LSU sustains huge loss to Alabama, raising even more questions about former Texas A&M AD Scott Woodward's decision-making in coaching search
All I need to do is say a number, and Texas A&M football fans will know exactly what I'm talking about. I only need to invoke the phrase "$75 million," and Aggies everywhere cringe slightly.
That, of course, is the guaranteed amount in the ten-year contract that A&M paid former head coach Jimbo Fisher to come be the head man in Aggieland. For the first four years, things actually looked pretty good—the Ags appeared to be on the upswing, especially after a top-4 finish in 2020, and some huge results on the recruiting trail promised even bigger results to come.
As we now know, though, that really did not come to fruition. Even despite a massive raise and extension in the 2021 season, amid the assembling of the top-rated recruiting class in history, Fisher did not pan out, going a mere 11-11 from the beginning of the following season until his firing after Mississippi State in 2023.
Of course, the chief reason for that extension (beyond Ross Bjork, I mean), was the exodus of Aggie AD and Fisher friend Scott Woodward to Baton Rouge, LA. As the Tigers sought a new coach, it became clear that Fisher was a name high on their list.
Instead, Woodward doled out another massive contract—not unlike the one he originally gave to Jimbo—to Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. Kelly, like Fisher, showed some early promise, winning the SEC West in his first year. Of course, he also lost embarrassingly to a then 4-7 Aggie team in Kyle Field and got pantsed by Georgia in the SEC Championship.
Now, a couple of years on, after back to back big losses for LSU to A&M and Alabama, people are beginning to looking askance on the Kelly hire. Dan Wolken of USA Today chimed in on this very thing.
People in college sports have held up Scott Woodward as some sort of coach hiring diety but Jimbo Fisher at A&M and Brian Kelly at LSU have been like firing bullets straight into your shoes
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) November 10, 2024
Kelly has been an odd culture fit down in Red Stick his whole time there. He's won a fair amount of games, but I think there will be a much shorter leash for him than there was for a guy like Ed Orgeron, who fit the culture to a T. I am growing increasingly confident that Kelly will snap the streak of LSU coaches who win a national championship in their tenure.