Texas A&M Football: What Jimbo Said at Houston Coach’s Night

Texas A&M football head coach Jimbo Fisher spoke to a group of Aggie supporters last night for the annual Houston Coach’s Night put on by the Houston A&M Club. While there, he made several remarks that will intrigue, excite, and fire up Texas A&M football fans (all quotes originally collected by Texags). Before the event actually started, Fisher expressed his support for the SEC moving to a 9-game conference schedule.

Such a schedule would allow for the Aggies to play the Texas Longhorns on a yearly basis once conference realignment comes to pass next season. Otherwise, in the scheduling models that have been proposed, each team would only keep one permanent rival, and for Texas that would likely be their longtime conference mate Oklahoma. Moving on to the big stage, Jimbo opened with some encouraging news regarding the team.

Injuries were quite the bugaboo for the Texas A&M football program last season and were a bigtime contributor to the 2022 season’s moribund record. To come out of the spring relatively healthy is good to see, especially given a couple of the injuries seen in the Spring Game, including the one sustained by Noah Thomas early on in the contest. Speaking of Thomas, Jimbo also had high praise for the young receiver.

Thomas’s progression has been sorely needed by the Aggies, who have been thin at receiver following the departure of Chris Marshall (who was recently dismissed from his transfer destination in Ole Miss) and depth guys like Devin Price. Of course, the Texas A&M football program got a huge boost when Ainias Smith decided to return for his super-senior year, and Thomas’s emergence means the starting lineup is all but set at receiver: Thomas, Stewart, and Smith will be a force to be reckoned with in the conference.

At another position of need—the offensive line—Jimbo had no shortage of encouraging comments.

These notes—especially on the young players Nabou, Bisontis, and Thomasson—are very encouraging. The OL was an extremely weak position group last year and contributed mightily to the offense’s struggles. Continuity at that position will do much to help the Aggies in the upcoming year.

Jimbo also revealed that the Aggies made another transfer portal addition recently.

Bailey is a 6’0″ 240-pound RB—quite the bruiser. A sixth-year man who lost most of last year to injury, Bailey played under A&M OL coach Steve Addazio at both BC and CSU. His best year was 2019, where he rushed for 5.7 YPC. That mark has gone down in recent years, but that is likely due to his usage as a short-yardage back. He will be a good addition in that same role to an already-explosive RB room for Texas A&M football.

On a final note, Jimbo made a couple of comments regarding something that Aggie fans have been wondering about all offseason—the addition of OC Bobby Petrino to the coaching staff.

That cohesion is sorely needed on a Texas A&M football team that has had an offense that was out of sorts all too often last year.

In all, these comments served to whet the appetite of Aggie football fans everywhere. Only four months remain until toe meets leather and the vital 2023 campaign begins.