Texas A&M Football: 5 questions Aggies must answer in 2018

2. How good at coaching is the recruiting staff that Fisher has assembled?

You’ve got to have talent to play the game. Jimbo Fisher realizes this as well as anyone and he’s slowly assembled what looks to be one of the best staff of recruiters in the country. Mike Elko and Tim Brewster and others are renowned for their recruiting abilities, but that’s only half of the battle.

Texas A&M can bring in all the 5-star prospects they want, but it doesn’t matter if the staff can’t coach them up. Since joining the SEC the talent in College Station has soared. From 2012 to 2017 the Aggies signed nine 5-star recruits. They signed two 5-stars in the previous 12 years.

A failure to develop that talent is why Kevin Sumlin is no longer coaching at Texas A&M. Great coaches get more out of their players than their talent dictates, developing synergies between their players and their schemes. They made good players better and the best players elite.

Coaches that can take high-end talent and get them to perform above and beyond bring home championships. That’s what Jimbo Fisher was hired to do. It’s time to see if he can do it.