It's an exciting time for Texas A&M and Jimbo Fisher. Tomahawknation.com
Texas A&M has made the biggest splash possible when they officially hired Jimbo Fisher.
Fisher won a national championship with Jameis Winston in 2013 and went 83-23 at Florida State. Fisher is a grand slam hire for the Aggies, who desperately want to compete with Alabama and LSU in the SEC West. Fisher’s record at Florida State is impeccable. He won at least 10 games in six of his eight seasons, winning nine once and just six this year. He made the playoffs twice. He took over a top-level program from Bobby Bowden and kept it at a high level.
Does that make the Aggies instant contenders? Maybe not. Coaching changes do not always work. But if Fisher is the right guy, A&M has every advantage in place for Fisher to succeed. Besides his 10-year, $75 million dollar deal, Fisher has money to hire top assistants, has top-flight facilities and is set up to thrive.
Obviously, this is a great hire for the Aggies. But will it work? Fisher is moving to the toughest division in college football, and will have to match wits with Nick Saban every year. The ACC is no joke, but it is top heavy with FSU, Clemson, Louisville and Virginia Tech. Fisher was able to feast on a lot of weaklings in the ACC. That won't happen at A&M.
But if you are Texas A&M, you make this move any day of the week. The Aggies believe they should be able to compete with the best, and there simply aren’t that many national championship level coaches out there. Fisher is one of them. The money is almost immaterial; A&M is printing dollars.
It’s a great time in College Station. The Aggies have made an amazing splash, and the future is as exciting as it has ever been at A&M.
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Houston Texans receiver Stefon Diggs will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee Sunday.
Coach DeMeco Ryans made the announcement Tuesday, calling Diggs being out a huge loss.
“It hurts our team to hear that news,” Ryans said. “He’s been such an important part to our team and just everything that he brought, not only on the field, but off the field. The energy, the leader, the way he worked every single day. He brought a lot to our team and we have to pick up the slack — a lot of guys have to pick up the slack.”
Diggs suffered the non-contact injury in the third quarter of Houston’s win over the Colts on Sunday. He was running a route and pulled up and grabbed at his right knee before falling to the ground.
The 30-year-old Diggs had 47 receptions for 496 yards and three touchdowns in eight games in his first season in Houston after a blockbuster trade from the Bills.
“It's not easy," quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “It's not something that I have a whole bunch of words for. I'm just ... trying to just wrap my mind around what happened but it's tough. You try to think positively about it but there's not a bunch of positive thoughts and I just really feel bad for him.”
Diggs is a four-time Pro Bowler who has had at least 1,000 yards receiving in each of the past six seasons, highlighted by his 2020 season where he led the NFL with a career-high 1,535 yards.
The injury is another blow to a team that is already without leading receiver Nico Collins, who is out at least one more game after being placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.
With Diggs out, the Texans will need Tank Dell to take on a bigger role in the offense Thursday night when they visit the New York Jets. Dell’s production has dropped off this season after a standout rookie year where he had 709 yards receiving with seven touchdowns in 11 games before breaking his leg.
He has 229 yards receiving this season and scored his second touchdown in Sunday’s win which improved the AFC South-leading Texans to 6-2.
“Once you lose one of the star players, everybody has got to step up,” Dell said. “Even if you are one of the star players, you still have to step up and do more and produce more. I know all of us are more than capable of doing that. So we are going to try to go out there and make plays.”
The Texans also have receivers Robert Woods, Xavier Hutchinson and John Metchie, but none of those players has contributed much this season. The three players have combined for just 146 yards receiving.
“Other leaders have got to step up,” Stroud said. “We need a leader in that room to step up now since (Diggs) and Nico are both out.”
Stroud added that he has full confidence in his remaining receivers and knows they'll take advantage of their opportunities.
“That means a lot,” Metchie said. “It shows that my teammates have a lot of faith and belief in me based off the work that they’ve seen me do. And for me, it just means that when I get out there, I’m just going to ride as hard for them as they do for me.”
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Fans of Houston sports and Houston food can now score tickets to The Tailgate, CultureMap's all-out party devoted to everyone’s favorite way to get in the gameday spirit. The event, presented by Verizon, goes down from 6-9 pm November 11 at 8th Wonder. Find out more about it here.