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Aggy 2024: Still waiting on the Looch 44

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Rickylovesweed

Rickylovesweed 14293

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13 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

This is the answer to he's proven he's a good coach?

He's succeeded everywhere he's gone. What more can he do?

Maybe he's not ready for a big ass job. I don't know. It's a different game with different responsibilities, yet he was an asset at Texas and has done well since.

I think the backlash against Traylor is at least as curious as people speculating he could succeed.

The whole fucking thing is a crapshoot no matter who you get other than one or maybe two guys.

The point is Traylor is a bigger crapshoot than other coaches and it's a tier 2 or tier 3 hire. This after spending $76 million to get rid of a coach.

I think certain posters are just confused by the Traylor infatuation when the dude is 2-7 against top 50 teams, has never coached at P5 program (as a head coach), and has been in a lot of close games with the likes of UTEP and UNT. 

Traylor isn't a bad coach but damn the love he gets is beyond wild. I've thought this long before aggy was even searching for a coach. 

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you guys aren't going to believe this, but i may have misjudged the potential floor here.

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Aggie - Fisher - Plan 2024 Synopsis, as I've come to hear about it: Spoilered for the tl;dr crowd that doesn't give a shit and doesn't want to scroll.  

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I have to tell you, I don't know if I can handle this if it is true. They are speculating on the aggie 247 board that, because Elijah Robinson is still an employee at Texas A&M and because he is c

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MonkeyDoughnut

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26 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

The point is Traylor is a bigger crapshoot than other coaches and it's a tier 2 or tier 3 hire. This after spending $76 million to get rid of a coach.

I think certain posters are just confused by the Traylor infatuation when the dude is 2-7 against top 50 teams, has never coached at P5 program (as a head coach), and has been in a lot of close games with the likes of UTEP and UNT. 

Traylor isn't a bad coach but damn the love he gets is beyond wild. I've thought this long before aggy was even searching for a coach. 

Oregon is glad they didn't use this criteria. They hired a guy who had never been a head coach at ANY level. Heck, he'd only been a coordinator a couple years.

You're conflating a teams win/loss record and a coach's coaching/program building ability. While related they are not the same.

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Rickylovesweed

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3 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Oregon is glad they didn't use this criteria. They hired a guy who had never been a head coach at ANY level. 

Now do a run down of all the assistants and G5 coaches that have been hired at P5 schools over the years and figure out the failure rate. It's probably around 90% or higher. 

 

 

 

 

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TexasRenegade

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1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

I mean, didn't everyone obviously draw this conclusion the second they announced they were using athletic department money to pay his contract? That's happening so the boosters have powder to spend, becuase they're all furious. They're not taking away the booster money to fund a buyout. Of course they're going to spend to get talent and get shit right.

high quality GIF

 

I completely believe the "Athletic Department funds only" is being used just for optics.  Technically the first 2 payments are being covered by boosters, then they claim it will be athletic dept funds.  Sure...funds that are there because boosters have donated it to the AD and they then turn around and pay Jimbo.....

 

I don't think the war chest is the given some believe, especially with the price of oil plummeting.  If they don't hire the correct guy.....ie they go a similar direction they did with hiring Petrino.....those checkbooks will snap shut in a hurry.  There is a minority contingent, that I fully expect to go Red McCombs if this thing drags on, that has been heavily involved in the funding that is ticked that Bjork wasn't shown the door with Fisher, not because they blame him for the contract, they just find him to be incompetent and highly embarrassing any time he opens his mouth....including this most recent time.

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Rickylovesweed

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7 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

I'd imagine it's probably about the same as the young up and comer g5 HC.

There was a comparison done a few years ago of G5 head coaches and assistants getting a P5 job compared to coaches with P5 experience getting a P5 job. The success rate was much higher with the latter. 

I'll try to find the article. 

The way to go is still to hire coaches that have proven themselves at the highest level but that's obviously not a viable option for a lot of schools and changing landscape. The odds of aggy succeeding on this hire are much higher with Lanning, Deboer, Kiffin, etc. 

