Jimbo Fisher, Jedd Fisch and Why It's Best to Admit You Don't Know the Future

Every November signals the unofficial beginning of the college football coaching carousel season, and the first high-profile seat on the ride opened Sunday morning with Texas A&M’s dismissal of Jimbo Fisher.

As the attraction starts to twirl, the accompanying carnival tune comes from the chorus of pundits offering up lists of potential yet mostly unrealistic candidates, declaring the attractiveness of open positions and grading the quality of hires before any of them coach a game.

These are fun topics to bounce around but ultimately should be taken as seriously as a merry-go-round spin.

Fisher’s hire at Texas A&M following the 2017 season produced a flood of hype and mostly praise. After a tenure at Florida State in which the Seminoles played in BCS /New Year’s Six bowls five straight seasons and won the final BCS national championship, consensus suggested Fisher was the man to finally bring College Station’s long-sleeping giant to its potential.

In fact, ESPN’s “Road to the Playoff” ad campaign hyping up the 2018 season ended with a clip of Fisher putting on an Aggies baseball cap before he looked into the camera and quipped, “No pressure.”

Now, at a reported buyout of a staggering — and, if you’ll excuse me hand-wringing, what I’d call obscene — $76 million, maybe the comment about feeling no pressure was literal.