Jimbo Fisher fires back at assertion of Texas A&M's 'ugly win' vs. Miami

Texas A&M bounced back from a Week 2 loss to Appalachian State in a major way this weekend, buckling down in the red zone to secure a 17-9 win against a ranked Miami team. It wasn’t the prettiest win, but you’d better be careful about describing the result against the Hurricanes as an ‘ugly win’ around Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher.

Sure, Miami managed to outgain Texas A&M 392 yards to 264 in the contest. Fisher will take that all day and twice on Saturdays if it ends in a ‘W.’

“No. Ugly? How is it ugly?” Fisher asked a reporter after the game. “Because when you play complementary football, you do the right things, you don’t turn the football over, you make the plays you’ve got to make to win games, that’s what winning football does.”

Miami moved the ball at will much of the day against Texas A&M. The Hurricanes picked up 27 first downs but didn’t manage to score a touchdown.

Texas A&M tightened up in the red zone, limiting Miami to 3-of-4 on opportunities inside the 20, with all three conversions coming via field goal rather than touchdown.

Just enough to secure a marquee win.

For Texas A&M, ugly win will do just fine

Again, you don’t have to take Aggies fans back very far for them to remember what not getting an ugly win looks like. They learned the hard way in Week 2 against the Mountaineers.

So you can totally understand Fisher bristling a bit at the notion of having to defend Texas A&M’s ‘ugly win’ over ranked Miami just one week later.

Red zone execution matters for a reason.

“They ran the ball well on the field, but the (field) condenses,” Fisher explained. “Your safeties are down, it’s tighter, quicker, faster. That’s just the way the red zone is. People act like you just get down there and run the ball. You don’t do anything different. All the bodies, there’s nowhere to go, so they’re all just stuck in there together.

“So I mean it becomes a lot more physical and a lot more tougher to run the football, and it’s, that’s grown-man ball when it does that.”

On Saturday, Texas A&M was the team that came away winning a grown man’s football game. Not Miami. And Jimbo Fisher won’t hesitate to remind you.