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Jimbo Fisher's comments about FSU departure leave Aggie fans with bitter taste

Fisher spoke on a podcast recently about leaving Florida State for Texas A&M, and I'm not sure Aggie fans liked it.
ByGraham Harmon|
Nov 11, 2023; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher looks on during warm ups prior to the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images
Nov 11, 2023; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher looks on during warm ups prior to the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

It's hard to deny that Jimbo Fisher left the Aggie program with a higher national profile than it had when he arrived, even if it wasn't completely in a better place. The bare-cupboard status of the roster was cause for Mike Elko to bring in unprecedented numbers from the transfer portal, which he did a great job of, but it wouldn't have been necessary if Jimbo's departure hadn't left the Aggies so depleted.

It wasn't the cleanest of breaks, to be sure. There were certainly some soured feelings towards Jimbo by the Aggie fanbase when he was on his way out, and some were conjecturing that it would have been better had he never been hired, especially given his contract.

While that's definitely a debatable position— one that most Aggies don't really share— fans also wondered what Jimbo's attitude was on the way out. He hasn't spoken badly of the Ags since then, but on a recent podcast, he made some comments that raised A&M fans' eyebrows.

Jimbo Fisher says he "did not ever want to leave" FSU, mentions "great success" at A&M

On a recent podcast episode with former FSU fullback Freddie Stevenson, Jimbo mentioned that he never wanted to leave Tallahassee.

The lack of support from FSU's administration was well-documented on Fisher's way out, and that's a big reason that the Aggies were able to lure him away. The rumors had begun to spread in the beginning of the 2017 season, and they picked up a lot of steam when it became clear that Sumlin was on the way out.

That said, the timing here is interesting. Fisher is about to join the ACC Network's version of SEC Nation, and leading up to that, he's making a lot of his ACC connections— even though he was most recently in the SEC for six years. Of course, the majority of his time and dominance as a coach was in the ACC, so that helps explain things.

Even so, A&M fans are sure to not exactly love hearing this. He downplays his move to A&M in a pretty calculated way, emphasizing the success he had there. Especially for the fans still disgruntled with the way he left things, that has to be rankling.

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