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TexasRenegade

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11 minutes ago, BigHornedLurker said:

Etc = others not receiving votes , much like a&ms last few seasons 

 

Lane only wants the Job until Ole Miss ponies up for a raise.  Of course this is also from Lucci, so its about as reliable as the OC reporting last year. Its whatever Bjork wants him to broadcast to the faithful.

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TexasRenegade

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1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Interesting tweet

IMG_3427.jpeg

If a "deal is done" this amounts to Zwernermen shouting it from the roof tops.   Not saying its done, but if it is as some of you think than BZ isn't going to waste his time talking about someone who isn't getting the job.

 

Now granted, I don't think there is a deal done by any means, and I believe they've been rebuffed by a few of their targets they thought would be no trouble money whipping.  The stories I have heard about Bjork are so much worse then what has happened in public....

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billfromlaketravis

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38 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

 

I’d like to hear aggy’s reasoning on Schumann. Yes he’s never been a head coach, but their top candidate Lanning has been a HC for less than 2 seasons. Otherwise, their resumes are nearly identical. 
 

If the THSCA is able to foist Traylor on aggy I will be both thankful and impressed. Thankful in that there are a dozen better coaches aggy could have hired, and impressed they can still wield that much power in an age when most championship rosters are national recruits. 

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Rickylovesweed

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3 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I don’t understand their reasoning on Schumann. Yes he’s never been a head coach, but their top candidate Lanning has been a HC for less than 2 seasons. Otherwise, their resumes are nearly identical. 
 

It's Liucci. If he says "Schumann likely isn't a candidate" it probably translates to "aggy reached out and he said no thanks." 

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Rickylovesweed

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7 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

If the THSCA is able to foist Traylor on aggy I will be both thankful and impressed. Thankful in that there are a dozen better coaches aggy could have hired, and impressed they can still wield that much power in an age when most championship rosters are national recruits. 

This looks like the biggest issue with this entire coaching search. 

According to Liucci the big reason aggy wants Traylor is he's liked in Texas HS circles and the big reason they may want Elko/Robinson is both are well-liked in the locker room. Those are definitely positives but shouldn't be the foundation for hiring a coach. 

This looks like a lazy and uninspired process. 

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Dbeasy

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I have no idea if Traylor is good or not. If he really was coach in waiting for Texas then presumably so. But regardless of this, and the infatuation on the board with him, his hiring doesn’t bother me much. If I go back in history since Slocum, only Sumlin made me nervous and he flamed out too.  They’ve had terrible coaches.

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billfromlaketravis

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13 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

This looks like the biggest issue with this entire coaching search. 

According to Liucci the big reason aggy wants Traylor is he's liked in Texas HS circles and the big reason they may want Elko/Robinson is both are well-liked in the locker room. Those are definitely positives but shouldn't be the foundation for hiring a coach. 

This looks like a lazy and uninspired process. 

Yep, this reeks of John King getting his pound of flesh. 
 

I’m all for making the THSCA feel important, but some high school coach in Longview shouldn’t be picking a head coach for a SEC school with 80,000 students and 500,000 alumni. 
 

It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of folks. 

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Texas Wahoo

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26 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I’d like to hear aggy’s reasoning on Schumann. Yes he’s never been a head coach, but their top candidate Lanning has been a HC for less than 2 seasons. Otherwise, their resumes are nearly identical. 
 

If the THSCA is able to foist Traylor on aggy I will be both thankful and impressed. Thankful in that there are a dozen better coaches aggy could have hired, and impressed they can still wield that much power in an age when most championship rosters are national recruits. 

I’m with others that think this means he turned them down / made it clear he’s not interested. The fact that he said Lane wants the job makes it pretty clear that the other two who are not candidates did not want the job. 

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Rickylovesweed

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8 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I’m all for making the THSCA feel important, but some high school coach in Longview shouldn’t be picking a head coach for a SEC school with 80,000 students and 500,000 alumni. 
 

