Jimbo Fisher reveals what led to Texas A&M's struggles

Texas A&M has been one of the biggest enigmas in college football this season and even coach Jimbo Fisher is still trying to solve the mystery of what exactly went wrong. Because Texas A&M’s struggles have been much more significant than a simple bump in the road here or there.

The Aggies have lost six straight and Saturday’s gut-punch loss at Auburn left Texas A&M 3-7 on the year, without the possibility of reaching bowl eligibility.

“I mean you’ve got young players in some situations you had to fill in,” Fisher said, searching for an explanation. “Had some key injuries at different points in time, it just didn’t time together. But that’s no excuse, you’ve got to have it. You’re always fighting for inches.”

Injuries at quarterback have certainly been one of the biggest issues for the Aggies.

After Fisher led with Haynes King out of the gates this season, Texas A&M had seemed to find a spark when it switched to former LSU transfer Max Johnson. But Johnson was sidelined following a hand injury in a loss to Mississippi State.

Since then, King has struggled and also dealt with injuries. The Aggies seemed to find another spark at quarterback when Conner Weigman took over in the South Carolina game on Oct. 22, then Weigman missed the Florida game two weeks later with the flu.

Couple those mishaps with major injuries to starting offensive linemen and now an injury to running back Devon Achane and Texas A&M struggles have simply snowballed.

Texas A&M’s struggles not indicative of how far away program is, Fisher says

The one thing Fisher noted in discussing Texas A&M’s struggles this season is that things could have gone differently.

Often it doesn’t take much to turn a season… one way or the other.

“Like I say, when you’re successful in this league or any league it’s much closer, when you have success, how close you are to not having the season you want is very close,” Fisher said. “And when you don’t have success, having a good season is not as far away as you really look at it.”

That won’t make anyone in College Station feel a whole lot better, certainly not with the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class from 2022 at Fisher’s disposal and the Texas A&M coach on one of the most lucrative deals in college athletics.

Still, that’s the reality as Fisher sees it.

“We just haven’t gotten over the hump on the plays,” Fisher said. “But it’s a young group of players with a mix of older guys that we just haven’t found that perfect mix yet.”