Texas A&M Aggies football coach Jimbo Fisher addresses Nick Saban spat, says 'it's time to shut up and play'

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Jimbo Fisher feels the best he has about the trajectory of Texas A&M's football program, and he's ready for the story to become what the Aggies do on the field and not his offseason spat with former boss Nick Saban.

«We're talented and have established that we can start stacking a huge number of the right guys in our program,» Fisher told ESPN on Friday. «We've still got great challenges this year. We gotta go prove it. Hey, it's time to shut up and play, just go play. Don't worry about what people say. Don't worry about what happened this summer between me and Nick.

»We feel really good about where we're going."

The Aggies, ranked No. 6 in the AP preseason poll, were 8-4 a year ago after just missing the College Football Playoff during the 2020 COVID-19 season. Despite an up-and-down season a year ago, Fisher became the first of Saban's former assistants to beat him when Texas A&M upset No. 1 Alabama 41-38 at Kyle Field. But the real fireworks came this offseason after Texas A&M reeled in the nation's No. 1-ranked recruiting class, which included eight of ESPN's top 30 prospects nationally.

Saban, speaking at a business leader function in Birmingham in May, said Texas A&M «bought every player» in its 2022 signing class. Fisher called a news conference the next day and issued a fiery rebuttal. He called Saban's comments «despicable» and referred to him as a «narcissist.» He also suggested that reporters should dig into Saban's recruiting practices. Saban later apologized for singling out anybody, but said his issue was any school that was using NIL as a recruiting inducement.

During a sitdown with ESPN on Friday, Fisher discussed several things involving his spat with Saban. Fisher emphasized