Jimbo Fisher offers timeline for QB announcement, previews weekend scrimmage
By Keith Farner
Published:
Texas A&M will have its final scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday, and the Aggies are zeroing in on the quarterback decision in the competition between Haynes King and Zach Calzada.
Coach Jimbo Fisher said each player gets a shot with the starting lineup, and they’re going back and forth.
“I’ve been pleased with both guys, both guys have made a lot of progress taking care of the ball for the most part pretty well,” he told the media on Friday. “Occasionally, they’ll throw a pick every now and then, but I want them to. You can sit there and say ‘Don’t throw picks,’ and then you don’t make any plays. You got to take chances, you’ve got to throw balls, you’ve got to find out what you can and cannot do. I’ve been pleased with that, there’s been a lot more big plays than there has any of those situations.”
Fisher added that decision making is getting better, as well as understanding how to communicate on the field with the players and body language.
“That stuff is just as important to me as is the other parts of it,” Fisher said. “You start getting those things when you start getting comfortable in what you’re doing and that means knowledge of what’s happening. Both guys are making progress.”
Fisher estimates that a decision would come in a week or so, but it’s not all about the scrimmages. He said every rep in practice is graded, and every situation is evaluated daily.
Fisher also explained what he expects out of Sunday’s scrimmage.
“I want to see the knowledge of what we’re doing, the execution of our offense, understand situations, take care of the ball on offense,” he said. “Be efficient with it, make good decisions with it. Put hats on hats, not have missed assignments, not have stupid penalties, not have the self-inflicted wounds that can set you back and defensively, you don’t want to give up big plays, you want to tackle well. You got to play the run, you got to be physical, you got to set edges, and play like you know what’s going on.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