 

If Traylor had the same resume at let's say a school like East Carolina, he wouldn't even be on aggys radar. Not even a sniff. It's because he's in Texas and Texas HS school coaches love him which is what's built his rep up over the years. 

 

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Duane Moore

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Traylor seems like he’d do similar to RC. A good coach that fields competitive teams and may get lucky one year and win a division title after Saban has retired.  In the 12 team CFP system, I can see them making the field a couple of times. I have a hard time seeing them win the SEC or get beyond a first round game in the playoffs. Basically a 9-3 average (record) coach.  Maybe I’m being generous. 

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SydneyCarton

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1 hour ago, TexasRenegade said:

high quality GIF

 

I completely believe the "Athletic Department funds only" is being used just for optics.  Technically the first 2 payments are being covered by boosters, then they claim it will be athletic dept funds.  Sure...funds that are there because boosters have donated it to the AD and they then turn around and pay Jimbo.....

 

I don't think the war chest is the given some believe, especially with the price of oil plummeting.  If they don't hire the correct guy.....ie they go a similar direction they did with hiring Petrino.....those checkbooks will snap shut in a hurry.  There is a minority contingent, that I fully expect to go Red McCombs if this thing drags on, that has been heavily involved in the funding that is ticked that Bjork wasn't shown the door with Fisher, not because they blame him for the contract, they just find him to be incompetent and highly embarrassing any time he opens his mouth....including this most recent time.

I don’t agree with this. I absolutely think they’ll use actual AD funds (ticket sales, concessions, etc) to buy as much of his buyout as possible. They’ll absolutely rob every other sport except the big 3 somas to not upset the boosters and try to win at football. 

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SydneyCarton

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4 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Wait, where the fuck did this come from?

It’s true. He got a sweetheart deal at UTSA, part of the university of Texas system, to keep him warm until we saw what Sark looked like. 
 

“Traylor signed a 10-year, $28-millioncontract extension with the Roadrunners in October 2021, and he would owe UTSA $7 million if he were to leave for another position.”
 

No buyout if he moved to another school in the UT system however…

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Bevo14

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59 minutes ago, Duane Moore said:

Traylor seems like he’d do similar to RC. A good coach that fields competitive teams and may get lucky one year and win a division title after Saban has retired.  In the 12 team CFP system, I can see them making the field a couple of times. I have a hard time seeing them win the SEC or get beyond a first round game in the playoffs. Basically a 9-3 average (record) coach.  Maybe I’m being generous. 

 A 9-3 average coach at aggy would be a fuckin legend.

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Bevo

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Who could replace Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M?

Texas A&M made a big bet on Jimbo Fisher, and the former Florida State coach proved to be an enormous dud for the Aggies, costing them almost $80 million to get rid of him after six massively underwhelming seasons. Fisher had one good season in six years, in the COVID-19 season of 2020. He landed a lot of huge recruits, but the losses kept coming.

His team hasn’t won a road game in more than two years. The school paid a fortune for a coach who produced one top-15 season, and in four of his seasons, his teams didn’t even make the AP Top 25 and couldn’t even get bowl-eligible last year.

As a source told The Athletic earlier this season, “It’s Year 6. What is Fisher going to do now that’ll convince anyone at this point that he can lead them to a national title? What’s another 8-4 gonna prove?”

Fisher did win a national title at FSU, but he left that program in disarray before bolting to A&M. Still, he was a splashy hire for then-athletic director Scott Woodward, and now the Aggies are searching for another coaching savior for a proud program that hasn’t won anything since World War II.

A&M has had two top-five finishes in the past 67 years: one under Kevin Sumlin in his debut season and one under Fisher in his third year, and both of those coaches fizzled out before getting fired.

