Ross Bjork expounds on changing landscape, Jimbo Fisher's adaptability

Jimbo Fisher was given a national championship plaque upon arriving at Texas A&M with everything filled out except for the date. That plaque will forever remain unchanged now that he’s been fired — and it’s safe to say Jimbo Fisher did not pan out as advertised.

Coming in, Fisher was only five years removed from winning the 2013 BCS National Championship at Florida State. At the time, it seemed like the perfect marriage. That turned out to not be true after a couple of seasons, according to athletic director Ross Bjork.

“That’s the hard part in all of this, right? How many coaches have won — sitting head coaches — won national championships? So everyone had tons of optimism,” Bjork said after Fisher’s firing. “But again, it just goes back to the last couple of years. Do we have momentum? Do we have hope? How do we see things trending? And we just didn’t see the trend lines improving.

“And so we thought, let’s make that decision now and deal with the finances, deal with what’s going to come next and go out and hire a great coach who’s going to have a great plan and be highly organized, hire the right staff. You combine that with A&M resources, we’re going to win a lot of football games.” 

Bjork followed that up by saying that everyone is a candidate for the Aggies’ open job. Many names have been thrown into the fat so far, namely, Detroit Lions coach and A&M alum Dan Campbell, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, and Washington‘s Kalen Deboer being the three top candidates.

Many agree that all three names would be a stretch, which leaves names like Mike Elko (Duke), Jeff Traylor (UTSA), or even Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin.

Traylor, who is the only one of the trio that has been interviewed for the Texas A&M job, has been the head coach at UTSA since 2020 and has a 36-13 record over that span. He led his squad to become a two-time C-USA Championship winner over the past two seasons and was named the conference coach of the year in both seasons.

At 6-0 in conference play, UTSA has a good shot at winning the conference again — and if he can, it only adds to what is already an impressive resume for Traylor.

Kiffin’s resume speaks for itself, as he’s on track to lead Ole Miss to its first 11-win season in program history. Elko, who previously served on Fisher’s staff until 2021, led Duke to a 28-7 win over No. 9 Clemson to begin the season, and ever since — Elko has become a name that every open Power Five job will consider this offseason. Now, Elko has quickly made himself one of the top coaches in the ACC — and a legitimate candidate to be Fisher’s successor.