Should FSU Football Even Want Jimbo Fisher Back as Head Coach?

With Florida State firing athletic director Michael Alford last week, time is ticking down on the Mike Norvell era. As fun as the 2023 season was until Jordan Travis got hurt, the tenure since then has been nothing short of embarrassing.

Saturday's loss to Alabama brings Florida State to 8-20 after being snubbed from the 2023 College Football Playoff. Only four of those wins were against power conference teams, and there are losses in there to Duke, Boston College, Memphis, and Stanford. They've lost 10 straight road games.

To say this era needs to end isn't putting it in the right light. While they showed a lot of fight against the Crimson Tide, fighting doesn't make up for 10 straight road losses.

There will be a full coaching hot board once the move is made official, but we already know one thing: Jimbo Fisher is interested in returning.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported on Friday that Fisher "really wants the job," and that FSU's administration is at least exploring the option.

A lot of the fanbase wants Fisher back. A lot of people want nothing to do with him after he left for Texas A&M in 2017.

So, should Florida State want him back? No matter what an AI Twitter account says, this is far from a clear-cut decision. Here are reasons both for and against Fisher returning to the sidelines in Tallahassee.

Reasons to Bring Jimbo Fisher Back

1. The Finances

Playing cheap in this era of college football often won't work well. However, it is absolutely worth considering, with Norvell's buyout in the $50 million range, plus more to buy out his staff.

Florida State also spent a significant amount on recent renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium and the football-only facility.

Because Fisher's buyout was so large at Texas A&M, they can afford to pay him below market. In fact, Texas A&M's contract did not have any offset language or mitigations, meaning any future contract he gets for coaching won't be deducted from what Texas A&M owes him. Usually, those deals have a clause requiring the coach to find a market-value deal and not sign for cheap.

The average ACC head coach makes somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.4 million (it's hard to find exact numbers for some coaches, as private schools often don't release salaries for employees, and the numbers can be a mix of salaries paid this year and average annual salaries. I couldn't find any numbers at all for Cal and Stanford's new coaches).

If Fisher were willing to take $3 or $4 million, that would have to be considered, as more funds could be diverted to funding a quality roster.

Oct 4, 2014; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher talks with quarterback Jameis Winston (5) during the fourth quarter against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Doak Campbell Stadium. Florida State Seminoles defeated the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 43-3. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

2. Recruiting

Recruiting under Mike Norvell has been a borderline mess.

Since taking the job, his prep-level recruiting classes have ranked as follows: 25th, 31st, 27th, 18th, 14th, 21st, and 20th. The 2027 class is currently 34th.

Some of those lower rankings are due to them leaning on the transfer portal early, but neither the quality nor the quantity was there.

Norvell has signed just two five-star players in his tenure by 247's metrics: Hykeem Williams and Demorie Tate. Even Tate is a technicality because he was recruited mostly by Willie Taggart's staff.

Neither player did much of anything.

Meanwhile, here are Fisher's class rankings from 2017 to 2023 (not counting 2024, as Mike Elko was the head coach by signing day): 12th, 17th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 1st, and 14th.

Fisher signed 13 five-star players, including a whopping seven in 2022, but most of them didn't contribute at Texas A&M. Once he was fired, players like Walter Nolen, Evan Stewart, and LT Overton had successful careers elsewhere.

There are a lot of five-star busts in there, too, which is something that became a trend at the end of his tenure in Tallahassee.

But if you want pure recruiting numbers, Fisher could still pull that in. Especially when you consider his familiarity with recruiting in Florida and Georgia, something Norvell has really struggled with.

3. Familiarity in Tallahassee

There's a reason Jimbo Fisher kept a home in Tallahassee. He truly does love the area. He told former FSU fullback Freddie Stevenson that he never wanted to leave, and I believe him to a point (he/Jimmy Sexton were constantly talking with other schools). If he had consistently been given everything he wanted, he would've stayed. But we don't always get what we want.

Now, Florida State has gone out and changed a lot of that: the Boosters setup is different and more modern (a lot still needs to change there), there's a football-only facility, and Stan Wilcox isn't there anymore. Fisher would likely want a few more changes, but the big things he wanted to change have changed.

