SEC PREVIEW: Aggies anticipate titles with Fisher taking helm

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher speaks at Southeastern Conference Media Days Monday, July 16, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

ATLANTA -- In February, Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp presented a plaque to Texas A&M-Commerce Coach Colby Carthel for winning an NCAA Division II national championship.

At the same public gathering, Sharp also had a plaque for new Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher.

It was one with Fisher's name listing the Aggies as Division I national champions with "20 - -" included on it.

"The only difference between Colby's and yours is you get to fill in the date," Sharp told Fisher at the time.

Fisher said Monday at SEC media days he didn't mind the plaque from Sharp, even if it might have heaped even more pressure on him.

"I think Chancellor Sharp doing that, there was no problem with that at all," Fisher said. "I have a great relationship with him.

"I thought it was kind of nice myself. Hoping we can fill that in quickly."

The Aggies didn't lure Fisher from Florida State -- where he had an 83-23 record the previous eight seasons and won the 2013 national championship with a 34-31 victory over Auburn -- to win eight games and play in mid-tier bowl games.

That's what got Kevin Sumlin fired as Texas A&M's coach with a $10.4 million contract buyout.

Texas A&M gave Fisher a 10-year, $75 million contract to beat Alabama and the other SEC heavyweights, and deliver the Aggies their first national championship since 1939.

"People are never going to put more pressure on me than I put on myself in this business," Fisher said. "This is about dealing with pressure."

Sumlin, who is now Arizona's coach, never had a losing record in six seasons at Texas A&M. He was 51-26 overall, but he could not recapture the magic of starting 11-2 in 2012 and coaching Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

The success of that season led to Texas A&M spending $21 million to renovate its Bright Football Complex in 2014, and $485 million to rebuild Kyle Field and expand its capacity to 102,512 for the 2015 season.

With that kind of investment in facilities, the rich recruiting base in Texas, and the exposure of playing in the SEC, hiring the right coach seemed to be the only thing holding the Aggies back.

"I was off-the-wall excited," Aggies junior center Erik McCoy said when he heard Fisher had left Florida State for Texas A&M. "Because I knew we had somebody who knows what it takes to win a national championship coming to our program."

McCoy said Fisher has "a ton" of credibility with the Aggies.

"We have one of the four active head coaches who has a national championship," said McCoy, with Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Dabo Swinney being the others. "That's a blessing brought to our program. It makes us want to work even harder for him."

How quickly can the Aggies win a national championship with Fisher?

"That's not a question I know the answer to," McCoy said. "I just know with hard work and Coach Fisher leading the way, it's very possible."

Senior defensive tackle Kingsley Keke said Fisher is the coach to take the Aggies to the next level.

"Definitely, definitely, because he has a proven track record," Keke said. "He's won a national championship. Seeing the way he does things so far has been amazing. He's changing the culture of the way we do things.

"He wants his players to be tough physically and mentally focused in everything we do."

Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops, who was Fisher's defensive coordinator at Florida State from 2010-2012, said he has no doubt his old boss will do well at Texas A&M.

"I have great respect for Jimbo and the way he goes about his work," Stoops said. "There's many things I do at Kentucky that I took from him. He'll recruit at a high level. His teams will play extremely hard."

The Aggies return 15 starters, with seven on offense and eight defense.

"Oh yeah, we definitely have the talent here for sure," Keke said.

Fisher said he's been pleased with the players' response to the coaching change.

"I thought spring went very well," he said. "We got a lot of things established. The guys are really starting to grasp what we want to do and how we want to do it, and looking forward to the challenges."

McCoy said Fisher has made it clear what he expects from the players -- and what will happen if he doesn't get it.

"He told us that we were soft and we had no option but to get tougher," McCoy said. "He set the bar and basically told us that if we didn't give it to him, you were going to be gone. That was a message that really got through to us. We knew what to expect when we got to practice, because he's a business guy.

"I've never thought of myself as being soft, but we've definitely come a long way under Coach Fisher -- and we're still making strides in the toughness part of the game."

Fisher didn't want to get into what he thought about last season's Texas A&M team, but he said the Aggies have to play with "tremendous physicality" to compete in the SEC.

"When I was in this league and we had success is when we had physical, tough teams," said Fisher, who was quarterbacks coach at Auburn and offensive coordinator at LSU. "When I was at Florida State, and we had tremendous success, it was because we had tough, physical teams.

"We get caught up because of all of the spread stuff and going fast and all of this. You still have pads on. You still have to tackle. You still have to block.

"You still have to be physical in how you run routes, and how you catch balls, and how you just do everything. I think there's a toughness factor that you have to have and a level that we have to get to."

Sports on 07/17/2018

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TEXAS A&M 2018 SCHEDULE

Aug. 30 Northwestern (La.) State

Sept. 8 Clemson

Sept. 15 Louisiana-Monroe

*Sept. 22 at Alabama

*Sept. 29 vs. Arkansas (Arlington, Texas)

*Oct. 6 Kentucky

*Oct. 13 at South Carolina

*Oct. 27 at Mississippi State

*Nov. 3 at Auburn

*Nov. 10 Ole Miss

Nov. 17 Alabama-Birmingham

*Nov. 24 LSU

*SEC game

TEXAS A&M AT A GLANCE

LAST SEASON 7-6, 4-4 (tie 4th) in SEC West

COACH Jimbo Fisher (first season at Texas A&M, 83-23 in eight seasons at Texas A&M)

RETURNING STARTERS (15): Offense 7, Defense 8

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS RB Trayveon Williams, WR Jhamon Austin, QB Nick Starkel, C Erik McCoy, LB Tyrel Dodson, DE Landis Durham, LB Otaro Alaka, DT Keke Kingsley

SEC TITLE SCENARIO Jimbo Fisher was lured from Florida State — where he won the national champion in 2013 — with a 10-year, $75 million contract to bring SEC and national titles to Aggieland. That might happen eventually, but it could take him a couple of years to build Texas A&M into a national power.

SEC PREVIEW

First in a series previewing the 2018 SEC football season.