Jimbo Fisher points to Nick Saban, Kirby Smart to address 'ease' in giving up play calling

A change was clearly needed in College Station last season. If Texas A&M was going to have any success moving forward, somebody else was going to have to call plays. Jimbo Fisher stagnated in Year Five and somebody else needed to be brought in to run the show.

Fisher eventually brought in Bobby Petrino, who had previously been the UNLV offensive coordinator for a brief moment. He will “hopefully” call plays for Texas A&M this season, meaning Fisher would be giving up something he’s done his entire career. Even so, that’s an “easy” task for the head coach.

“It’s easy,” Fisher said via The Paul Finebaum Show. “As a head coach you’re still going to be involved.”

People are not doubting whether or not Fisher is going to be involved in playcalling. In fact, there is a doubt Petrino will be the one signaling into quarterback Conner Weigman on Saturdays. Fisher’s response while at the SEC Media Days brings even more questions.

But more responses have shown Fisher willing to give up the job and it’s something he compares to Nick Saban at Alabama or Kirby Smart at Georgia. Neither of them is calling defenses while their teams continue to perform at the highest level. Ultimately, Fisher is there to trust Petrino with the job he was hired to do.

“Let me ask you this,” Fisher began. “When Nick calls defenses. Does he call defenses? He doesn’t call defenses. Kirby doesn’t call defenses. It’s not that hard, it’s really not. You’re going to be in the meeting of what’s going on with your team.

“You may collect ideas on what you may do and how you’re going to do it. Then, you turn it over to guys and you have confidence in the job that you’re hiring them to do. Let them do the job.”

Texas A&M was No. 101 in scoring offense last season, averaging 22.8 points per game. Three different times was Fisher’s offense held under 20 points but only two resulted in losses. Having an average of 219 passing yards per game is a tough stat in today’s college football world.

You would hope giving up playcalling was easy for Fisher. Petrino may have not been at the highest level over the past few years but there is prior SEC success on his resume. Giving him an opportunity to be the sole play caller should not be much of a question.