He won multiple ACC championships and a national championship. That history doesn't just go away. Some fans are still upset over how he left in 2017, and it's hard to blame them, but there are still a lot of fans of his around the program.

Having a lot of his former players permanently back in the fold would be great for the fanbase to see, too.

The ACC Huddle pregame show kicks off on the campus of Florida State University and features former FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher. Several fans in the background hold signs reading “bring back Jimbo” and “some legends hit different.” | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Reasons NOT to Bring Jimbo Fisher Back

1. Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

I'm seeing a lot of optimism that Fisher, one of the most stubborn coaches we've seen in recent memory, has learned to adapt to the new age of college football.

In 2022, Texas A&M took two transfers. In 2021, they took one. In 2020 (the portal was still in its infancy at this point, to be fair), they took one. You don't need the portal to be successful, but as we've seen with Clemson, when you're letting talented players walk out the door, you can't be filling those holes with freshmen. It doesn't lead to wins.

Fisher did show a little more willingness to use the portal in 2023 by taking 15 transfers, but most of them did a whole lot of nothing. Jahdae Walker was their second-leading receiver, but that's about it. Jaylen Henderson was supposed to be a contributor, but he got hurt early (more on this later).

Speaking of Clemson, people want to be optimistic that because Fisher won a national championship 13 years ago, he could still be successful now.

Dabo Swinney won TWO national championships at Clemson more recently than that (2016 and 2018) and looks way over his head currently.

This isn't to say that all older head coaches can't have success, because Curt Cignetti is 65 and just led Indiana to a national championship. However, he has shown the ability to adapt, while Fisher rarely did.

I don't share the same optimism that some people do in this regard.

Sept 22, 2012; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher meets with Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney before the game at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

2. Lack of Recent Success

Jimbo Fisher's last 10-win season was a decade ago: 2016. Had 2020 been a full schedule, they almost assuredly would've gotten there, but that would still just be one out of his last seven seasons getting to 10 wins.

Yes, winning 8 and 9 games would be a massive improvement over what we've seen out of Florida State recently, but that's not the standard.

Once the transfer portal and NIL went into place, Fisher went 19-15, including losing six straight games, a loss to Appalachian State, and a loss to interim head coach Cadillac Williams at Auburn.

Over his last two seasons, he was just 11-11, and that's with all of the talent he accumulated at Texas A&M.

A lot of people will point to his quarterbacks constantly getting hurt, but at what point does it turn from bad luck to considering something wrong with his scheme?

Fisher has never been great about protecting his quarterbacks in the offensive line, even looking back to his time at Florida State.

Christian Ponder (shoulder issues), EJ Manuel (played through a broken leg in the Champs Sports Bowl in 2011), Sean Maguire (broken ankle in the Peach Bowl in 2015, then broke the other ankle ahead of the 2016 season), Deondre Francois (patella injury in 2017 against Alabama), Zach Calzada (played through knee injury in 2021), Haynes King (cracked leg bone in 2021, shoulder/foot issues in 2022), Max Johnson (broken hand in 2022), Jaylen Henderson (broken arm of first play of 2023 season), Conner Wiegman (broken foot near end of 2023)...

Those are a lot of injuries to be just happenstance. Part of that is from Fisher's scheme; he asks a lot of his quarterbacks and often asks them to hang in the pocket while things develop downfield, despite rarely having good offensive lines.

From 2014 to 2023, Fisher's offenses allowed an average of 135.2 pressures per season. Take out the 2020 season, when they only played 10 games, and that jumps to 141.4 per season.

Compare that to Alabama, which is an extremely high standard, but FSU wants to be that kind of program, and they allowed an average of 100.7 per season in the same time frame. And really, it's only that high because of an outlier 2021 season, where they allowed 189 pressures. Take that one season out, and it dips to 90.9 per season.

Alabama was also playing a lot more games because of their constant runs to the playoffs and SEC championships.

Let's look at Clemson, too. In that same span, they allowed an average of 108.5 per season.

