Texas A&M Football: Grading Jimbo Fisher’s coaching job in 2020

How would you grade Jimbo Fisher’s coaching job with Texas A&M football in 2020? After a sluggish start, the Aggies finished red-hot.

When the year began, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, Jimbo Fisher is going to find himself on the hot seat by the end of the season, isn’t he?”

Texas A&M snuck by a bad Vanderbilt team 17-12 and then got clobbered by Alabama 52-24 the following week. It seemed as if Fisher was great at getting talent to commit to Texas A&M but he couldn’t develop his guys to contend with the rest of the SEC’s big boys.

In true Jimbo fashion, he shocked everyone with a turnaround upset victory over Florida following the Alabama beatdown, shooting up in the polls. He kept his team together and believing in themselves after getting swallowed whole by Alabama and then turned around to beat a really good Florida team with a potent offense.

Kellen Mond just kept getting better throughout the season and that defense was stingy as well, giving up 20 points or less in five of its final seven games.

Jimbo’s team went from 1-1 and feeling defeated to 9-1 with a 14-point Orange Bowl win over a red-hot North Carolina team. The Aggies finished the season on an eight-game winning streak with victories over Florida, LSU, Tennessee and Auburn and stamped off the successful season with that win over Mack Brown and North Carolina.

There was also an argument to be made that Texas A&M belonged in the playoff over Notre Dame which I still believe should have been the case, but the Aggies just missed out and got a New Year’s Six bid instead.

Given how poorly the year started and how hot the Aggies finished, nearly making the playoff, Jimbo Fisher is just a couple of ranking spots away from earning an A grade overall.

Final Grade: A-