Talking to industry sources, there doesn’t appear to be as splashy an option this time around for A&M to throw money at.
Texas A&M has had two top-five finishes in the past 67 years. (Jerome Miron / USA Today)

 

Power 5 head coaches

Kansas’ Lance Leipold is expected to be high on A&M’s list. What he has done at Kansas has been truly remarkable. Kansas was the bleakest program in college football that hadn’t won more than three games in a season in 11 years, and by his second year on the job, Leipold had it in the top 20. The 59-year-old from Wisconsin, who won six Division III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater before transforming Buffalo into a Top-25 team, knows how to build a program and develop a winning culture.

The Jayhawks are 7-3 despite playing much of this season without star QB Jalon Daniels. They beat then-No. 6 Oklahoma for the first time in 26 years and defeated a top-10 team for the first time in 15 years. We know Michigan State would love to have him for its vacancy, but we wouldn’t be surprised if A&M makes a big run at him as he has a much longer track record as a head coach than some other coaches the Aggies are gonna be intrigued by.

Former Fisher assistant Mike Elko was highly regarded in his four seasons running a ferocious defense in College Station. The 46-year-old from New Jersey left to take over the Duke program, where he has been superb, going 9-4 in his debut season. Elko and his Blue Devils built on that momentum by whipping then-No. 9 Clemson 28-7 in the opener this season. This year, they’re 6-4 with all four losses coming against ranked opponents, and they have had to manage with standout QB Riley Leonard being banged up.

People inside the sport have been impressed by Elko, who knows he already has overachieved at Duke. His sample size as a head coach isn’t long, but he will get a lot of consideration for this job, as he will for Michigan State … if he thinks it’s a good time to leave Durham.

Similar to Leipold, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman is a proven winner who won a bunch of national titles at a lower division — winning four FCS titles at North Dakota State, and like Leipold, he and his staff are respected by other coaches who think their players are always well-coached. Last year, the 56-year-old Klieman led K-State to the Big 12 title, going 10-4. It’s 7-3 this year, including an overtime loss at Texas.

Klieman has a good situation at K-State working for an AD he worked with previously. We think he’ll be in the mix, and his stock could surge if the Cats can finish the season with a flourish as they play Kansas in Lawrence next.

Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith has been one of the best-kept secrets on the West Coast for a while since pumping life back into his alma mater’s program. The former star quarterback went 2-10 after inheriting a dismal situation in Corvallis in the wake of the Gary Andersen tenure, but Smith and his staff poured into this program and laid a foundation. By Year 4 in 2021, the Beavers went 7-6. Then, last year, they broke out, going 10-3, and they’ve kept elevating this group despite massive conference chaos in the Pac-12, where the Beavers are getting left out in the cold.

They’re 8-2 this year with wins over two top-20 opponents, including a dominant showing against then-No. 10 Utah. Smith is on Michigan State’s radar, and as highly as he’s thought of as a coach, we do wonder if the southern California native would seem like a fit at A&M or even would be tempted to jump into this situation. Smith and his team are going to be in the national spotlight in a big way the next two weeks as they face undefeated No. 5 Washington next and then finish the regular season against their archrival, No. 6 Oregon.

Smith will face competition from two other Pac-12 coaches who each have gotten hot since last year.

In Oregon’s Dan Lanning, you have someone who has coached in the SEC from his time at Alabama and Georgia. The 37-year-old from Missouri has been killing it in Eugene and has a legitimate national title contender there. The Ducks are 19-4 since he took over and 9-1 this year with a close loss at Washington. We hear he likes it up there.

His buyout is also pretty big at $20 million, although not that big by A&M standards, it would seem. We definitely could see A&M wanting Lanning. The timing might not be great here for A&M. Would it be more tempting for him to keep building on what he has at Oregon a little while longer and know he could be in a good spot when Nick Saban ultimately decides he’s done coaching at Alabama if he wants to run a big SEC program?

Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, 49, doesn’t have SEC roots, but people inside the sport know he probably could win anywhere. Washington was reeling when he was hired from Fresno State, and he took a 4-8 team and promptly led it to an 11-2 season. The Huskies only have picked up speed since then, going 10-0 this season.

