Paul Finebaum predicts how the Jimbo Fisher, Bobby Petrino pairing will work

Spring practice is underway for Texas A&M, which means newly hired offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino will be getting his first chance at reworking the Aggies’ offense. Texas A&M head coach Jimbo made some interesting and defensive comments last week regarding Petrino’s role as the new offensive coordinator.

And on the McElroy and Cubelic Show, college football analyst Paul Fineabum was asked if Fisher’s remarks change his outlook on the Aggies going forward.

“It didn’t change a thing,” Finebaum said. “Yeah, I just got through reading an article about a guy who said the marriage is already on the rocks. Listen, you can’t judge Jimbo Fisher by the way he articulates his press conferences, I’ve fallen for that trick before.”

There’s no question that Fisher is unique when it comes to standing on the podium, providing one-of-a-kind press conferences and sound bites on the regular.

Regardless, Finebaum does still have a certain level of concern regarding him working alongside Petrino this offseason.

“I think what he’s done with Bobby Petrino will work, I think it’s going to be difficult for Jimbo between now and maybe the season to work through it. But those are workable problems, he knows how good Petrino is and I think it will be difficult for him and I think you saw that. But I’d much rather him make a mistake in late March than in late November,” Finebaum said.

Petrino was hired by the Aggies in January, bringing over a decade of head coaching experience to the table just like Fisher.

He’s spent the last three seasons as the head coach of Missouri State at the FCS level, but also made prior head coaching stops at Louisville, Arkansas, and Western Kentucky.

He’s regarded as one of the best and most experienced offensive minds across college football, but will he be able to work alongside Fisher and revamp an offense thank ranked second to last in the SEC in points per game (22.8) and third to last in yards per game (360.7) a season ago? Finebaum believes so.

“And I believe this, that this A&M team is good enough to overcome bad press conferences. Last year they weren’t, but that was a confluence of a lot of weird things going on, but I think it will work,” Finebaum said. “So write your columns, write your tweets, and in the end I don’t think it’s gonna make one bit a difference.”