AD: Fisher fired because Aggies ‘stuck in neutral’
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork on Sunday night said it was his decision to fire football coach Jimbo Fisher earlier in the day, saying that the program was “stuck in neutral.”
Bjork said he called interim Texas A&M president Gen. Mark Welsh after the Aggies’ loss to Ole Miss on Nov. 4 and asked to meet.
“The assessment that I delivered was that we are not reaching our full potential,” Bjork said at a news conference. “We are not in the championship conversation and something was not quite right about our direction and the plan.
“We should be relevant on the national scene.”
In Fisher’s first three seasons in College Station, the Aggies were 26-10 and finished No. 4 in 2020 — the second-highest ranking ever for the program, after the 1939 national championship. Over the past three seasons, Texas A&M is 19-15, including an active nine-game road losing streak that is tied for the program’s longest since the AP poll began in 1936.
Since Fisher’s first full recruiting class in 2019, Texas A&M has signed 70 ESPN 300 players, the fourth most in the FBS, behind Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State, who have each played in at least one national championship game over that span. The Aggies were credited with the No. 1 recruiting class in 2022.
“There was something just not clicking to provide confidence for everyone in the program,” Bjork said. “You have to adapt, you have to evolve. I’m not going to say whether he did or didn’t, but it didn’t work.”
Fisher’s A&M tenure ends with a 45-25 record over six seasons and no appearances in the SEC championship game.
Bjork said he and Welsh met with Fisher inside Kyle Field just before 9 a.m. Sunday and informed the coach that they were making an immediate change, as well as dismissing Mark Robinson, Fisher’s associate athletic director for football.
Bjork said the conversation was “quick and cordial.”
Steps toward removing Fisher began in a board of regents meeting Thursday, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. An executive session included a four-hour discussion, much of which was dedicated to Fisher’s future.
“I’ll just say [there was a] robust conversation and I’ll just leave it at that,” Bjork said. “But there was no vote. This was my decision to the president and Chancellor [John] Sharp. And that was the end of our decision-making process.”
Defensive line coach Elijah Robinson, who Bjork said has the respect of the players, will serve as the interim coach, with coordinators Bobby Petrino and D.J. Durkin continuing their roles.
“I expect them to really rally around Coach Robinson and finish the season strong,” Bjork said.
Fisher’s dismissal is expected to cost the school more than $76 million to buy out his contract, nearly triple the highest known previous coaching contract buyout at a public school. According to his contract, Fisher is owed $19.2 million within 60 days and then $7.2 annually through 2031. There is no offset or mitigation on those payments, and the annual payments start 120 days after termination.
Bjork said the athletic department and the 12th Man Foundation, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable organization that is the university’s fundraising arm for athletics, will cover the costs.
“The finances are monumental,” Bjork said. “Let me be very clear in this next part: Texas A&M athletics and the 12th Man Foundation will be the sole sources of the necessary funds covering these transition costs.”
When asked if he expected to be on the hook for the entire buyout, Bjork said there were “different parameters” in the contract language.
“Those mechanics will be worked out as soon as we touch base with his representation,” Bjork said, referring to Fisher’s agent, Jimmy Sexton.
Fisher was initially given a 10-year, $75 million fully guaranteed contract in December 2017, when the Aggies hired him from Florida State, where he had won a national championship following the 2013 season. His buyout is so large because he was given a four-year extension in August 2021 that raised his annual salary from $7.5 million to $9 million and pushed his contract through 2031.
“That’s an institutional decision, but I take responsibility,” Bjork said. “I knew what was coming in the marketplace later that fall [when LSU gave Brian Kelly a 10-year, $95 million deal, among other large contracts]. So I knew that it was the right decision at that time because that’s the information we had. Clearly it didn’t work out. We’re going to learn from that and make sure that we don’t make those same mistakes again.”
Bjork said his athletic department will be responsible for making the yearly payouts to Fisher.
“We have a lot of new revenue coming our way too, but we also have to manage expenses,” Bjork said. “There’s a lot of things within even the football budget that we’ve got flexibility on where we can still be at a high level, but we can also spend a lot less, but we can be a championship-funded program. We’re going to adjust all that.”
There is a set list of traits that Bjork said he’s looking for during the Aggies’ search for their next coach. He said it includes someone who has a program identity, great interpersonal skills, a track record of player development, commitment to academics and a strong recruiting background with solid organizational skills.
With the transfer portal opening Dec. 4, Bjork said that will be a key date as the program transitions to a new coach.
“It’s not ideal,” Bjork said. “But also not unique in the modern day of college football, especially given [the] transfer portal world, signing day and all those dynamics that played into it.”
Bjork, who has been in College Station five years, said he’s not deterred in his goals of making the Aggies into a national title contender.
“The ingredients for a championship are here,” Bjork said. “Aggies want to do it the right way and deserve excellence in everything that we do. … Onward we go.”
Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.
The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.
Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.
Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.
Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.
Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.
Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.
The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.
Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.
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Ryan S. Clark
Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.
Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.
There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.
Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.
Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.
Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.
For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.
He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.
Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.
Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.
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Ryan S. Clark
Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.
With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.
Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.
Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.
Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.
The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.
Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.
Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.
PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.
TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.
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