached an Orange Bowl, a Rose Bowl, and the BCS national championship game. 

In the six years following the 2014 season, Fisher is 49-23 as a head coach. His team has only won 10 games in one of those years, and that was back in 2016 at Florida State. He went 5-6 in his last year at Florida State (2017). Take away a 2020 season that wasn’t representative of much throughout the country due to the craziness of the pandemic, and Fisher was 25-13 in three full seasons in charge of the Aggies. 

Texas A&M paid Fisher to do for the Aggies what Kirby Smart did for Georgia. The Bulldogs went 8-5 in Smart’s first season in charge back in 2016. They won at least 11 games in each year since minus an 8-2 record in 2020. Fisher was given a raise in 2021 to $9 million a year on a deal that runs through 2031. That contract was worth $95.6 million dollars when it was signed in 2021 and it was fully guaranteed. No other coach in the country has a buyout north of $50 million. 

Texas A&M hosts Miami on Saturday in a national showcase game at 8 p.m. on ESPN. Gameday was planning on coming to town before the Aggies’ loss to App State. King has now started four games in his college career – two last year before injury and the first two games of 2022. He’s thrown for as many interceptions (5) as touchdowns and is averaging 190.25 yards a game in those starts, though, the numbers are a bit skewed because he couldn’t finish the second start of his career due to injury against Colorado last season. That number is at 230.5 to through two games in 2022. 

Fisher won’t bench himself as a play-caller, at least not yet, so the only logical change he can make is at quarterback. King beat out Johnson in training camp, but a switch at the position might provide a spark.

A bounce back win over Miami will call of the dogs until the next loss, but a home defeat to the Hurricanes on Saturday night in front of a packed Kyle Field might force change. Not to Fisher the head coach, but to the play-caller.