The Mind of Mike is a scary place. Here are my thoughts on Jimbo Fisher.
We should have known. We just should have known. While Christian Ponder and EJ Manuel were serviceable quarterbacks, Jameis Winston was special and we saw it in his first appearance against Pitt in 2013. After redshirting a year, Winston came out and completed 25 of 27 passes for 356 yards and 4 scores against a fairly solid Panthers team. He also ran for a score in that game. At the time, freshmen quarterback starters were rare and even as a redshirt he was light years ahead of his expected development even as a 5 star recruit. I remember thinking we were seeing something special. And we all have to give Jimbo Fisher credit.
Winston would lead FSU to a national title that season as a freshman and to the the playoff in 2014 before he went off to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. Fisher was credited with the development of Jamarcus Russell at LSU, another No. 1 overall pick, and had now put three straight FSU QBs into round one.
So when should we have known? When Fisher went to Texas A&M he inherited a QB named Kellen Mond in 2018. Mond was a kid I loved out of high school – a Texas transplant at IMG in Florida and a player who I felt had DeShaun Watson level ability. I stood on the table for him to be a 5 star despite some accuracy issues because I felt those would be ironed out and his arm talent and mobility would make him unstoppable. His freshman season was up and down with 8 touchdowns and 6 interceptions and a horrible completion rate. But then, Jimbo the QB whisperer was hired, and I expected big things.
Mond threw for 24 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in 2018, his first year under Fisher and his completion rate still stunk at 57.3-percent. He rushed for 474 yards and 7 more scores but he just didn’t take the leap I expected from year one to year two under Fisher. 2019 was even worse. Mond threw for 20 touchdowns and the same 9 interceptions and while his rushing yards and ground TD improved a bit, he was far from dynamic. And finally, in 2020 he had an efficient year with 19 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, but he just never reached his potential. He was drafted in round three. The DeShaun Watson comp out of high school never, ever came close to reality.
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It was then I began to realize that Fisher might have been a guy who benefited from a rare talent in Winston. 2021 brought Zach Calzada, a Jimbo recruit, and an unimpressive offense. And now in 2022 Haynes King, another Jimbo recruit, was bad enough to get benched for LSU transfer Max Johnson who will soon be replaced by freshman Conner Weigman who is the biggest QB recruit for Fisher since he arrived at A&M. But based on what I’ve seen so far, my expectations for Weigman are low as well.
After Winston went off to the NFL we saw Jimbo yelling at QBs like Everett Golson, Sean McGuire, JJ Consentino, Deondre Francois and James Blackman with little success for each. In fact, it’s safe to say Jimbo has developed more bad QBs than good over the last decade and that’s a huge issue when you’re paying someone more than $1 million.
A&M will trot out this weekend for likely slaughter against Alabama and likely fall to 3-3 this season as they march towards a 6-6 or 7-5 season. This is not what the booster paid for or the recruits from 2021 expected and his time is limited if it continues. And perhaps we should have all known from watching Kellen Mond.
