Jimbo Fisher responds to being described as stubborn: ‘You can’t listen to the crowd’
By Rolando Rosa
Published:
Jimbo Fisher just began a crucial sixth season at the helm of Texas A&M but he’s determined to stay true to himself.
No. 23 Texas A&M cruised past New Mexico 52-10 in Week 1 and will travel to play Miami this Saturday. It’s been a decade since Fisher’s lone national title as a head coach while he was at Florida State.
Texas A&M has been steady during the Fisher era but has yet to win double-digit games in a year, and regressed to a 5-7 mark last season.
ESPN’s Chris Low recently wrote a feature on Fisher and the dynamic with new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino. The crux of the piece is exploring how the 2 big personalities will fit at the same program.
Fisher claims in the article the transition won’t be as difficult as the public perceives.
“I’m not as stubborn as some people might think,” Fisher said. “I know what I want in a football program. I’m not going to panic and do something just because somebody outside this building thinks I should. I’m going to do what I think is right for the program. That’s the way it’s always been.”
Fisher reinforced his beliefs after the article was published.
“I haven’t read Chris’ article, and I don’t know if I said that, I probably did, obviously I did,” Fisher said. “No, I don’t perceive what people think, I worry about what I need to worry about to make the adjustments in our program which we do.”
Fisher doesn’t mean to come across as egotistical. His stance is actually a byproduct of his time spent with late Florida State legend Bobby Bowden.
“Outside perception is not a big thing and I don’t say that arrogantly, I just say it, you can’t worry about that. You can’t listen to the crowd, you can’t listen to the fans,” Fisher said. “Coach (Bobby) Bowden told me a long time ago, when you start listening to everybody you’ll be sitting with them.”
Fisher is flexible to take advice from his staff but ultimately he realizes all the results will fall on him.
“You got to know what’s right, what you feel is the right thing, but you make adjustments within your concept and your organization based on what you think will give you success,” Fisher said. “It changes, now. You got to change, you got to listen. You got to see the game is ever-changing from that perception.”
