Angst for Aggies? Heat turned up on Fisher, Texas A&M

FAYETTEVILLE -- The coach of the 2-2 team that will play in Saturday's University of Arkansas-Texas A&M football game took responsibility after a frustrating home loss last week. He promised a thorough examination of how things are being done and said that mistakes made by the players will be corrected.

"We have to play better, and that all starts with me, to coach them better," said the coach who is trying to keep his team from being 0-2 in the SEC. "That's a responsibility that's on me. I'll get them right.

"We'll evaluate everything -- what we're doing, how we're doing it, who's doing it, the way it's done -- and we'll make those changes.

"There's a lot of football left. You can't feel sorry for yourself. We have to move on and get ready to play Arkansas."

Get ready for Arkansas?

That wasn't Razorbacks Coach Chad Morris talking after San Jose State beat Arkansas 31-24?

No, the above comments were made by Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher after Auburn beat the Aggies 28-20 at Kyle Field.

Texas A&M (2-2, 0-1) may be ranked No. 23, but the Aggies have the same overall and conference records as the Razorbacks going into their game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

A major difference is that Texas A&M's losses have been at No. 1-ranked Clemson 24-10 and to No. 7 Auburn, while Arkansas has lost at Ole Miss -- picked to finish sixth in the SEC West -- and to a San Jose State team that had been 4-23 since 2017.

But Fisher, like Morris, is feeling some heat, too.

The Aggies were ranked No. 12 coming into this season after they went 9-4 with a Gator Bowl victory over North Carolina State in Fisher's debut season with the team. He was lured from Florida State -- where he led the Seminoles to the 2013 national championship -- with a $10-year, $75 million contract.

The Texas A&M administration isn't paying Fisher that kind of money to beat Texas State and Lamar, which so far are the Aggies' only victories this season.

It's true the Aggies hammered Texas State 41-7 and Lamar 62-3, but through the third quarter against Clemson and Auburn, they were outscored 45-6.

Kellen Mond's 2-yard pass to tight end Jalen Wydermyer with six seconds left at Clemson made the final score a little better for Texas A&M, which then scored 17 points in the fourth quarter against Auburn after falling behind 21-3.

Texas A&M was favored to beat Auburn, and now the Aggies have a home conference loss with a game remaining against No. 2 Alabama at Kyle Field and back-to-back road trips to No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 LSU to end the regular season.

Going 8-4 in the regular season again or even 7-5? That's what got Kevin Sumlin fired as Texas A&M's coach.

"We don't have a bad football team," Fisher said. "We've just got to play better. I've got to get them to play better. That's my job.

"We're playing very hard. We've played two really good football teams that we had a chance to make plays on. We have to get better at that."

Texas A&M actually outgained Auburn 391 yards to 299, but struggled in the red zone.

"You see these games and all the mistakes we're making, and we're still in the game," said junior receiver Jhamon Ausbon, who leads the Aggies with 25 catches for 364 yards. "We're never out of the game.

"To say we're not a good team would be something that's not true. You see the scoreboard. We're not out of the game, and we made so many mistakes. It's just something you've got to look at and say. 'This is what we can be.'

"You can look at the potential of this team. It can be potential you never fulfill or something you fulfill. I think that adds to the motivation knowing we can win these games."

Mond, a junior who has passed for 1.082 yards and 7 touchdowns and rushed for 77 yards and 2 touchdowns, said the Aggies need to play with the same urgency for the entire game that they've had in the fourth quarter against Clemson and Auburn.

"It's kind of weird," Mond said. "At the beginning of the game, you really don't have to score. But at the end, when the pressure is on, you have to go down and score. Playing with that mindset the whole game is big for us."

Texas A&M has talent, but just six scholarship seniors.

"I feel like we have a locker room of guys that still have hope," junior safety Keldrick Carper said. "But as leaders of the team ... we have to do a good job helping those younger guys, who may not know how to feel and what to do at this point.

"We have to have a great week of preparation, keep reloading and stay focused on what the plan is."

Fisher, who was an LSU assistant coach for Nick Saban, said the Aggies need to focus on the process of playing better and more consistently.

"You can't get caught up in results. You have to get caught up in the practices, the process of doing it right so that it translates to the field," Fisher said. "I know that sounds crazy, but that's what we preach and breath every day. That's what I've always preached and breathed.

"Every good coach and program that I've been a part of, that's exactly what we do. We stay within our own little bubble of understanding what we can control, and that's how we practice and how we play and what we can get better at technically, mentally, psychologically, all those different things."

Fisher, asked what a dominating performance against Arkansas could do for the Aggies, instead praised the Razorbacks.

"That's an SEC football team that's 2-2 and this is a rivalry game and they have good players and they're on scholarship just like we're on scholarship," he said. "It's going to be two good teams playing."

Sports on 09/25/2019