Jimbo Fisher reveals which position groups are most ready for 2022 season

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher spoke at SEC media day about which position groups for the Aggies are the ones to keep an eye on going into the 2022 season. The Aggies are coming off of a season riddled with injury, yet still managed to finish with an 8-4 record. Fisher talked about how these struggles last season may turn to strengths this season for A&M.

“I love the development of our offensive and defensive lines, which some of the hard times and things we went through last year with injuries, like having us play a true freshman at center like Bryce Foster who never played center and missed half of camp because of an injury,” Fisher said. “Playing Deuce Fatheree, he’s a freshman, at right tackle in this league blocking guys like Will Anderson and different guys that you go against I mean high quality people which were very tough things to do with all the other guys, but I think that really turns into a strength for us this year.”

Fisher also mentioned Layden Robinson, Trey Zuhn, and Jordan Spasojevic-Moko as young offensive lineman that were much improved both physically and with their knowledge this offseason that are expected to make big contributions for the offensive line.

On the defensive front, Fisher believes despite losing a lot of good players that the the Aggie defensive line could be a strength of the team’s defense this season starting with McKinnley Jackson, who they’ll see a healthy version of this season after he played all of last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery in the offseason. Fisher also mentioned Isaiah Raikes, Shemar Turner, and Tunmise Adeleye, Fadil Diggs and Anthony Lucas as players who stood out this offseason.

“I really think those groups are exciting, I think we took some strides at receiver, I think our passing game we have to throw the ball better on offense and I think that was an accumulation of young lineman with starting a new quarterback, Zach (Calzada) having to go in and getting situated for a couple of games and all of a sudden he took off and then we had some receivers hurt, so I think getting that part back in,” Fisher said.

The tight end group can also help in the passing game this year, as Fisher mentioned they bring back Max Wright and Blake Smith, but have also seen receiver Evan Stewart jump out during camp as a true freshman.

Fisher is hoping that the team’s combination of newfound experience from last year combined with internal competition between high level talent will bring out the best in the team heading into the season.

“This team’s got me really excited, there’s no many competition battles, everybody talks about the quarterback, but there’s a lot of them across the board with very talented guys and when you have talent that’s what creates greatness, and what I mean is daily on a basis you have to create habits to play at a championship level or somebody takes your job and it’s one of the times I think we’ve got it across the board as much as we’ve had. Now with some young guys in there, but it’s exciting to have them,” Fisher said.