DeBoer developed as a coach outside the shadows of major college football and won three NAIA national titles at Sioux Falls, going 67-3. Overall, he’s 100-11 as a head coach. He’s setting down some strong roots in Seattle, but the AD who hired him, Jen Cohen, left a few months ago to run USC. DeBoer’s situation might be somewhat similar to Lanning’s in that the prospect of the Alabama job after Saban could be a consideration long-term if DeBoer has any temptation to make a move to a program with even bigger resources.

Florida State’s Mike Norvell is another coach who has a team in the national title mix. The Texas native did the heavy lifting to clean up a mess in Tallahassee that first started to decay at the end of Fisher’s run there. Norvell has been masterful in working the transfer portal and overhauling this program. The Seminoles are 20-3 during the past two years. A&M has more money and resources than FSU, but that move to College Station didn’t work out well for Fisher. If the Aggies make a run at Norvell, does he stay on the fact that coaches have won a lot bigger at FSU than A&M?
Group of 5 head coaches

 

Two Group of 5 coaches who might get some consideration here are UTSA’s Jeff Traylor and Troy’s Jon Sumrall.

The 55-year-old Traylor won a bunch of state titles as a Texas high school coach and is beloved there. We could see him getting some traction at a big Texas college. He has done well in San Antonio, going 29-8 the past three years, but we do wonder if Texas A&M brass will think he’s a big enough name to compete with Saban and Kirby Smart.

The 41-year-old Sumrall has been awesome at Troy. He’s 20-4, including last year’s 12-2 debut and top-20 finish at a place that had been struggling. He’s a terrific recruiter and has a great ability to connect with people and a commanding presence. We believe the former Ole Miss and Kentucky assistant will be a big-time SEC head coach before too long. Sumrall was at Ole Miss, by the way, when A&M AD Ross Bjork ran the Rebels’ program.

 

The wild card

There is one big wild-card wish candidate for the Aggies. Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is one of their own. The 47-year-old Texas native played at A&M. Campbell epitomizes everything we suspect the school would want in a head coach, and if you’ve watched any clips of him in front of his team, you’ll see why. He has jumped into what was an abysmal franchise and has that city thinking there’s finally a Super Bowl in its future.

The Lions went 9-8 last year and are off to a 6-2 start this season. Could A&M lure him home despite all that he has done and is doing in Detroit, getting all the buy-in he has gotten? It would seem doubtful that he’d walk away from all that. As one source said Sunday morning, “The timing for him (with A&M) is horrible.”

The Aggies need to be ramping up their search now. He has a team rolling toward a playoff run.

(Top photo: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
Bruce Feldman

Bruce Feldman is the National College Football Insider for The Athletic. One of the sport’s leading voices, he also is a sideline reporter for FOX College Football. Bruce has covered college football nationally for more than 20 years and is the author of numerous books on the topic, including "Swing Your Sword: Leading The Charge in Football and Life" with Mike Leach and most recently "The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks." Follow Bruce on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB

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TheRRKid

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3 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

This looks like the biggest issue with this entire coaching search. 

According to Liucci the big reason aggy wants Traylor is he's liked in Texas HS circles and the big reason they may want Elko/Robinson is both are well-liked in the locker room. Those are definitely positives but shouldn't be the foundation for hiring a coach. 

This looks like a lazy and uninspired process. 

This could also point to two issues with Jimbo. Liucci made a joke that the coaches brought out a box of sleeves today and told everyone they can wear them now. He also casually dropped that Evan Stewart is practicing again in the same breath. 

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Ashylarry

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23 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Who could replace Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M?

Texas A&M made a big bet on Jimbo Fisher, and the former Florida State coach proved to be an enormous dud for the Aggies, costing them almost $80 million to get rid of him after six massively underwhelming seasons. Fisher had one good season in six years, in the COVID-19 season of 2020. He landed a lot of huge recruits, but the losses kept coming.

His team hasn’t won a road game in more than two years. The school paid a fortune for a coach who produced one top-15 season, and in four of his seasons, his teams didn’t even make the AP Top 25 and couldn’t even get bowl-eligible last year.

