State your case: Would you be okay with FSU bringing back Jimbo Fisher?
· Yahoo Sports
Mike Norvell is gone, and the search for Florida State’s 14th full-time head coach is underway. One name keeps coming up from both the national media and the fanbase, and it’s a familiar one — John James Fisher.
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Jimbo went 83-23 in Tallahassee, winning three straight ACC titles and FSU’s last national championship in 2013, but left under pretty bitter circumstances in 2017. He was unable to reach lofty expectations in College Station, being fired from Texas A&M in 2023 despite having elite resources.
So is it worth bringing back Fisher?
Perry: The whispers of Jimbo started last year, when he was welcomed back lovingly in Tallahassee ahead of FSU’s game vs. Miami, with the reception producing tears in the former head coach.
At the time, I was very against the idea of bringing him back. The way he left, the way his tenure ended at A&M, the fact that he hadn’t coached in this new world of college football (NIL and rev-share in 2026 is markedly different from 2023), the issues that existed towards the end of his first run at FSU were all reasons enough for me to think it wasn’t worth it.
And while I still don’t think it’s a home run solution, I do think that it’s not as ridiculous a path as it originally seemed.
Bringing back Fisher on a school-friendly contract and prioritizing spending on the roster is a legitimate path to turning around FSU quickly. The financial issues Florida State is facing are a little overblown, as the Board of Trustees has been eager to remind everyone but even so, the list of costs is long. FSU would have to buy out a current head coach, keep paying the buyout for the fired one, spend what it takes on talent to compete nationally, and prepare for a potential departure from the ACC. That’s a lot for any university to take on at once, and it’s why a coach who doesn’t need top-of-the-market money is more appealing now than he would have been a few years ago.
That Fisher is actually willing to play ball on a cheaper-than-most contract is one of the many things I need clarified before I’m fully on board. The other main one is the question of structure. Because of the complicated nature of Fisher’s offense and it losing its potentcy he was forced to hire an offensive coordinator for the first time as a head coach. When the Aggies fired him, they said Fisher had the program “stuck in neutral.” Then-athletic director Ross Bjork said the approach he had wasn’t resulting in a modern program, that Fisher hadn’t adapted and evolved the way he needed to. With the current setup of FSU’s program being one of the main concerns moving forward, that’s a criticism that Florida State has to take seriously.
If he’s accepted his limitations, if he’s done his homework on what is needed to be successful in college football’s new world, if he is capable of being a CEO-type coach, if FSU is ready to essentially triple its budget for roster management, if there’s an offensive coordinator hire that meshes with what he wants things to look like but has enough agency to actually run the offense, then sure, let’s start the conversation.
That’s not to say that I’m fully on board with making the decision to run it back. But he’s a real, legitimate option, and that’s more than I would have said a year (or even a few months) ago.
SeminoleUprising: Fisher’s tears during last year’s ACC Huddle may have mended the fence between the national title-winning head coach and the Florida State public, but that doesn’t mean a reunion is a good idea.
Staying strictly on the field, Fisher is out of a coaching job right now because he significantly underperformed expectations at Texas A&M. The Aggies gave Fisher every resource he could have asked for, including help delivering the highest-rated recruiting class in 2022, but he failed to develop the talent and left College Station in less than two seasons after the class was signed. As mentioned, Aggie athletic director Ross Bjork did not want to pay the largest buyout in college football history, but had no choice given that he believed “we should be relevant on the national scene,” and clearly the Aggies were not. If Fisher could not take advantage of one of the most talented rosters in CFB history, how will he turn lemons into lemonade with Florida State, which he will almost certainly have to do in the early years of his potential tenure?
Then, there is the question of Fisher’s ability to find and develop a quarterback. Obviously, under Jameis Winston, Fisher went 26-1, and for the rest of his career, he went 102-47. But at A&M, he had some brutal misses at QB, which also led to his firing. Fisher recruited Conner Weigman to College Station, but the five-star recruit never found his footing with A&M. However, his career has been revived at Houston, and Weigman has a 20:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio ahead of Saturday’s games. Haynes King also spent time with Texas A&M before transferring to Georgia Tech and landing with the Carolina Panthers at the end of the 2025 college football season. Zach Calzada, Max Johnson, and Jaylen Henderson also started games for the Aggies, but none of their careers lived up to their potential. Given FSU’s quarterback concerns over the last few years, hiring a coach who last had a successful QB almost a decade ago may not be the best path.
Then, there are the off-the-field concerns. Fisher’s exit and decorum leaving Tallahassee should not be overlooked. Even though some of his qualms with FSU turned out to be vindicated — such as the football-only facility — his departure was the first in a long line of Florida State being left at the altar for the SEC. Holding grudges is never the right way to live, but some relationships end and don’t need to be rekindled. Then, there are worries about how effective Fisher would be in today’s college football. He has not coached a game since 2023, and college football has changed substantially since then. He is also 61, and not every veteran coach has worked out, just look at Kyle Wittingham at Michigan.
Fisher has a house in Tallahassee, and bringing him back to the Florida State program could benefit both parties. But handing him the keys to the car for the second time could have unintended consequences that set FSU further behind.
Jon Loesche: Florida State fans want the version of Jimbo Fisher who existed during that incredible 14-game run in 2013, when he had a loaded roster, a Heisman-winning quarterback, and an elite coaching staff.
Outside of that stretch? Fisher has been the poster child for doing less with more.
Florida State lost at least one game as a touchdown or more favorite in every season under Fisher without Jameis Winston.
- 2010: UNC
- 2011: Wake Forest and Virginia
- 2012: NC State
- 2015: Georgia Tech and Houston
- 2016: UNC
- 2017: NC State
His only top-five finish since 2014 came during the 2020 COVID season, which might as well have been written off as a glorified exhibition season. He hasn’t finished in the top 10 in a normal season since Dalvin Cook willed FSU past Michigan in the 2016 Orange Bowl.
Since that 2016 season, Fisher has had three teams start the year ranked No. 6 or higher in the preseason AP poll, only to finish unranked.
All the while, he kept landing blue-chip recruits by the bucketload and finishing with top-five recruiting classes every February.
And the entire college football landscape has changed since he tossed his Christmas tree onto a Tallahassee curb.
Are you all for a reunion? Curious about it? Fully against? Vote in our poll above and sound off in the comments.