Press Conference Quotes: Jimbo Fisher
Amid the persistent reports, are you at a point where you can guarantee that you are going to be staying at A&M for next season and beyond?
Let me ask you this. Here's the...I've told everybody I'm staying here and I've told everybody I plan on being the coach at A&M. And everybody thinks all coaches lie. I know, I know, y'all don't believe us. All right. That's why we don't trust y'all. (Laughter) OK, so we're even OK, whatever we say, nothing's off the record. OK, it's off the record? No, it ain't off the record. You didn't say that. (Laughter) All right. But I'm joking. But here...We're going to recruit maybe as good a class...here's...because I said the other things. I plan on being here, I love the AD, I love the president, I love the chancellor, I love living here. I love being on my ranch. I love, the family loves it here. I love, I love Kyle Field. I love the people, I love all that stuff. And that's obviously not good enough. And I get it. And I'm not...I'm not mad at you. Seriously. I read reports. People come to me. I say I don't want to hear. I'm not interested. We may. We may recruit number one... We're going to recruit an unbelievable class this year. OK? So I'm either the dumbest human being on God's Earth. OK, who's going to recruit all of these guys to A&M so I can go across over here and go play against them? OK? If I do, if I did that, you ought to say that's the dumbest human being, I don't want him to be my coach. OK? Guys, we're going to recruit a heck of a class. We're going to have special things here. We're building special things. They're investing in the program. They're investing in everything we got. We're building a culture. We're not where we are. And that was the disappointing thing about Saturday for me, that we didn't take a step in some of the things I thought we really should have. And it wasn't because of want to. It's cause of how to, and I got to do a better job explaining to our players to get them to do it. But I want to be at A&M. I plan on being at A&M. I ain't going nowhere, I don't want to be nowhere else. I love being right here. Is that clean enough?
On the Ole Miss game…
Disappointed that we didn't play as well as we should have played and could have played. We did not play well enough on offense or defense throughout the game to sustain and win the game. We had plenty of opportunities on both sides to make plays, do things and we did not. Now, Ole Miss did a great job. They played well, give them credit, but we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds in just how we fit things, did things, ran things, blocked things that we just, you know, different guys took turns at times and it was not consistent of any one person. And we have to learn to play better in big moments, big situations. Shot ourselves in the foot early in the game, giving up way too many yards, too many drives, too many situations, field positions. We had them backed up on three drives starting inside the 10-yard line where we never got the ball back. They scored on two of three of them and we never got the ball back where when we went on offense, we you could do some great things with it.
Offensively, we moved the ball, but then we’d shoot ourselves in the foot with a little penalty or a missed block drop ball missed read. I mean, little things that everybody took a turn and all of a sudden it's not there. But then after doing all that, finding ways to hang in there and put yourself back in position to win the game, which I commend our kids for, I mean, the ability to keep fighting in the game, to keep making changes in the game, to keep being coached in the game and put ourselves in a position to win the game. And then on offense and defense, did not make some plays right at that time, which was disappointing, that could have put us over the hump, that could have got us back in the lead instead of 15-13. Then got stops. We had a chance down there inside the 10 and we dropped the ball for a touchdown. We missed a block down there. Then we dropped another ball and then kicked a field goal. Then we have a 3rd and 11, got them right back again where it could be another three and out and get great field position, we give up a 3rd-and-11 and they get a drive go all the way back. Unfortunately we had the turnovers.
We had opportunities to get ourselves back and that was the encouraging thing to put ourselves back there, but it was disappointing that we didn't keep the poise and execution in those critical moments. And it wasn't from ‘want to’. We have to make sure we understand how to do it, stay relaxed and get them to understand to do that and play better. And Ole Miss played a good game. Give them credit for things they did. We had our opportunities, but we didn't play well enough in that game. And it's disappointing because we had started fast in all the other four games we'd recently played. Got to good starts, got off to good things, did well and, you know, didn't do it in this game, somehow, for some reason. We'll get to the bottom of it and figure it out. And it's not because they didn't want to or anything else. Had good preparation, had good practices, so we've got to learn to take it on the field. And that's part of learning to climb the final part of that mountain to go into that elite status and learn to understand how to win and play when you have to and when you want to, when you're expected to. We’ll learn to do that, we'll keep playing. We've got two more games left to play really well, practice really well and try to finish this season out the right way.