That doesn't even tell the full story, though. Jimbo Fisher's teams played 126 games in that time frame. Alabama played 141. Clemson played 139. That's each a full season's worth of games that get tacked on at the end of each year. On a per-game basis, Fisher's teams allowed 10.7 pressures per game, Alabama allowed 7.1, and Clemson's allowed 7.8.

That's three extra times per game his QBs are facing a rush, having to scramble, or getting hit each game. So, are all of those injuries really just bad luck? Or is it his playcalling? And all of that has led to a lack of real success.

3. Retreads Don't Really Work in College Football

There are exceptions to every rule, but coaches returning to their former schools don't exceed their prior stays. We're not going to look at every single recent example, but here are at least the big ones.

Bobby Petrino was electric in his first stint at Louisville, going 41-9 in his first four seasons. After a crash-out at Arkansas (pun intended), Petrino returned to Louisville in 2013 and went 36-26 over five seasons. For the most part, he was winning 8 or 9 games before bottoming out in the final season.

Scott Frost will be one to watch, as he went 19-7 in his first two years at UCF and is now in his second stint there. They went 5-7 last year and are 2-1 to start this season.

Greg Schiano built Rutgers into a successful program in the 2000s, going 49-28 from 2006 to 2011. He became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (which COMPLETELY slipped my mind) for two bad seasons, then went to Ohio State as an associate head coach before returning to Rutgers in 2020. He's gone 24-44 with no more than 7 wins in a season. He's 0-3 right now, so he could be getting canned soon.

Rich Rodriguez is back at West Virginia after leading the Mountaineers to a 32-5 stretch from 2005 to 2007. He went 4-8 last year, but he does have them off to a 3-0 start, including a big win over Virginia last weekend.

Mack Brown had a long coaching career, but had a stretch at North Carolina where he went 54-18 from 1992 to 1997. He returned to UNC from 2019 to 2024 and was fine, going 44-33, never winning more than 9 games.

The last notable one is Bill Snyder, who retired after 2005, then returned in 2009 and had double-digit wins in 2011 and 2012.

None of those coaches were as accomplished at their schools as Jimbo Fisher was in Tallahassee, but I do think 8-9 wins would be the ceiling in a second Jimbo Fisher era.

Sep 23, 2017; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher before the start of the game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Conclusion

If Jimbo Fisher could be convinced to strictly be a CEO type, meaning he's hands-off on playcalling and play designing, and can focus on recruiting and managing the entire team, I could be talked into it working.

However, everyone knows how stubborn Fisher can be in all aspects. How many times did fans call for staff changes at the end of his tenure in Tallahassee? Or better offensive line play and recruiting? Or any kind of offensive play style changes? Or quarterback development?

As a reminder, these are the last six quarterbacks he signed at Florida State: James Blackman, Bailey Hockman, Malik Henry, Deondre Francois, De'Andre Johnson, and JJ Cosentino. Francois was decent, Blackman was okay, and the rest are all swings and misses. Quarterbacks are hard to develop right now with how much they're bouncing around to different colleges, but it has been too long for FSU to still not have an answer at that position.

Fisher could at least get FSU back to competency. Like a consistent 7-8 wins. Yes, that is way better than what we're currently seeing; that's not what I'm arguing.

What I am arguing is that FSU could do better. Who those names are can be discussed at another time. Settling for a former Seminole is something this fanbase loves to do, even if it's not the best decision for the program.

We also know that FSU fans aren't going to settle for competency. Bobby Bowden and the early part of the Fisher tenure got us used to competing for national championships. I'm not convinced Fisher would be able to do it again after we saw him in the national championship picture just once in the last decade. How long would FSU fans take 7 or 8 win seasons before they say we need to do better again?

Could this be a bridge situation where he comes in for 2 or 3 years to right the ship before someone takes it to the next level? Could he be talked into being a general manager or recruiting coordinator instead?

It's all a lot of hypotheticals. Mike Norvell hasn't even been fired yet. But until Florida State announced their next head coach and athletic director, these rumors will continue to swell, even if it's probably not the best idea for the program.

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