Texas A&M fires Jimbo Fisher

thank you AC you know we always say Howdy You Don't Have To Say howdy back being members of the media but we say that anyway around here in auland so thank you for gathering tonight especially on a Sunday evening I'm sorry to was apologizing to the front row for making them uh work on a Sunday night so I apologize for that and uh if you were texting me throughout the day obviously I was not getting back to you so I apologize for that as well obviously the news is out there throughout the day in the morning and I know that you all got our press release from earlier today regarding the change and Leadership for Aggie football I felt it was important that we uh have this Gathering so we can have an in-person conversation and really be transparent and discuss what led to this conclusion and the magnitude of this comprehensive decision so it's also important that I have some prepared remarks here to be very very clear on what's Happening happening our mission for Texas A&M Athletics is to create opportunities through Championship Athletics we we launched that in the spring of 2022 and our vision is as home of the 12th man we are the Pinnacle in those opportunities and it's three categories diplomas earned championships won and leaders equipped and launched to impact the world and that's really our student athletes so we we believe we have a very clear Mission and we also follow the core values of Texas A&M earlier last week I recommended to my boss interim president Mark Welsh and both of us then recommended to Chancellor John Sharp that a change was absolutely necessary and like I stated in the release they accepted my decision president Welsh would have been here today but he was speaking at a predetermined uh event in Houston around Veterans Day obviously being a a four-star general he's in demand for Veterans Day activities and so uh he sends his regards and I think we have a statement from him that'll go out later today Mark Welsh he he's a phenomenal leader and ever since he took over I've so enjoyed working with him and his passion and energy for all things Texas A&M the assessment that I delivered was that we are not reaching our full potential we are not in the championship conversation and something was not quite right about our Direction and the plan I appreciate their support for this decision and our plan moving forward the timing is not ideal especially after last night which I'll touch on here in a second but it's also not unique given certain dates coming up in college athletics and you all know what those are however given various meetings and schedules last week in the end of the season approaching we decided to move forward immediately from there we had a busy Sports weekend around Agy land right and of course prepping for Aggie football game day can you believe that 103,000 Aggies show up to support our military and especially support our players there's no other place in the country that would have done that to have a packed full stadium and Our obligation is to make sure we service the agies that are supporting our program our our our players really needed that win and that was important Aggies are the best and uh again nowhere in the country would have seen that type of turnout I really want to thank our athletic staff they do an amazing job every single game day but every day of the week to put on those kind of events and make sure that we do it the best in the country and so I want to thank all of our staff and all of our coaches for their hard work and dedication to Excellence in my analysis I determined at this point and for for lots of reasons our program is stuck in neutral we should be relevant on the national scene something is not clicking something is not working and there something had to give in order for Aggie football to reach our full potential as leaders every decision we make or every decision we don't make has consequences consistency in how the program operates on a daily basis impacts the confidence level of every single person in the program and thus influences Performance Based on my experience the best programs have confidence the program has an established identity the program maximizes the talent the leadership is fully integrated in the university the Athletics program and its culture I did not feel like we were meeting those standards of excellence and Leadership a little bit before 9:00 am. this morning president Welsh and I met with Coach Fischer and informed him that we were making an immediate change and he would no longer serve as our football coach I respect coach fiser he's a good man I respect his family and all that he's accomplished in college football Mark Robinson associate athletic director for football operations was also informed that he will no longer serve in his role effective immediately after we met with Coach Fischer I immediately asked Elijah Robinson to serve as interum coach for the last two games the transfer and recruiting period and the bowl game as reported Elijah accepted and I really look forward to supporting him he's a great coach a great leader and the young men in our program really look up to him in so many ways we then met with the football staff talked about coaching supporting our players and making sure that they fulfill their obligation too as Aggie football coaches around 11:00 a.m. we were gathering the team the team obviously had already heard the news so that that was unfortunate but nothing we could control and so they were gathering around and around 11:00 a.m. I told the players that it was my job to make the the decisions that are best interest of the university and to put them in the best position to succeed and provide the resources and the leadership to make all that happen I told the players that based on our high standards here at A&M that was not happening I expect them to really rally around coach Robinson and finish this season strong and ultimately we are here to serve them and that is the beginning and the end for how we provide leadership it was really cool to see the reaction of the players when coach spoke to them and they came up to him and uh and really really responded in a positive manner and he he he just did a great job of showing leadership and making sure that everyone is going to be on the same page moving forward coach Robinson will do the regular scheduled press conference tomorrow here at uh at 1:00 as everyone knows this decision is a comprehensive decision it involves many people in micro and macro elements the finances are Monumental as the contract states there is a buyout provision in coach Fischer's contract and those details will be worked out let me be very clear in this next part Texas A&M Athletics and the 12th man foundation will be the sole source ources of the necessary funds covering these transition costs and there's really two categories we will use unrestricted contributions within the 12th man foundation for the first one-time payments and the athletic department will fund the annual payments for the remaining Portion by growing our revenues and adjusting our annual operating budget accordingly this will only involve Athletics and 12th man Foundation funds although this is a major major financial decision that comes with many