COLLEGE STATION – In under 25 minutes at the microphone for Texas A&M’s media day, new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino put to bed the biggest question mark for the Aggies heading into 2023 – he’ll call the plays and oversee the offense. It only took eight months and an unneeded amount of drama. 

Petrino was hired in January, but he made his media debut in maroon on Sunday afternoon in College Station. Head coach Jimbo Fisher was noncommittal and, at times, annoyed with media questions throughout the spring and through the summer about the direction of the Aggie offense – one he engineered since becoming head coach. 

Everyone wants to dissect the potential pitfalls and headaches between Fisher and Petrino. Both are known as head-strong play callers who don’t mind a fight. But Petrino isn’t worried. As a former head coach, he knows the role of an offensive coordinator and, at least for August, he’s prepared to check the ego at the door and worry about scoring points come September – the job Fisher hired him to do. 

“Coach is the boss, all right?” Petrino said when asked about the potential rift between him and Fisher. “My job is to try to keep him happy and make sure that everything works the way he wants it to work. I work for Coach Fisher. This is his program. That’s one of the reasons I came here – because of my knowledge of how he runs a program.” 

Simple enough. If heard by the masses in March or April during spring ball, a lot of digital ink from media and message board tears from fans would’ve been saved. But that’s not how college athletics usually work. Head coaches treat their programs like deep state operations and rarely allow assistants or underclassmen to speak publicly. That’s understandable in the age of “got ya” journalism and social media, but this is an example of a potential negative impact. 

The Aggies could be the comeback story of 2023. The roster is loaded thanks to the recruiting efforts of Fisher & Co. Texas A&M returns some of the best skill position groups in the nation, featuring Evan Stewart and Ainias Smith. The defense should take a step forward in Year 2 under defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, who is now responsible for coaching the linebackers. The unit was the best pass defense in the nation a year ago but struggled against the run and with rushing the passer. The front four is too talented for that to be true again in 2022. 

On paper, not much should hold Texas A&M back. The SEC West is always difficult, but only Alabama and LSU come close to matching the sheer talent stored in College Station. A young, immature group went 5-7 a year ago, but those growing pains should pay off this year. The only true question marks focused on the vibes. Something felt off when Fisher pushed back at definitively answering questions about Petrino. Those concerns faded with one press conference featuring Fisher and a trio of offensive players – Max Johnson, Conner Weigman, and Noah Thomas. 

“The vibe has been pretty great,” Thomas said on Sunday. “We’ve added a lot of new guys to the team who bring a lot of energy and just great vibes, really, throughout the summer. I felt like we weren’t having enough fun with it last year.” 

The 2023 season is a fulcrum point for Fisher. Despite all the money he’s owed, the Aggies won’t hesitate to replace him if they don’t reach at least eight wins. Maybe even nine. Fisher knew something had to change or he wouldn’t have hired Petrino in the first place. Texas A&M averaged 22.8 points per game in 2023. The 202.5 yards passing that the Aggies averaged in 2022 was the lowest in the Fisher era. In fact, the program’s average passing yards per game have dipped each year since 2018. It was 252.62 in 2018, 235.28 in 2019, 234.10 in 2020, and 208.58 in 2021. 

Petrino was hired to reverse that trend. He stated on Sunday that his philosophy as a play caller is simple – Feed the studs. And the Aggies possess plenty of those. As Petrino spoke about his offensive philosophy, a collective sigh of relief was let out by the 12th Man. 

“Everything I like to do in offense is to create an advantage,” he said. “Create an advantage in the run game, create advantages in the pass game, and take advantage of personnel matchups. Our tempo will be used to create advantages.”  

Maybe none of it matters. Maybe none of the manufactured drama about potential play calling duties was overblown and misunderstood. Or maybe not. Maybe Petrino is saying all the right things and we’ll learn the truth will be revealed if and when the Aggies are struggling on offense in the fourth quarter of an SEC game. But any person with at least one hour of public relations training would tell Fisher that he made this much more difficult than it needed to be.