Texas A&M Football: Jimbo Fisher should be a coach of the year favorite

The Texas A&M football team has one of the best coaches in college football — that’s not a secret. What may not be common knowledge, however, is the fact that Jimbo Fisher has quietly done one of the best coaching jobs of anybody in the country this year.

I say this with the full understanding that coaches like Mel Tucker, Kirby Smart, and Luke Fickell are all undefeated.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who believes this, as Fisher was added to the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award watch list earlier this week. The award is given to the best coach in all of college football and only 21 names are on the list, indicating that Fisher is one of the best in the country. Still, with two losses already, it’s unlikely that he’ll win it.

Texas A&M football HC Jimbo Fisher is destined to be snubbed from a Coach of the Year award

Before I get into why I think Jimbo Fisher should be considered a dark horse Coach of the Year candidate, I have to cover the primary reason why I think he doesn’t stand a chance to win the award.

The reason is simple — Fisher has too many losses already. Two losses is far from an insurmountable total, but to find the last Paul “Bear” Bryant award winner with two losses, you have to rewind to 2013. In 2013, Auburn’s Gus Malzahn won it in his first season as head coach of the Tigers.

He brought his team to a 12-2 record, winning the SEC Championship Game in a year after Auburn had won just three games, losing nine on the year. Fisher, on the other hand, already had an established squad and hardly holds a chance of even making it to the SEC Championship Game. The odds are not in his favor.

That said, I’m not sure that college football has seen a better mid-season bounce back in a long time. After Fisher dropped two early games to teams that are now unranked, the Aggie head coach has his team back in the top-15 in college football. Heck, the Aggies could very well be in the top ten in the near future.

Within the last month, we were watching a Texas A&M football team that couldn’t block a three-man Arkansas pass rush. The offense was unable to score more than a single touchdown against any Power Five opponent and just a few weeks later, they’re dropping at least 35 points every single week.

He did this without a starting offensive lineman, starting wide receiver, and his starting quarterback.

Because the committee that selects this award tends to look at a coach’s season-long resume, Fisher will not win the award. That said, there is no hotter coach in the game right now than the one in charge of the Aggie football team.