Paul Finebaum calls Jimbo Fisher 'whiny,' a 'diminished figure'

There have been very few figures in college football as loud about changes in the landscape of the sport than Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher. Recently, he complained about how NIL and the transfer portal are being implemented, fearing tampering, and saying, “It’s a joke. It’s an absolute joke that’s ruining college football.”

ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum wasn’t impressed with Fisher, though. During an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum tore into the Texas A&M head coach.

“Pardon me while I laugh, Cole,” Paul Finebaum joked. “That is the sound of a coach who got his brains beat in all year long on the field and to a certain degree in recruiting this year.”

Paul Finebaum then explained that Jimbo Fisher has fallen from grace. After being one of the sport’s most important figures, he has completely fallen off. On top of that, his tendency to complain about things like NIL isn’t helping him.

“I didn’t hear that Jimbo Fisher a year ago. Maybe somebody did, but what I heard was ‘Hey, I don’t know how NIL works. I have no idea. We did it honestly.’ It just doesn’t matter, and sadly, Cole, and I say this because when you mentioned Jimbo Fisher at the beginning of that segment, I had not heard his name in so long I had forgotten he was in college football. He is a diminished figure,” Paul Finebaum lamented.

“This is a guy that a year ago was at the epicenter of the sport. He had the best recruiting class in college football history, although you might quibble Alabama’s this year is in the same range.”

According to the On3 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings, Texas A&M had the best class of 2022. That class had nine five-star recruits and a score of 96.793. That’s just slightly better than Alabama’s 2023 class, which is first with a score of 96.234. However, there is still time for that to change. Meanwhile, the 2023 Texas A&M class is 15th overall and sixth in the SEC.

“He was knocking on the door of a serious run over the next two years where last year it looked like maybe a shot at the Playoff and then this upcoming year and ’23 looked like an absolute sure thing, and now he’s coming from behind,” Paul Finebaum said. “He’s sniveling, he’s whining, he’s talking about the same thing that we’ve all been talking about now for nearly two years, and it just sounds very hollow to me.”

Texas A&M went just 5-7 this season, missing a bowl game for the first time since 2008. That was Mike Sherman’s first season.

Paul Finebaum praises Kirby Smart

One coach who Paul Finebaum did praise was Georgia’s Kirby Smart.

“I think it’s getting to be cliche to say that he has stolen Nick Saban’s playbook. We already know that. That happened seven years ago. The only thing that he has done is, in some ways, he’s perfected it,” Paul Finebaum said.

“I think Georgia is about as well-situated a recruiting hotbed as you can find in America. He gets the most out of that and then he goes out and goes shopping.”