College football head coach rankings: Dabo or Saban? Who is the best young coach?
By Dante Pryor
- Career Record (11 years): 100-32
- Conference Titles: 3
- National Titles: 1
Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher is the second coach from the Saban coaching tree on this list. He is also one of the best, if not the best recruiter on this list. Much like his former boss, Fisher is a grinder on the recruiting trail.
While Fisher was at Florida State, the Seminoles were routinely in the top five in recruiting. In 2012, the Seminoles finished fourth in recruiting but had more five-stars than Alabama, who had the No. 1 class.
The five-stars in that class included future Heisman winner Jameis Winston, Ronald Darby and Mario Edwards. Other notable five-stars include Dalvin Cook and Derwin James. Recruiting that sort of talent through the years resulted in the Seminoles winning the last BCS Championship.
Before taking the job at A&M, his name was floated around LSU before the Tigers took the interim tag off of Ed Orgeron and later when they gave Orgeron an extension.
Jimbo had $75 million reasons to go to College Station, Texas. That immediately put all of the pressure on Fisher to produce. So far, he’s 17-9 at Texas A&M.
One thing that Fisher brought to College Station with him was his ability to recruit. Both of his classes, 2019 and 2020, are inside the top 10 with the class of 2019 ranked No. 6.
Fisher’s coaching staff included two young prodigies Billy Napier and Randy Sanders. Jeremy Pruitt was on Florida State’s defensive staff before he was Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
All three are head coaches. Napier is the head coach at Louisiana. Sanders is at East Tennessee and Pruitt is in Tennessee.
Fisher has yet to see the returns at A&M, but he will if he continues to recruit and hire coordinators the way he has.
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