Inside Jimbo Fisher's scorched-earth May news conference that rocked college football
The phone rang, but Travis L. Brown wasn’t quite yet ready for the day.
Living the sportswriter schedule, he often stays up late, which leads to later mornings like this one on May 19. On the other end of the phone was his Bryan-College Station Eagle co-worker.
The message: Check your email.
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher had called a 10 a.m. news conference, the 9:22 a.m. email read.
“It was a mad dash to jump out of bed, get pants on, run out the door,” Brown said. “You kind of figured what this was going to be about, but this was kind of crazy.”
The night before, Alabama football coach Nick Saban called out the Aggies, telling a room in Birmingham on May 18 that Texas A&M had bought every player on their team, a few months after the Aggies signed the No. 1 recruiting class and Alabama finished No. 2, per the 247Sports Composite.
The war of words had begun.
Ready to defend his program, Fisher summoned the media. The email didn’t specify why, though.
“He’s got to be responding to Saban,” Olin Buchanan of TexAgs.com remembered thinking. “’OK, this is going to be good.’ I don’t think we realized how good it was going to be.”
After Saban threw the first punch, Fisher countered with a scorched-earth news conference for the ages.
Since then, both coaches have made clear publicly they’ve moved on. The SEC reprimanded Saban and Fisher the day of the press conference. But the spat, and in particular Fisher’s iconic news conference, haven’t been easily forgotten. This week especially.
No. 1 Alabama (5-0, 2-0 SEC) will face Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1) on Saturday (7 p.m., CBS) at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“I remember thinking at the time that he was going to regret it,” said Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle. “To this day, I don’t know that he does. At least publicly, he’s never said that he has. But I do remember thinking that because when you say all those things, you better be ready to back it up. Now, the backing up part has arrived. We’ll see how that goes for him.”
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That morning, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey cautioned Fisher against holding the news conference. Fisher expressed his anger to Sankey on the phone over Saban’s comments, emails The Tuscaloosa News obtained through an open records request show. Fisher wanted to share his views on Saban publicly, but Sankey warned him to make sure it does not violate the same sportsmanship policies for which Saban was going to be reprimanded.
Not long after, Fisher walked out into the Kyle Field Media Center.
There were no greetings or salutations before Fisher sat down. There was also nothing unusual about his entrance, reporters in the room said. Fisher strolled in, straightened the microphone and got started.
“It’s a shame we have to do this,” Fisher said.
Then words started flying. Despicable. Narcissist. Dig into his past.
“Some people think they’re God,” Fisher said. “Go dig into how God did his deal.”
And that was all before Fisher even finished the opening statement. Questions didn't start until almost three minutes had passed. Buchanan got the first one.
“Have you had any contact with Nick since …” Buchanan started.
“No,” Fisher jumped in. “Oh, he’s called.”
“You just didn’t take the call?”
“Not going to. We’re done.”
“And …”
“He shows you who he is.”
“And then I just wanted to …”
“He’s the greatest ever, huh?”
“I just wanted to …”
“When you’ve got all of the advantages, it’s easy.”
Clearly, Fisher still had more to say after the opening statement.
“I kept trying to ask him a question” Buchanan said. “I thought he was done. He would always stop, and I’d try to ask a follow up. He would start again. And start again. And another thing, and another thing, and another thing.”
About halfway into the presser, Fisher took a sip of water out of a plastic bottle.
Fisher emphasized he wasn’t defending anybody. “I’m just giving you the truth,” Fisher said. That included Fisher later saying Saban maybe should have been slapped as a kid after already calling Saban a narcissist with a God complex.
One of those quotes alone would have filled headlines.
“I don’t think anyone saw that coming,” Zwerneman said. “I’m not sure Jimbo Fisher saw that coming at that time. He was just letting it go.”
Buchanan has never seen anything like it, and he’s worked in the business for 40 years.
“It was such an unusual event and response,” Buchanan said, “but it was such an unusual situation to be in to have to defend your staff and everything you had done up to that point from the guy who’s the face of college football now."
After about 10 minutes of defending his program and attacking Saban, Fisher had finished answering questions. He stood up then put the cap back on his water bottle. Then, as the Aggies coach was leaving, Zwerneman thanked him for doing the presser.
Said Fisher: “You’re welcome.”