Texas A&M AD fired Jimbo Fisher because program 'stuck in neutral' - ESPN

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork on Sunday night said that the decision to fire football coach Jimbo Fisher earlier in the day was his and that the program was «stuck in neutral.»

Bjork said he called interim Texas A&M president Gen. Mark Welsh after the Aggies' loss to Ole Miss on Nov. 4 and asked to meet.

«The assessment that I delivered was that we are not reaching our full potential,» Bjork said in a news conference. «We are not in the championship conversation and something was not quite right about our direction and the plan.

»We should be relevant on the national scene."

In Fisher's first three seasons in College Station, the Aggies were 26-10 and finished No. 4 in 2020 — the second-highest ranking in program history behind their 1939 national championship. Over the last three seasons, Texas A&M is 19-15, including an active nine-game road losing streak that is tied for the program's longest since the AP poll began in 1936.

Since Fisher's first full recruiting class in 2019, Texas A&M has signed 70 ESPN 300 players, the fourth-most in the FBS behind Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State, who have all three played in a national championship game over that span. The Aggies also were credited with the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022.

«There was something just not clicking to provide confidence for everyone in the program,» Bjork said. «You have to adapt, you have to evolve. I'm not going to say whether he did or didn't, but it didn't work.»

Fisher's A&M tenure ends with a 45-25 record over six seasons, without no appearances in the SEC Championship Game.

Bjork said he and Welsh met with Fisher inside Kyle Field just before 9 a.m. Sunday morning and informed the coach that they were making an