Why Jimbo Fisher gives Texas A&M a chance (if slim) to catch Alabama football

Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher burned through the conventional means of trying to tamp down speculation this fall that he would jump at the LSU job if offered. Fisher and his family liked living in Texas, he said, and he enjoyed a good relationship with his boss, plus strong institutional support.

Yawn.

Such platitudes often preface coaches bolting.

Speculation continued bubbling that Fisher might return to LSU, where he'd been the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban, until Fisher spoke the clincher: If you don’t take him at his word, believe him for his recruiting class – because Fisher wasn’t recruiting like a coach who had a foot out the door.

Case closed.

Texas A&M became one of the biggest winners of this year’s wild coaching carousel by retaining Fisher. I don’t write that because of Fisher’s achievements through four seasons.

Fisher is 34-14 at A&M, including a victory over No. 1 Alabama this year. His record should be the floor expectation for a coach whose salary will increase to $9 million in January. Fisher’s record compares to predecessor Kevin Sumlin, who was 36-16 after four seasons, including one victory over Saban.

To be bullish on A&M’s future under Fisher is to buy into what the Aggies’ recruiting success will yield.

Texas A&M's recruiting class ranked No. 1 nationally in the 247Sports Composite as of Wednesday night, the first day of the December signing period, ahead of No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia.

This will mark A&M’s fourth consecutive top-10 class.

“It’s pretty clearly the best recruiting class that Jimbo Fisher has been able to have at A&M,” said Greg Tepper, managing editor of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, a publication of particular gravitas in Texas, “and that’s saying something, because he’s recruited well there to begin with, but this is kind of taking it to the next level.”

That next level, of course, is the Alabama and Georgia recruiting realm.

Alabama will sign a recruiting class ranked in the top five nationally for the 15th consecutive year.

You didn’t think Saban won all those national titles on sheer wit, did you? A coach’s X's and O's sure look better when five-star talent executes the plays.

Meanwhile, Georgia climbed into national prominence thanks to coach Kirby Smart’s recruiting prowess. The Bulldogs will make their second playoff appearance later this month, and they played in four of the past five SEC championship games. Not coincidentally, this will be Georgia’s sixth consecutive recruiting class ranked in the national top five.

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“It’s Alabama’s and Georgia’s (recruiting) world, and everyone else is just living in it,” Tepper said, “but at the same time, A&M is certainly creeping closer to where they need to be on a consistent recruiting level if they’re going to contend for an SEC West or an SEC championship.”

The Aggies have never played in the SEC championship. They finished one victory short of winning the SEC West in 2012, their first season competing in college football’s most dominant division, and again last year.

Texas A&M entered this season ranked No. 6 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll. The August playoff hype fizzled after a Week 2 injury to starting quarterback Haynes King preceded two September losses.

The Aggies pulled out of their spiral to spring the upset of the season and beat Alabama 41-38, delivering on Fisher’s preseason promise that he would defeat Saban for the first time.

Victories against Alabama are celebrated in the way that No. 1-ranked recruiting classes are not – specifically, thousands of joyful Aggies fans poured onto Kyle Field to revel in the October triumph over college football’s king.

But this ballyhooed Aggies recruiting class might prove more transformative than a single upset within an otherwise mediocre season.

This is how Fisher won a national championship at Florida State, after all.

The Seminoles signed the nation’s No. 2-ranked class in 2011, then the No. 4 overall class in 2012 before winning a national championship during the 2013 season.

That 2012 recruiting class included five-star quarterback Jameis Winston. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2013.

Fisher has not produced an elite quarterback since Winston, though. One is required for A&M to climb to the next level.

Five-star quarterback Conner Weigman is set to sign with Texas A&M on Wednesday. He’s the nation’s No. 2-ranked quarterback prospect. The Aggies haven’t signed a five-star quarterback since their 2015 class included Kyler Murray. Murray transferred after his freshman season and won the Heisman at Oklahoma.

Tepper described Weigman as a quarterback with a “big arm” and a “quick release” who can make plays inside or outside the pocket.

“He’s the real deal,” Tepper said.

Weigman is among four five-star recruits committed to A&M, including the nation’s No. 2 overall prospect, defensive tackle Walter Nolen from Powell High School in Tennessee.

“This is a really well-balanced class,” Tepper said.

Despite what the scoreboard said in October, the Aggies haven’t caught Alabama.

They might never do it while Saban is coaching.

But if there’s a path to achieving it, this is it.

College football coaches garner praise or criticism based on how their strategy affects a game’s outcome. Mastermind, guru and genius are terms applied to some of the sport’s best coaches.

There’s some truth in that praise. How coaches prepare their team and their in-game decisions carry weight.

Mostly, though, this is a sport of talent acquisition, and Texas A&M is acquiring a batch of talent that, at least on paper, rivals that of Georgia and Alabama.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Signing day: How Jimbo Fisher gives Texas A&M chance to catch Alabama