Can Texas A&M bounce back against Miami? | College Football Enquirer

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Texas A&M’s ugly loss to Appalachian State, debate their chances to beat Miami on Saturday, and talk about the pressure on Jimbo Fisher after a slow start to the season.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

DAN WETZEL: Interesting week three with some fallout coming from week two. And I think we have one game with ranked opponents. It is Miami visiting Texas A&M. Some people dub this the NIL game, but we know Jimbo Fisher said nobody has gotten an NIL dollar from A&M.

PAT FORDE: Tell you what, anybody who did should have it should be made to refund it after last weekend.

[LAUGHS]

DAN WETZEL: Miami, they're not, they're not hiding it.

PAT FORDE: No.

DAN WETZEL: Fine with me. This is a big, this was a big game that got a lot bigger, and on both sides. But let's start with A&M. The offense is dreadful. The question is whether you keep Haynes King as your quarterback. He had just 97 yards passing. We went through all this on the "Overreaction." They didn't get 100 yards passing or running, their offense look terrible.

It's not all Haynes King's fault, but Max Johnson, LSU transfer, is sitting there. Certainly could make, could be a possibility. They can also go with one of their recruits. They could do a lot of things. And then there's all the questions of, is Jimbo Fisher's offense stale? He is the playcaller. He admits that if this continues, he'd be willing to give up possibly. You always evaluate things. He'd give up his playcalling.

Last season, right now A&M is 103rd nationally in total offense and has just nine first downs, or had just nine first downs against App State. And they were 71st in total offense last year, 88th in passing, 56th in scoring offense. Their defense is great. Offense is not. So let's start with A&M, because they lose this and it could really go sideways for the Aggies. And nobody I think saw that coming.

PAT FORDE: No. I mean, I was not super high on them coming into the season, but I sure didn't foresee them scoring 14 points against App State and losing that game. And they weren't very good the week before against Sam Houston, FCS team. They're averaging 22 and a half points a game. They're 13th out of 14 in the SEC in scoring in total offense.

Yeah, this could get sideways in a hurry. I mean, are you kidding? Given the amount of investment they have made to try to money whip the sport to win, you can't start 1 and 2 with home losses to App State and Miami, even though Miami is a quality program and App State's not chopped liver. But you don't schedule App State and pay them $1,000,000 to come in and beat you.

So it would cost an absolute fortune to fire Jimbo Fisher, because he's got the greatest contract known to man. He's got years and the guarantee is all one way. It's all his. I think right now the guarantee to buy him out would be like $90 million, $90 million. Not $19,000,000, 9-0 million dollars, which is--

DAN WETZEL: Too much even for the Aggies. Is it too much?

PAT FORDE: Even for the Aggies. I mean, unless some oil tycoon, the price per barrel keeps going up and some oil tycoon just says I'll do it, I mean, come on, that's ridiculous. So you got him and you're stuck with him. So you better start winning some games. You don't want to be paying an 8 and 4 coach this much money. And that's what he's been other than the pandemic year. So a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure on Texas A&M in this game.

DAN WETZEL: Well, they got Arkansas coming the next week. Then they're at Mississippi State. Then they're at Bama. We know where that, you're not going to expect any kindness in Tuscaloosa.

PAT FORDE: Oh, no.

DAN WETZEL: At South Carolina. We're not sure what that program is going to be this year, but you don't know. Then Mississippi shows up, then Florida shows up, then you're at Auburn, which could be in any spot. Mighty UMass shows up. And then LSU comes at the end of the year. But certainly the middle of this season could get ugly. Or they can rally and put this together and make everyone forget about App State. But it starts, it starts on Saturday.