Jimbo Fisher tells us how it is by way of college football coachspeak.
Saturday was a college football program defining win for Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M Aggies.
It was one of those games where everybody counted out the Aggies at home vs. the No. 4 Florida Gators. Slighted and disrespected for too long, the No. 21 Aggies went out and got Fisher his first signature win in College Station. His regular domination of Florida has continued from this days leading the Florida State Seminoles. Here’s what he and others had to say from Week 6’s action.
Here is the peak of college football coachspeak from Week 6.
Jimbo Fisher on the Texas A&M Aggies getting the home upset over the Florida Gators.
“This is one game. Have to go line up and play Mississippi State in 24 hours,” said Fisher. “Have to forget this one after Sunday night.”
Coachspeak Translator: This is so important. It’s not necessarily what he said, but how he said it. Fisher left Florida State, a blue-blood program in the ACC, to take over a middle-of-the-pack in the SEC at Texas A&M. He doesn’t want a pat on the back for beating a good team like Florida at home. This is what he expects his team to do going forward. Beating Florida spoke volumes.
Tom Herman on his Texas Longhorns once again letting down quarterback Sam Ehlinger.
“Crushed. Absolutely crushed that we as a family didn’t do enough, collectively, for him to finish his career against these guys the way that he deserved to,” said Herman. “And being a part of a family, I feel like we all let him down. We don’t get to play the game again.”
“What we can do is make sure that him and everybody else that has earned the right to win at the highest levels, that we give them that opportunity.”
Coachspeak Translator: Tom Herman knows he blew it with Sam Ehlinger as his star quarterback. Ehlinger gave his best effort and then some vs. the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Rivalry. The Texas Longhorns have wasted their best quarterbacking talent since Colt McCoy in being unable to get to the College Football Playoff a single time in four seasons with Ehlinger.
Ed Orgeron on how his LSU Tigers defense has been the biggest reason they are 1-2.
“We couldn’t stop anybody,” said Ed Orgeron. “A really poor showing on defense … it was embarrassing. We’ve got to get it fixed.”
Coachspeak Translator: Ed Orgeron doesn’t want to say it just yet, but he’s pretty sure complacency has set in with this program. Replacing defensive coordinator Dave Aranda was going to be a challenge, but he expected the fall from grace to Bo Pelini wouldn’t be this steep. If the defense keeps playing like this, how sure are we the Bayou Bengals are even a .500 team?
Nick Saban on overcoming a bad defensive effort to hold off the Ole Miss Rebels in a shootout.
“I was really proud of our players tonight for the way they competed in the game,” said Saban. “Obviously, there was something things that we didn’t do well, especially on defense. Got to give Ole Miss a lot of credit.”
“They had a really good plan. We play man-to-man, we got picked. We play zone, we couldn’t get them covered. We didn’t stop the run very well. They ran the ball in some unusual circumstances.”
“I think the biggest thing was our guys really competed in this game for 60 minutes. We scored every time we had to score. We took the air out of it at the end of the game. The offense did a fantastic job in this game. Had a good plan, did a good job of executing it.
Coachspeak Translator: Nick Saban is perplexed about the state of his team. He loves what he’s seeing out of the offense, but has to be less than thrilled about what he’s seeing out of the Alabama Crimson Tide defensively. While he applauds his team for being mentally tough, he understands the Ole Miss Rebels aren’t the Georgia Bulldogs, and that could be an issue.
Dabo Swinney on why he had B.T. Potter attempt a 61-yard field goal in a rainstorm.
“That was a bad decision on my part,” said Swinney. “But absolutely he can make that kick, there’s no doubt about that. I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a game with three blocked field goals.”
Coachspeak Translator: Dabo Swinney knows he can’t have his kicker B.T. Potter swirling in self-doubt after getting three kicks blocked vs. the Miami Hurricanes. He can lie to himself as much as he wants, but these things don’t happen. Three blocked kicks?! Come on! While we appreciate Swinney taking the blame here, he got super cocky on Saturday night and got burnt for it.
So what is the theme from this week’s rendition of interpreting college football coachspeak? Even if a statement is riddled with redundant cliches, you can always tell when a head coach is attempt to cut through the B.S. and try to be honest with the media. Whether it’s good, bad or ugly, we always appreciate any sliver of honesty we can get from a high-profile Power 5 head coach.
I’m just as shocked as you are how almost completely honest these head coaches were in Week 6.
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