Since entering the SEC in 2012 the Aggies have never had a clearer path to Atlanta than what they did last Saturday. It wasn’t an easy path but it was as clear as it’s ever been.

It’s pretty obvious Texas A&M has as much talent as anyone else in the SEC West and was playing a very beatable Alabama football team. Get by Alabama and you can lose one game the rest of the way and still win the West getting to Atlanta. I’m assuming Ole Miss loses another game this year since they have Georgia on the schedule. Not an easy task for the Aggies but very doable.

Unfortunately, Jimbo Fisher is not cut of the same cloth as General William Sherman during the Civil War.

Jimbo had the opportunity to make a statement things truly “ain’t like they used to be”. However, the only statement Jimbo made is that things are just like they used to be. How far back “ain’t like they used to be” is open to interpretation but you can go back to 1998 if you want.

Sure, there were some blips in 2010 and 2012 but the Aggies still haven’t played for a conference championship since 1998. It makes planning for the first weekend of December much easier but that’s not what Aggie fans want.

Jimbo Fisher had the Fightin’ Texas Aggies poised to show everyone things are different now. All of the top-notch recruiting was finally going to prove differently. The Aggies finally had a clear path to march to Atlanta like General Sherman in the late Fall of 1864.

Unfortunately for Jimbo, Nick Saban stood in the way not ready to relinquish the crown of the SEC West.

You can’t tell me Alabama has a better receiving unit than Texas A&M.
You can’t tell me Alabama has better running backs than Texas A&M.
You can’t tell me that Jalen Milroe is a better quarterback than Max Johnson.
You can’t tell me Alabama has a better offensive line than Texas A&M.
You can’t tell me Alabama has a better defensive line than Texas A&M.
You can’t tell me Alabama has better linebackers than Texas A&M.
You can’t tell me Alabama has better safeties than Texas A&M.

I’m leaving the corners off that list above which I’ll get to later. Of all the things I’ve listed you can’t honestly say Alabama has more talent at any of those groups. You can certainly argue there might be a draw or a slight advantage to Alabama in a couple of those areas but for the most part, the team Jimbo Fisher put out on Kyle Field on Saturday had as much talent as Alabama.

He had the team to beat Nick Saban. He just didn’t have the ability as head coach.

I listened to a little bit of his post-game comments but it’s still the same thing. A little here and there and we win the game. The problem is it’s the same damn thing over and over again.

He added an offensive coordinator but he’s not changed how he manages games.

He took a 7-point lead into the half and came out flat yet again. The Aggie offense was essentially shut out for the entire second half while the defense played their ass off for the most part even getting two crucial turnovers.

We’ve seen this at Kyle way too many times in the last couple of years where the offense does NOTHING in the 3rd quarter letting a team slip back in or even worse give the game away:

2021 Mississippi State
2021 Alabama
2021 Auburn
2022 App State
2022 Ole Miss
2022 Florida
2022 LSU
2023 Alabama

Not in any of those games did the Aggie offense score a touchdown in the third quarter. Not a single touchdown. We had special teams and defensive touchdowns in the third quarter of those games but not an offensive touchdown.

AT KYLE FIELD THE CROWD IS NOT A FACTOR TO YOUR OFFENSE.

How is Jimbo so damn bad at getting his offense into gear in the third quarter of SEC home games over the last couple of seasons? We won 3 of those games but it’s a bit concerning the Aggie offense seems to struggle so badly in the third quarter of big games at Kyle. If not for touchdowns by special teams and defense we might have lost the 2021 Bama and 2022 LSU games. Thank goodness the 2021 Auburn team had a more inept offense than we did

That’s as concerning as his road record where he’s never beaten a team that finished the season with a record of 8-4 or better.

He’s showing some massive deficiencies he can’t seem to fix against good teams.

Teams are coming out of halftime AT KYLE FIELD and proving his offense inept. It’s frustrating as hell.

