Texas A&M's firing of Jimbo Fisher provides a big opportunity for Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols
The Texas A&M Aggies actually did it. Despite a ridiculously large buyout (reportedly around $75 million), they fired Jimbo Fisher as the program's head coach on Sunday. Fisher, who won a national championship at Florida State in 2013, went 45-25 during his six seasons at Texas A&M, Fisher's dismissal at Texas A&M provides a massive […]
The Texas A&M Aggies actually did it. Despite a ridiculously large buyout (reportedly around $75 million), they fired Jimbo Fisher as the program's head coach on Sunday.
Fisher, who won a national championship at Florida State in 2013, went 45-25 during his six seasons at Texas A&M,
Fisher's dismissal at Texas A&M provides a massive opportunity for Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols. And it's an opportunity that Tennessee can't afford to waste — especially after losing by 29 points to Missouri on Saturday.
With Fisher on his way out of College Station, it means that a litany of Aggies players will likely be hitting the transfer portal when the December window opens in a few weeks.
And if there's one thing we've seen in college football over the last couple of years, it's that the the transfer portal is a massive equalizer. Building a program through recruiting is obviously the ideal path to success, but unless you're consistently landing top five classes — year after year — it's almost impossible to become an elite program without heavily utilizing the portal.
There's just no substitute for experience. Or the fact that the portal minimizes "misses" because programs have a much better idea of what they're getting as opposed to a high school player (there are plenty of four-star and even five-star players who never reach their potential, for whatever reason, while plenty of three-star players become stars).
Tennessee has tried to supplement their roster via the portal by addressing positions of need. That approach, however, needs to change. Instead of just attacking obvious positions of need, the Vols need to seek out players in the portal that are an upgrade over what they already have. Tennessee might have a couple of linebackers they really like, for example, but if there's a linebacker who is an obvious upgrade, they gotta try to land that guy. Otherwise, one of their rivals will. And then Tennessee is suddenly at a disadvantage.
The Aggies have a ton of talent on their roster. And plenty of those players would make Tennessee a much better team (including Tennessee native Walter Nolen, a talented defensive lineman). The Vols need to pony up some NIL money and do whatever it takes to land some of Texas A&M's talent (the ones that decide to leave). If not, they'll be missing a massive opportunity to make the Tennessee football program better entering the 2024 season.
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