Pulls no punches whatsoever ....
Midway through Fisher’s fifth year at Texas A&M, the Aggies have lost seven of their past 23 games, are unranked at 3-3 and have no hope of a title once again under the slick-talking West Virginian.
Did the Aggies buy a bunch of snake oil from Tallahassee, Fla., five years ago? No, considering they finished fourth in the country in 2020 in a pandemic-shortened season, their highest ranking in the final Associated Press poll since winning the national title in 1939.
Does Fisher’s awful offense need an overhaul for the Aggies to contend for a Southeastern Conference title? As the late lyricist Meat Loaf once crooned in a song about paradise, “Ain’t no doubt about it.”
Fisher, enveloped by flatterers in the Bright Football Complex, is a sensitive sort when it comes to analysis of his dated offensive approach, so we’ll go easy on the evaluation: It’s terrible — and that’s putting it delicately — especially for the resources Fisher has been given to try and get it done at A&M.
For instance, Fisher last week was trying to make a point about the Aggies’ improvement at receiver at the halfway point of the season, instead he provided one more example of A&M’s ongoing issues on offense. “Think of the plays we made tonight compared to what we dropped in the last two weeks,” Fisher said last weekend and following
the Aggies’ 24-20 loss at then-No. 1 Alabama. “It’s part of growth and how things go and what happens, and how you mature and it’s that simple.”
Fisher, a persistent defender of his plodding offense, had pointed out one of the many misadventures leading to one of the nation’s worst units. In other words, the Aggies weren’t anywhere near prepared for the start of SEC play — much less Appalachian State
in a 17-14 home loss to the Mountaineers in Week 2 — based on their sloppy play on offense, including multiple dropped passes.
Fisher, too, has mostly wasted what’s likely the final season of junior running back Devon Achane, one of the nation’s most dynamic players who’s had trouble getting rolling behind an appalling offensive line.
The Aggies (1-2 SEC) had Saturday off and will have had two weeks to prepare for the start of the second half of the season: at South Carolina (4-2, 1-2) on Saturday night.
“We need to regroup … and play our tails off and get better and finish these last six games the way we need to play the rest of the year,” Fisher said.
The Aggies will need a much better offense if they’re to do so, and quick fixes likely aren’t part of the equation entering the South Carolina contest. Out of 131 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, the Aggies entering this weekend’s action ranked outside the top 100 in total offense (110th at 333 yards per game), scoring offense (109th at 21.5 points per game), third-down percentage (104th at 33.8 percent) and plays per game (127th at 60.2).
Their average number of plays were 36 fewer than Texas Tech, for instance, entering the weekend, and Fisher’s failure to consistently get his skill players plenty of touches has not and will not sit well with recruits on that side of the ball.
What must the Aggies improve upon on offense? Start with everything, but chief among the issues is the sieve-like offensive line under first-year assistant Steve Addazio, long an area of poor development under Fisher at A&M.
Alabama defenders consistently chased A&M quarterback Haynes King, who hurt his foot early in the Aggies’ narrow loss and got smashed in the ribs late in the contest. His status for the Gamecocks is unknown, and if he’s not able to go, five-star freshman Conner Weigman of Bridgeland likely will get the call.
King started the first two games of the season before he was replaced by Max Johnson, who injured his left (throwing) hand three games into his A&M tenure as a starter. Fisher turned back to King, who also won the starting job last year before he had a season-ending leg injury in Week 2, against the Crimson Tide.
Fisher comically said following the Alabama loss, “We’re playing a backup quarterback, too,” when he was reminded Alabama relied on occasionally-shaky backup Jalen Milroe of Tompkins over then-injured reigning Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young.
A&M’s defense under first-year coordinator D.J. Durkin more than did its part against the Crimson Tide by creating four turnovers, three fumble recoveries and an interception, and giving the offense short fields to work with.
“We did a lot of things that were not winning football,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said in an understatement.
Despite the Crimson Tide gift-wrapping multiple opportunities and with short fields galore, the Aggies failed to score more than two touchdowns on offense for a fourth time against their five FBS foes this season.
The disorganization and general confusion on offense under Fisher, who calls the plays, was again evident late in the Alabama game. That’s when the Aggies collected consecutive false start penalties on the offensive line on a fourth-and-8 from the Alabama 17-yard line and trailing 24-17 with 4:17 remaining. A&M’s consistent disorder on offense under Fisher has become a national punchline.
The back-to-back bumblings led to a 46-yard Randy Bond field goal (and the eventual final score) instead of a potential first down. Finally, Fisher the play-caller was too busy dialing up a poor final call for the Aggies on the last play of the game for Fisher the head coach to notice the play prior might have had about five or six seconds on the clock when it ended.
As opposed to the official and seemingly erroneous three seconds remaining, meaning A&M potentially could have run two plays instead of one to try and pull off the upset, had Fisher questioned the time remaining.
It all adds up to widespread ineptitude, and why the university’s play-callers, weary of clumsiness and stubbornness, might force Fisher to hire an innovative, clear-minded offensive coordinator in the offseason — to keep a promising 2023 season from being “too late” at this point under Fisher, too.
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