As a source told The Athletic earlier this season, “It’s Year 6. What is Fisher going to do now that’ll convince anyone at this point that he can lead them to a national title? What’s another 8-4 gonna prove?”

Fisher did win a national title at FSU, but he left that program in disarray before bolting to A&M. Still, he was a splashy hire for then-athletic director Scott Woodward, and now the Aggies are searching for another coaching savior for a proud program that hasn’t won anything since World War II.

A&M has had two top-five finishes in the past 67 years: one under Kevin Sumlin in his debut season and one under Fisher in his third year, and both of those coaches fizzled out before getting fired.

Talking to industry sources, there doesn’t appear to be as splashy an option this time around for A&M to throw money at.
Texas A&M has had two top-five finishes in the past 67 years. (Jerome Miron / USA Today)

 

Power 5 head coaches

Kansas’ Lance Leipold is expected to be high on A&M’s list. What he has done at Kansas has been truly remarkable. Kansas was the bleakest program in college football that hadn’t won more than three games in a season in 11 years, and by his second year on the job, Leipold had it in the top 20. The 59-year-old from Wisconsin, who won six Division III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater before transforming Buffalo into a Top-25 team, knows how to build a program and develop a winning culture.

The Jayhawks are 7-3 despite playing much of this season without star QB Jalon Daniels. They beat then-No. 6 Oklahoma for the first time in 26 years and defeated a top-10 team for the first time in 15 years. We know Michigan State would love to have him for its vacancy, but we wouldn’t be surprised if A&M makes a big run at him as he has a much longer track record as a head coach than some other coaches the Aggies are gonna be intrigued by.

Former Fisher assistant Mike Elko was highly regarded in his four seasons running a ferocious defense in College Station. The 46-year-old from New Jersey left to take over the Duke program, where he has been superb, going 9-4 in his debut season. Elko and his Blue Devils built on that momentum by whipping then-No. 9 Clemson 28-7 in the opener this season. This year, they’re 6-4 with all four losses coming against ranked opponents, and they have had to manage with standout QB Riley Leonard being banged up.

People inside the sport have been impressed by Elko, who knows he already has overachieved at Duke. His sample size as a head coach isn’t long, but he will get a lot of consideration for this job, as he will for Michigan State … if he thinks it’s a good time to leave Durham.

Similar to Leipold, Kansas State’s Chris Klieman is a proven winner who won a bunch of national titles at a lower division — winning four FCS titles at North Dakota State, and like Leipold, he and his staff are respected by other coaches who think their players are always well-coached. Last year, the 56-year-old Klieman led K-State to the Big 12 title, going 10-4. It’s 7-3 this year, including an overtime loss at Texas.

Klieman has a good situation at K-State working for an AD he worked with previously. We think he’ll be in the mix, and his stock could surge if the Cats can finish the season with a flourish as they play Kansas in Lawrence next.

Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith has been one of the best-kept secrets on the West Coast for a while since pumping life back into his alma mater’s program. The former star quarterback went 2-10 after inheriting a dismal situation in Corvallis in the wake of the Gary Andersen tenure, but Smith and his staff poured into this program and laid a foundation. By Year 4 in 2021, the Beavers went 7-6. Then, last year, they broke out, going 10-3, and they’ve kept elevating this group despite massive conference chaos in the Pac-12, where the Beavers are getting left out in the cold.

They’re 8-2 this year with wins over two top-20 opponents, including a dominant showing against then-No. 10 Utah. Smith is on Michigan State’s radar, and as highly as he’s thought of as a coach, we do wonder if the southern California native would seem like a fit at A&M or even would be tempted to jump into this situation. Smith and his team are going to be in the national spotlight in a big way the next two weeks as they face undefeated No. 5 Washington next and then finish the regular season against their archrival, No. 6 Oregon.

Smith will face competition from two other Pac-12 coaches who each have gotten hot since last year.