Got these seniors coming out this last weekend, all the fifth-year seniors and seniors, they're going out, they've done a great job of rebuilding this program, putting the culture of it right back where we need to be, helping the recruiting basis of everything we do. Finish this home season out and hopefully go on the road and play a really good game against a good LSU team, very talented LSU team down there on the road and we'll see from there.
A couple of players earlier talked about their opponent is faceless. How does that help you in coaching week to week?
Because that means it's not about them, it's about preparation for your opponent, but it's about your own standard of excellence. And that's what we're talking about here. Are you? You respect your opponent. You prepare for your opponent. But you play to your standards. You play to your level of how you got to play, which is something we had really done for four straight weeks and we just didn't do this week. And I understand that, they understand that we let that get away a little bit. My point is whether you're playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Prairie View, Samford, whoever it is, you practice the same, you play the same, you do the same. And people say, Well, that's not true. It is true. The great teams and the great players do not matter who they play. It's how they play and how they prepare. And that's the point they're trying to get across, and I'm very glad they said that. You made me just feel good.
On Saturday, your alma mater Samford was leading Florida for most of the game. Does that just kind of prove that you can't take any of these games for granted?
Exactly right. And it's an example I'm using today. This team’s 7-2. Prairie View’s a very good team. Their coaches have been together on two National Championship Black Historic College Championships at Arkansas-Pine Bluff and at Southern. They did one at Southern when I was at LSU, they were over there coordinators then and head coaches and stuff, and these guys know how to win. They build a great program. You watch how they coach. They’re coached very well. They play very well. They're 7-2. I know they lost last week, but they do a really good job. You’ve got to play every week. Remember App State/Michigan? You remember them all. You’ve got to play all the time anywhere. If you get down anywhere, there's too much talent out there. And especially with the transfer portals, you're getting a lot of guys at this level of football that were really Division I players that left for different reasons. There's players everywhere.
And with that great season that Prairie View is having, what kind of problems could they present?
Well, I mean, defensively, they're an extremely high-blitzing team. High percentage, 45% overall. Different blitzes, different stunts, very schematically together in how they do things. Cause twist games up front. Offensively, three and four wides . Transfer quarterback (Jawon) Pass from Columbus, Georgia, and Louisville. Remember him from high school. Very talented guy. Receivers can run, can fly, can hit things. Back is very, very talented. Have really good skill guys in throwing in the football. Very good at special teams. I mean, they're a talented team on both sides of the ball. That little slot for them is quick as a cat, boy.
What has DeMarvin Leal meant to this program since he's been here?
First of all, he was a big time guy that was wanted by everybody in the country who said, I want to take a chance on new coaches and I want to be a part of and build at A&M and set culture for the future of what was going on. And I think that just his presence of who he was in recruiting was a big part of it. Him, Kenyon, those types of guys that were really, really high guys that a lot of times were leaving the state, you know what I'm saying? That we're keeping here. ‘We want to play here’, I think was huge that way. I think his physical skills are extremely gifted. He's an inside/outside guy. He is a very intelligent guy. He's a high character person. He is a really good guy, great personality, magnetic personality. People follow, listen. Can articulate what he says, what he wants as a leader very well. A lot of guys can show you. He can show you and tell you. He'll go talk to you and help you. Is a team guy. I mean, I can't say enough good things about him. Got a great family, good people. I mean, he's what you want to lay the foundation of your organization. He's one of those types of guys, Kenyon’s in that group. I mean, We were blessed in that group with some really special guys.
