Texas A&M Football: Jimbo Fisher ranked No. 5 coach in the Power 5

Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher is ranked CBS Sports’ No. 5 Power Five coach in the nation ahead of the 2022 season.

Jimbo Fisher has been in the headlines plenty over the past week and it’s not because Texas A&M football is considered one of the favorites to win the national title this season. No, it’s actually because Nick Saban claimed that Fisher paid for his team while Alabama lands everyone without the aid of money.

This caused a stir as Fisher fired back and claimed that Saban isn’t the great guy that everyone makes him out to be and it’s easy to be considered the best when all the resources are there.

Saban tried to call Fisher to apologize for the comment and clear the air, but the latter said he was done and there was no reconciliation on the horizon.

Fisher has been at Texas A&M since 2018 and he’s 34-14 in that time and yet he still found a way to land the No. 1 recruiting class of all time in 2022. This was good enough to earn him plenty of positive national recognition from people not named Nick Saban and it’s boosted him up a tad in the CBS Sports head coach rankings for 2022.

According to the rankings, Fisher is ranked No. 5 in the Power Five, just ahead of Ryan Day (Ohio State), Brian Kelly (LSU), and Kyle Whittingham (Utah). The only coaches he trails are Saban (No. 1, Alabama), Kirby Smart (No. 2, Georgia), Dabo Swinney (No. 3, Clemson), and Lincoln Riley (No. 4, USC).

Is this a fair spot for Fisher? He’s up one spot from a year ago and he’s fresh off an 8-4 season with the Aggies which started with disappointment and ended much better. He beat Alabama finally and made the Gator Bowl but had to drop out due to a COVID-19 outbreak. It’s extremely high for a coach who hasn’t won 10-plus games since 2016 and hasn’t won an SEC West title yet.

Fisher’s recruiting efforts have helped here and he still has plenty of respect built up on a national level thanks to that national title in 2013 with Florida State but if he doesn’t win anything of meaning this year or next, he could see that ranking drop drastically.