In Oregon’s Dan Lanning, you have someone who has coached in the SEC from his time at Alabama and Georgia. The 37-year-old from Missouri has been killing it in Eugene and has a legitimate national title contender there. The Ducks are 19-4 since he took over and 9-1 this year with a close loss at Washington. We hear he likes it up there.

His buyout is also pretty big at $20 million, although not that big by A&M standards, it would seem. We definitely could see A&M wanting Lanning. The timing might not be great here for A&M. Would it be more tempting for him to keep building on what he has at Oregon a little while longer and know he could be in a good spot when Nick Saban ultimately decides he’s done coaching at Alabama if he wants to run a big SEC program?

Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, 49, doesn’t have SEC roots, but people inside the sport know he probably could win anywhere. Washington was reeling when he was hired from Fresno State, and he took a 4-8 team and promptly led it to an 11-2 season. The Huskies only have picked up speed since then, going 10-0 this season.

DeBoer developed as a coach outside the shadows of major college football and won three NAIA national titles at Sioux Falls, going 67-3. Overall, he’s 100-11 as a head coach. He’s setting down some strong roots in Seattle, but the AD who hired him, Jen Cohen, left a few months ago to run USC. DeBoer’s situation might be somewhat similar to Lanning’s in that the prospect of the Alabama job after Saban could be a consideration long-term if DeBoer has any temptation to make a move to a program with even bigger resources.

Florida State’s Mike Norvell is another coach who has a team in the national title mix. The Texas native did the heavy lifting to clean up a mess in Tallahassee that first started to decay at the end of Fisher’s run there. Norvell has been masterful in working the transfer portal and overhauling this program. The Seminoles are 20-3 during the past two years. A&M has more money and resources than FSU, but that move to College Station didn’t work out well for Fisher. If the Aggies make a run at Norvell, does he stay on the fact that coaches have won a lot bigger at FSU than A&M?
Group of 5 head coaches

 

Two Group of 5 coaches who might get some consideration here are UTSA’s Jeff Traylor and Troy’s Jon Sumrall.

The 55-year-old Traylor won a bunch of state titles as a Texas high school coach and is beloved there. We could see him getting some traction at a big Texas college. He has done well in San Antonio, going 29-8 the past three years, but we do wonder if Texas A&M brass will think he’s a big enough name to compete with Saban and Kirby Smart.

The 41-year-old Sumrall has been awesome at Troy. He’s 20-4, including last year’s 12-2 debut and top-20 finish at a place that had been struggling. He’s a terrific recruiter and has a great ability to connect with people and a commanding presence. We believe the former Ole Miss and Kentucky assistant will be a big-time SEC head coach before too long. Sumrall was at Ole Miss, by the way, when A&M AD Ross Bjork ran the Rebels’ program.

 

The wild card

There is one big wild-card wish candidate for the Aggies. Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell is one of their own. The 47-year-old Texas native played at A&M. Campbell epitomizes everything we suspect the school would want in a head coach, and if you’ve watched any clips of him in front of his team, you’ll see why. He has jumped into what was an abysmal franchise and has that city thinking there’s finally a Super Bowl in its future.

The Lions went 9-8 last year and are off to a 6-2 start this season. Could A&M lure him home despite all that he has done and is doing in Detroit, getting all the buy-in he has gotten? It would seem doubtful that he’d walk away from all that. As one source said Sunday morning, “The timing for him (with A&M) is horrible.”

The Aggies need to be ramping up their search now. He has a team rolling toward a playoff run.

(Top photo: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
Bruce Feldman

Bruce Feldman is the National College Football Insider for The Athletic. One of the sport’s leading voices, he also is a sideline reporter for FOX College Football. Bruce has covered college football nationally for more than 20 years and is the author of numerous books on the topic, including "Swing Your Sword: Leading The Charge in Football and Life" with Mike Leach and most recently "The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks." Follow Bruce on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB

Fucking delusional lol 

Kiffin not even mentioned! 

I think it's Elko

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