Paul Finebaum still believes Texas A&M can be 'elite' with right coach

Despite the firing of Jimbo Fisher Sunday, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum believes Texas A&M can still be elite with the right head coach.

But that’s the problem, who is the right head coach for the Aggies? Fisher was owed $76 million on his buyout and the school was willing to cut ties even after a dominant win Saturday.

Of course, that wasn’t the full scope of the story. But with Fisher out, Texas A&M might have to do some “soul searching,” per Finebaum.

“This is gonna be a domino effect here, a couple of other guys just got fired,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “Because if you’re at some of these other schools and you’re trying to compete in the SEC and you see a guy that just won by 40 points against your school and he got fired on a Sunday, what does that say about your guy? If you’re in Arkansas, if you’re in Florida, a lot of places where I think there’s a lot of soul searching now.” 

It’s not all about the money if you’re the administration at Texas A&M. But Fisher was a splash hire at the time when the schools brought him over from Florida State.

“I think we were talking about A&M, what kind of school it is, I still believe it can be elite, but it has to have the right coach,” Finebaum said. “And Jimbo Fisher was just going to the most expensive store on Fifth Avenue and buying the most expensive clothes and thinking that’s going to get you in the after party at a Taylor Swift concert. It just doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter what kind of car you drove up in, you’re still not getting in.”

Jimbo Fisher fired, Texas A&M still has hope?

Finebaum claimed Texas A&M definitely has the ideal replacement in mind for Fisher.

“What this means is they’re already at it,” Finebaum said. “They want a coach by two weeks from tomorrow. There’s a very narrow window. This tells me they’ve got their eyes on somebody because they they’ve been looking around and if they didn’t think they could land a white whale, I don’t think they would have made this move.”

Finebaum expects the school to announce which coach will be receiving a portion of its profits sooner rather than later.

“Everybody wants to know who’s next,” Finebaum said. “When you see names by media, and I know my media friends are going to be upset with me, but I’m going to tell the truth. When you see names being leaked, what does that mean? That means the agents are leaking these names. These aren’t university officials.

“What are the names? Lane Kiffin. Where did that come from? Jimmy Sexton, [Kiffin’s agent]. Dan Lanning. Where did that come from? Mike Elko. I’m not sure I know who Mike is represented by but you probably do. Probably Sexton. It doesn’t matter. These are the names that are floating to the top.”