You know what? Screw this. I can’t type anymore about the Alabama game and why we lost. You watched the game if you’re reading this. You know why we lost. I’m not going into deep analysis because it’s obvious.

Jimbo Fisher did what Jimbo Fisher does which is fail to adapt to the opponent during the game. He sticks to his plan ignoring what’s changed as the game has progressed. He believes he’s smarter than everyone else and it’s other people to blame for the Aggie struggles.

Nick Saban took Jimbo to school all because Jimbo didn’t learn or adapt. My guess is Saban watched the Miami film and said to his staff let’s try that. It worked. Alabama did the EXACT same thing Miami did and it worked beautifully.

Jimbo either didn’t see it or didn’t know how to adjust. Likely a combination of the two.

Saban likely told his defensive line to just destroy our offensive line. Then he decided to let Milroe pick apart our secondary because Jimbo and Durkin thought they could confuse him with coverage and pulling pressure.

Meanwhile, all Alabama did was mostly go after our weakest link on defense. I’m not going to name who it is but you know who it is if you read this blog. It was a glaring weakness and we did nothing to mask it.

What Jimbo and Durkin should have done was EXACTLY what they did to Auburn and Arkansas. Apply pressure like crazy and do not let Milroe get comfortable. They thought they could confuse Milroe but they just gave him time to execute a plan that Saban had planned for all because he saw it on film earlier this year.

Jimbo and Durkin got too cute and it burned them. Jalen Milroe threw 33 passes completing 21 of them for 321 yards. He’s never come close to that effort in any other game but Saban was smart enough to know that was the only way to beat the Aggies on offense.

Strangely, it wasn’t the defense that truly lost the game. It was an inept offense in the second half that couldn’t score a single touchdown and mustered one successful field goal for 3 total points in the second half. The defense while not without fault did more than the other units to try and win the game. Coaching failed them.

Along the way, special teams also hurt the Aggies all because Jimbo doesn’t believe in wasting time on it. It’s annoying it even happens and it’s even more annoying that opposing coaches see it as an opportunity to gain an advantage. Stupid special teams.

We all know about the clock and timeout issues he has so no need to go over those. He just never has a sense of urgency believing timeouts are for deliberating as opposed to making sure his team has the most amount of time in crucial moments.

In Monday’s press conference, Jimbo was still blaming the ref on the Evan Stewart play. This is Jimbo’s problem – it’s always everyone else’s fault but his. THAT WAS ONE FLIPPING PLAY THAT WASN’T GOING FOR A TOUCHDOWN AND THE REF WASN’T EVEN REALLY OUT OF POSITION. THAT SINGLE PLAY WAS NOT WHY THE AGGIES LOST!!!! STOP USING IT AS A DAMN EXCUSE!

How stubborn and stupid can this man be? Damn, it’s frustrating.

Looking Forward:

I still firmly believe there’s enough talent to win out going 10-2 and being the sole team in second place in the SEC West. At this point that would be a FANTASTIC finish all things considered.

I just don’t see it happening. I don’t see how we beat Tennessee this weekend since Saban just basically confirmed how to beat this Aggie team. I thought we’d win at Ole Miss but I believe that feels like a loss right now. Call LSU a coin flip at this point and I think this is an 8-4 team at best.

South Carolina won’t be easy either as Rattler could get hot and you know Beamer is going to try a thing or two on special teams. I don’t think this is a 6-6 team but Jimbo can do fascinating things.

Jimbo had a chance to change the narrative on Saturday and didn’t do it. He still has the chance to change the narrative by running the table and winning a bowl game. He won’t do it.

He’ll stubbornly ignore an opposing coach implementing a game plan he’s seen before on how to beat the Aggies. Jimbo will blame the referees and the lack of execution on a few plays thinking if only those things would fix themselves the Aggies could win.

Meanwhile, everyone else will shake their head wondering why a man who was given everything from a program standpoint can’t see what everyone else sees.

Just win, Jimbo.