consequences we have a plan and we will not let this impact the performance or the culture of our entire Athletics program every sport and every Department matters our search will be comprehensive in nature the timing does give us a chance to survey the landscape test the marketplace and zero in on top candidates we will be diligent confidential and also efficient I will use a football Advisory Group of key people that understand winning football culture and Texas A&M and what makes this place special we will also utilize other resources like former players and Industry experts um along the way here's the profile of what we will work from a coach that has a program identity great interpersonal skills track record of Player Development commitment to academics a recruiting machine Supreme organizational skills culture of discipline passion for the game proven winner strong leadership skills involved in the community of course knowledge of x's and o's and someone that understands and also can capitalize in today's modern-day College athletics let me close on this I've been here for 5 years Agy land is special the ingredients for a champ Championship are here agies want to do it the right way and deserve excellence in everything that we do we appreciate the full support of the 12thman former students 12thman Foundation donors anyone who supports Texas A&M and Aggies everywhere onward we go we'll answer some questions start over front left Mark Ross uh earlier in the week it's seemed like Jimbo was probably going to get through the rest of the season before a decision was made why did the timet change yeah here's the deal you're either moving forward or you're stuck we were stuck and so I I kind of used the analogy with uh with somebody earlier you know how you're driving down the highway it's a four-lane road and I drive fast okay I like you know 75 to 80 and somebody's in the left lane and they're going 55 and they won't move over we were that car going 55 something had to give they had to get out of the way so we had to move this program forward and and here's the thing I got back from the old Miss game and we're a football family so we're sitting on the back porch and I'm make why why is this not working what is the problem what do Aggies think do we have any hope where do we go and so I called uh I called president Welsh Sunday night and I said we need to meet on Monday we need to have a plan the plan needs to be executed efficiently but also knew that we had conversations this week there are Regent meetings of course the Regents were informed of my recommendation to the president and so the timing of all of that played into it and then I thought if we were going to have an interim coach that this week is going to be a little it's it's going to be a little wild right the players are going to be emotional that we could prepare prepare for this game based on the opponent and then you go and try to beat LSU you know the last game of the year and create some momentum so again not ideal but also not unique in the modern day of college football especially given transfer portal World signing day and all those dynamics that that played into it front row right Olan and then we'll go Sam uh yeah Ross so first of all to be clear um the OM Miss loss was kind of the last draw thing kind of it's totality Olen it really is it's you can't say it's one game CU then what happens after last night right we had fun right we won by whatever 41 points right so it's totality of how the program operates on a day-to-day basis something was not working to reach our full potential so it's not one game it's not one moment it's not one win one loss but again the timing of that game and the timing of things that were coming down the track to me we had to move this past week can you uh shed some light on exactly where you were when you delivered that news to Jimbo and what his reaction was talking about this morning yes yeah it was uh within within Kyle Field is where we uh met with him and I would say it was quick and cordial go to the left Sam and then to the right Travis Ross on the buyout are you guys expecting that you will pay it in full there's different parameters that are outlined in the contract and again those mechanics will be worked out as soon as we you know touch base with his representation got and you talk about totality I'm curious what bothered you the most about how this program ran was it whether it was day-to-day whether it was on field whatever what what bothered you most most about where this program was yeah honestly just consistency and positivity and confidence that's really what it boils down to and that everything we do in this world Rises and falls on leadership good and bad and so how you make decisions on a consistent basis how leadership is provided on a consistent basis that plays into we're going to run these plays we're going to map these plays out on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday we're going to practice them and then in the game do people have the confidence to run that play it all adds up no matter what the decision is no matter if it's a tactical football decision or anything else and so to me the fundamentals of that process there was something just not clicking to provide confidence for everyone in the in the program front right Travis and then we go to the left Daryl Ross what do the the due diligence process look like for making sure that you have the funds for a buyout like this and where donors contacted put in in in uh queue for this kind of thing what does that process look like and how long does it take yeah well the look we have the best fundraising organization in college athletics the 12th man foundation and the board and Travis our CEO they're phenomenal and it's a collaborative working relationship while maintaining the independent structure of the 12th man foundation and so those things are all important the collaboration and the independence and so there's buckets there's buckets that the 12th man Foundation houses within their structure and uh those are flexible funds that we had a conversation about and said those those funds are to benefit Athletics I mean they raise money for Championship Athletics right and our mission is Championship Athletics and opportunities so sit down you have those conversations they have uh their discussions within their organization and so that's the onetime funds the ongoing payments that are required in the contract those will be athletic department funds we grow Revenue we have new TV deals coming up we have new sponsorship contracts coming up we're repurposing a lot of our Revenue buckets so we have a lot of new Revenue coming our way too but we also have to manage expenses and so there's a lot of things within even in the football budget that we've got flexibility on where we can still be at a high level but we can also spend a lot less as well but we can be a championship funded program so we're going to adjust all that so it's all going to be fluid and here's the thing too about the funding when we sit here in three years from now what's the Collegiate model anyway where what are we doing with the financial Arrangement between the athlete and the institution so the whole model is going to be evolving