Coaches react to Jimbo Fisher going scorched-earth on Nick Saban

The college football world watched on as Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher went scorched earth on his former boss, Alabama coach Nick Saban, on Thursday. After the dust finally settled, coaches shared a wide variety of reactions — and it showed just how much people paid attention to the back-and-forth.

It got started Wednesday when Saban said Texas A&M “bought every player” from its 2022 recruiting class — the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking. Then, Fisher called an emergency press conference Thursday morning and called Saban a “narcissist” and said “some people think they’re God.”

It seemed like the college football world put itself on hold to watch. That’s the sense from Big Ten assistant coaches’ comments to ESPN, at least.

“I think there was like a universal 90 minutes where no one got s— done because they were just laughing their asses off, us included,” a Big Ten assistant told ESPN.

“I’ve gotten texts from coaches in the Pac-12, Big Ten, SEC,” another Big Ten assistant told ESPN. The whole sport stopped whatever opponent we were scouting and ignored calls from recruits to focus on that press conference. There was a whole lot of loss of production around college football today.”

Coaches and fans, including Ole Miss headman Lane Kiffin, tweeted GIFs and popcorn emojis during the press conference, and it sounds like they had actual popcorn ready as soon as Fisher called the media session.

“It’s like the sequel to the best movie ever,” a G5 head coach told ESPN. “[Fisher not calling] is going to offend Saban more than Jimbo saying stuff, that he won’t pick up the phone. … I was in a meeting and we had a break. I looked at my phone and I couldn’t stop laughing.”

Pete Thamel on Texas A&M’s rebuttal: ‘That place has been filled with unfulfilled potential’

Opinions came in from all over about the situation. One of them came from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, who joined The Paul Finebaum Show to react.

Thamel called out Texas A&M’s performances in recent years and said the Aggies still need to prove themselves on the field despite their top-rated recruiting class.

“Look, they are set up in the NIL era because of the money that school has to be a power,” Thamel told Finebaum. “I mean, there’s no reason why Texas A&M shouldn’t be a power. But there’s also a sense, before the Ross Bjorks of the world get too chesty, they have to do it on the field. And they have not done that yet in no way shape or form under Jimbo Fisher or anyone before him to R.C. Slocum, to be honest.

“That place has been filled with unfulfilled potential. I just think before you’re going to undress the emperor, you’d better beat them and win a national championship. They did beat them last year, but I really think that they put the cart before the horse a little bit. Those comments … are going to keep coming up and keep coming up.”