HOUSTON – KPRC in Houston, the sister station of News4Jax, is reporting that Texas A&M will hire Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher as soon as Florida State finishes their season this coming Saturday.
Sources close to the situation told KPRC Sports Director Randy McIlvoy that the deal is already in place.
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"He's not only a target but they've agreed to a deal," McIlvoy told News4Jax Sports Director Sam Kouvaris on Sunday Night. "Jimbo has made his disappointment with the facilities upgrade and the lack of compensation for his assistants at FSU well known. Maybe he was just ready to go."
Texas A&M had reportedly made plans to remove Kevin Sumlin as head coach several days before the regular season finale against LSU on Saturday night. Presumably because they wanted to be ready to pursue their new head coach as soon as possible. That appears to be the case. Sumlin is getting a $10.4M buyout from the Aggies for the final two years of his contract.
Fisher, who has spent the last eight seasons at Florida State, is expected to coach this rescheduled game against Louisiana-Monroe in Tallahassee this Saturday as the Seminoles attempt to become bowl eligible.
Then Fisher will not coach that potential bowl game, but instead be named Aggies head coach with a contract sources say will be for a minimum of five seasons worth at least $7.5 million per season.
In contrast, John Thrasher, the FSU President said he wasn't aware of any deal that would be in place for Fisher to leave the Seminoles. Last week Thrasher said Fisher would be the head football coach for the 'Noles "as long as he wanted to be."
Fisher went 14-0 with the Seminoles in 2013 as they won the BCS National Championship. The following season, they advanced to the college football playoff semifinals, before losing to Oregon.
His overall coaching record is 83-23 with six 10-win seasons and postseason bowl games in each of his first 7-seasons. Fisher was the offensive coordinator under Bobby Bowden at Florida State for three seasons before taking over for Bowden and was the OC at LSU under Nick Saban and Les Miles for seven seasons.
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Posted by KPRC2 Randy McIlvoy on Sunday, November 26, 2017
On Saturday, following the Seminoles win against Florida, Fisher was asked if it would be his last game coaching that rivalry game. He danced around the answer.
“Don’t start that, I love this Florida-Florida State. I hope not, that’s for sure,” Fisher said.
“I ain’t talking about jobs, I ain’t getting into all of that,” Fisher added. “You know how I go about things.”
We should know more Monday after Fisher has his regularly scheduled press conference in Tallahassee. FSU's game with Louisiana-Monroe is scheduled for noon at Doak-Campbell Stadium.