and changing changing the same thing with our revenue and our expense model the same thing will happen so we've got a plan we're going to adjust and we'll we'll make this work what was it about Elijah Robinson that stood out to tab him as the the interim the players the players are the most important and in fact I I was on the practice field this week and I was talking to a scout and we were kind of checking out each uh position group and he was fixated on the defensive line group of course there's a lot of tent there but he was actually fixated on how they were being coached so to me Elijah is all about the players the reaction was awesome today when uh when he spoke to the team and so I wanted somebody that the players would gravitate towards it's going to be a lot coming at their way we know what that means and so I've already seen a lot of positivity around his leadership so that that's really what it was all about left Daryl and one other thing we have two experienced coordinators that know what they're doing with coach patrino and Durkin and so that that allows that that decision as well Ross I'm sure I'm not going to phrase this correctly but I'm going to guess that there are uh 12thman fans out there that are thinking that we're wasting money and I say we as in the university on on you know decisions like this what contra actual lessons do you learn from what you're going through right now everything right we'll analyze everything and so that'll be part of the the puzzle piece that we put together here in the coming days in terms of what does the market look like what do contracts look like there there's a market for a lot different contracts than what we had and you can hire a great coach so we're going to look at all of that so we have we have to learn a lesson look the Dynamics around that decision in 2021 that's an Institutional decision but I take responsibility I knew what was coming in the marketplace later that fall so I knew that it was the right decision at that time because that's the information we had it didn't work out clearly it didn't work out we're going to learn from that and make sure that we don't make those same mistakes again second row on the right Christie then CE I know you weren't here when um he was first hired but when he was everyone was like you know he's coming here to win a National championship and he didn't even win an SEC Championship so how disappointing is it that you're going to have to start again after having so much optimism back then that's that's the hard part in all of this right is there was how many coaches have won sitting head coaches won national championships so everyone had tons of optimism but again it just goes back to the last couple 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 and deal with you know the finances deal with you know 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 the A&M resources we're going to win a lot of football games front left CE two things you mentioned hire a winner Will Robinson be considered for the job full-time right now everybody's a cand okay and the second thing I don't want to harp on 2021 but you know hindsight's the best has Jimbo changed as a coach or the way he coached when he first got here or has college football changed any along those same lines you know I think look I think the best leaders adapt whatever that means right and so again it's that description of if are you in the left passing Lane going 55 and everybody zooming by you in the right lane or are you in the left lane going 75 and so you have to adapt you have to evolve and I'm not going to say whether he did or didn't but it didn't work and we sit here today not at the level that we expect or that we have the potential to be so that's why we're here back Senator chip and then down front Brent Ross you've been here uh five years as you mentioned uh this program over time over history has not had a lot of consistent winning they won a little bit but not a lot yeah in your mind what have you seen from the inside in these last five years that would have prevented that over the last half century or more yeah I may I make a joke um when I speak to groups I got introduced in uh fall of 2019 as the latest athletic director at Texas A&M that's not really a good thing right and so to me consistency of leadership you can't you can't do this now we're making a change so I get it but we need to find somebody who can build this sustainable tenure we have to can we find the next RC slokum who can be here a long time Build It win those championships consistency of leadership and continuity it is so important look at the A&M system look at Chancellor sharp it's been here a long time look at the growth look at the president tenure here at Texas A&M I've been here four and a half years and I'm on my fourth president we've got to have consistency and so to me that's the key of getting the next higher right is the consistent and continuity that we have to provide moving forward down front Brent Ross there a lot of changes coming to the SEC next year Texas and oklah Oklahoma coming into the league Texas coming here did that impact your decision at all to make a a move now here here's here's how I looked at it everything impacts the next year but as we said here we finish the season hopefully strong the transfer portal is coming coming and going Signing Day a bowl game maybe we hire some new assistant coaches and you know do those kind of changes I wasn't confident in that plan which then would have impacted the 2024 season so it's not about transition of SEC it's it's all about can we go through this next eight weeks and have the right plan and succeed in that environment to build for 24 and I I didn't see a pathway to then lead into 2024 go to the left Alex and then Dave Wilson you'll wrap us up gone over 25 minutes when when you got to meet with the Regents this week how long were the conversations and what was just kind of their response yeah it's all all that's executive executive session Alex um I'll just say look it was a robust conversation and I'll just leave it at that but there's no there's no vote this was my decision to the president chancer sharp and that was the end of the decision-making process of course there's a discussion but that's a executive session Dave last question to wrap us up here's the mik thank R you said you weren't you didn't feel confident in the plan obviously there were some changes that were uh made last year in the coaching staff was that a point of contention uh in any changes in the future no actually uh summer of 2022 we started talking about getting an offensive coordinator as an example so though there was no contention in that plan it was the right thing to do at the right time and Jimbo was great he and I had great conversations all of that was rolling out coach patrino has been been awesome to to be around and his positivity and what he's done I think you know with our quarterback room so no point of contention and again I feel bad for those guys because it didn't work out but that was the right thing at the right time and again simply overall leadership did not work out Ross thanks for your time and as thanks everybody Ross mentioned tomorrow we'll have Coach Elijah Robinson here at one o'