Why Jimbo Fisher does not burn bridges with recruits

Texas A&M dominated the last recruiting cycle in football, signing the No. 1 class in the country. In a new day and age, where recruiting is as challenging as ever, how are the Aggies staying on top?

Well, a big reason is because the Aggies don’t let the recruiting process end on signing day. According to Jimbo Fisher, the Texas A&M staff maintains a good relationship with every player they recruit, even if they go to other schools. It’s the respectable way to act and, with the transfer portal nowadays, it allows the kid to re-consider A&M if his first choice winds up being a mistake.

On his coach’s show this week, Fisher explained that process of enriching relationships with recruits whether they commit to the school or go somewhere completely different. He doesn’t understand why all coaches don’t act the same way towards guys they lost.

“You may have some players who don’t choose Texas A&M. But you don’t burn that bridge, not any longer, right,” he said on the radio. “I know we never did anything, right. Never understand why coaches get mad at guys for not coming. You recruit them all. He’s an 18 year old kid. He didn’t choose you, okay. But he made a choice. You ain’t got to go yell at him or cuss him out or get mad and say I hope you don’t…“

Fisher just believes, philosophically, that coaches ought to wish every kid the best of luck, regardless of where they end of going to school.

“You know, a lot of it goes on saying wish you good luck and so on. Because you’ll never know if the kid transfers back now. So even more so, you’ll never know. Yeah, some other things change, but relationships never do, right. At the end of the day, that’s what it gets down to. No matter what it is, it gets back to that.”

You heard it from Jimbo Fisher himself. Establishing strong, positive relationships still trumps all on the recruiting front.