Update: LSU AD Scott Woodward Should Help Pay Jimbo Fisher's $76 Million Buyout; Assistant Elijah Robinson To Be Interim

Maybe Texas A&M should hire Lane Kiffin as football coach to replace Jimbo Fisher - Kiffin's favorite whipping for weird reasons.

Kiffin is like a lot of Texas A&M fans, so it might be a popular move. He has spent the last few years criticizing Fisher for not earning his huge, $9 million-a-year salary. And for not winning big despite some of the greatest talent (No. 1 recruiting class in 2022), the best facilities, and basically an always open, oil-baron checkbook for anything he needs as coach.

TexAgs.com reported Sunday that Texas A&M fired Fisher.

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork confirmed the story and announced a 6 p.m. press conference for Sunday. Co-defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson is expected to be named interim coach. The Aggies (6-4, 4-3 SEC) host Abilene Christian Saturday and play at LSU on Nov. 25.

"I recommended to (Texas A&M) president Mark Welsh and chancellor John Sharp that a change in the leadership of the program was necessary in order for Aggie football to reach our full potential," Bjork said in a release Sunday. "And they accepted my decision. We appreciate Coach Fisher's time here at A&M and wish him the best in his future endeavors."

Jimbo Fisher was fired by Texas A&M on Sunday, according to TexAgs.com. (Getty Images).

The Board of Regents decided to fire Fisher on Thursday. So when Fisher and the Aggies won at Mississippi State, 51-10, on Saturday night to get bowl eligible at 6-4 after a 5-7 season a year ago, it didn't matter. He was already gone.

A&M hiring Kiffin would be the ultimate act of putting A&M money where Kiffin's mouth is. Oh wait, Kiffin just lost 52-17 Saturday night at No. 2 Georgia. And his offense looked a lot like Jimbo's has the last several years. Kiffin also fell to 1-11 against the top five as a college head coach, including 0-for-4 at Ole Miss. So, he would fit right in at A&M. Pretty good at best historically since the only national title in 1939, but can't win the big one, or even get to the real big one.

Jimbo Fisher Fired By Texas A&M

Seriously, though, A&M first-year offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino should be elevated to interim head coach immediately. And he should be given serious consideration for the head coaching job. Petrino won at Arkansas and at Louisville - two places that have not done that a lot in recent decades.

Texas A&M could get him really cheap, too, in a make-good, four-year contract. The Aggies need to realize that everything doesn't have to be a 10-year contract, particularly in college football. You're just showing off. I know, that's the Texas way. But, Jesus, save some of the money for your kids. Or maybe an Alamo reboot.

Jimbo Fisher (left) hired Bobby Petrino after last season to rejuvenate his offense. (Getty Images).

Petrino, 62, made just a $325,000 yearly salary while Missouri State's head coach in 2022. After taking an offensive coordinator post at UNLV for three weeks in January, he jumped into the oil pool to be Texas A&M's offensive coordinator for $2 million a year. A&M could pay him $4 million a year to be head coach, if its ego could take it.

Texas A&M University, Board Of Regents Spend Big Money

That could help the Aggies pay off the remaining $76 million it will owe Fisher. Texas A&M's Board of Regent$ - like Aggies trying to screw in a light bulb - stupidly gave Fisher a contract extension after the 2020 season through 2031 at $9 million a year.

He was already making $7.5 million a year through 2027. And all he did in 2020 was go 10-1 and not quite make the College Football Playoffs. Great season, yes. The Aggies earned their first No. 4 postseason ranking in the Associated Press poll since 11-0 and winning it all in 1939 - still nearly a quarter century before women could enroll.

Jimbo Fisher Never Could Get Aggies Offense Clicking

But 10-1 was what he was supposed to do from his original contract of $75 million over 10 years in 2017 anyway. That made him the highest paid coach in college football - for a few minutes. He was still No. 7 as of Saturday night at $9.1 million. Nick Saban is No. 1 at $11.4 million, excluding various auto dealerships and whatever Pat McAfee is paying him.

Fisher was about to be the highest paid coach not coaching in the history of the world. And it's not his fault. He didn't need a bump after a great season in the COVID season. Without it, his buyout would only be about $30 million. Everything's big in Texas - especially debt.

I'm surprised the Board Of Money Printing Regents didn't extend Fisher another 10 years after he became the first pupil of Saban to beat him as a head coach in 2021.

But Fisher's baggage of money owed is not all on Texas A&M's oily hands.

LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward Hired Jimbo Fisher

Let's not forget the man who convinced the A&M titans of Texas tea to hire Jimbo Fisher away from Florida State after the 2017 season for $75 million over 10 years.

That was now-LSU athletic director Scott Woodward, who left College Station just two years and some change later after making that hire. Bjork inherited Fisher and his outdated offense that eventually, gradually got him fired deep in his sixth season.

LSU athletic director hired Brian Kelly after the 2021 season - four years after hiring Jiimbo Fisher to Texas A&M when he was its athletic director. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

What was Woodward thinking? Showing off again? At the time, the hire made sense, but not for htat amount of cents. Fisher had won a national championship at Florida State in the 2013 season and made the first College Football Playoff in 2014. From 2012-14, he was 39-3, and he had six 10-win seasons in eight years.

But perhaps Woodward should've looked closer at Fisher's last season at Florida State in 2017. He went 5-6 overall and 3-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He inherited a sliding but still good program from legend Bobby Bowden after the 2009 season. Bowden had gone 9-4 in 2008 in the middle of three 7-6 campaigns. But Fisher left it worse than he got it.

Jimbo Fisher Did Not Leave Florida State In Great Shape

Florida State took four years to recover from Fisher, going 5-7 and 6-7 under Willie Taggart and 6-7, 3-6 and 5-7 under Mike Norvell Then Norvell turned it around this season.

And some were saying in 2017 that Fisher's offense was an anachronism. CBS' Barrett Sallee said that exactly. I didn't believe him at the time, but he was right.

Still, Fisher was hot. LSU was interested in hiring him after the 2015 season when then-athletic director Joe Alleva nearly fired coach Les Miles. When he did fire Miles four games into the 2016 season, Alleva looked at Fisher again. But he thought the price was too high. Naturally, his agent is and was Jimmy Sexton. And Alleva made the bargain basement hire of Ed Orgeron, who was promoted from an assistant to interim head coach to head coach.

Former LSU AD Joe Alleva Looks Brilliant Now

Alleva looked brilliant when Orgeron won the 2019 national title. And he has looked brilliant ever since Fisher started sliding at A&M - 8-4 in 2021 with the new contract, 5-7 last year and 6-4 now. And Florida State is much better than Texas A&M now as Norvell has the Seminoles ranked No. 4 at 10-0.

Woodward's reputation as the rock star of football coach finders, meanwhile, has taken a major hit with Fisher's failure. And he ahs been gradually moving to not so great. Woodward has done extremely well in non-football hires at LSU with Kim Mulkey and Jay Johnson winning back-to-back national championships in women's basketball and baseball this year. But Brian Kelly is on a pace similar to that of Jimbo Fisher in his first two years A&M.

Kelly is only above average so far at 17-7 and 11-4 in the SEC. Fisher was 17-9 and 9-7 after two seasons at A&M. Woodward hired Steve Sarkisian at Washington in 2009, and he is looking very good now at Texas. But he crashed and burned at USC, like Kiffin. Woodward's best football hire remains Chris Peterson from Boise State to Washington in 2014. But that was nearly a decade ago.

In a perfect world, Woodward should help Texas A&M pay off Jimbo Fisher's $76 million buyout.

For it was Scott Woodward who made the first call that led to the biggest bust hire in the history of college football.