There's currently an opening at Tennessee, one coming at Texas A&M, and there could be another at Auburn. Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher has been mentioned as a possibility with every one of those actual or potential openings.
Fisher signed a new contract last December worth at minimum $44.4 million over the life of a deal. (Warchant does a great job here of chronicling Jimbo's contracts over the life of his Florida State tenure.) With the 'Noles embroiled in a 4-6 season, Fisher knows he's not getting a new contract and isn't asking for one.
But that doesn't mean he's not asking for something.
He'd like more money to pay his assistants, and he'd like a stand-alone football building. One like Clemson's would do just right.
“And those things are a major, major deal. Unfortunately, in this business, when you get into the facilities business, you're never out of it. You're never out of development. Your company can never quit growing. Whether it's that or behind the scenes things, support staff, all that can never happen. It can never go away," Fisher said in the days before Florida State's 31-14 loss at Clemson, in which he complimented the Tigers' "commitment to football."
“If it does, people fly by you like crazy," Fisher continued. "And there's numerous examples across this country. If you don't understand that, you're missing the boat. Now, it all has to be relative to what you can do, when you can do it and everything else. But at the same time, if you don't, it can pass you by very, very quickly.”
Florida State's response: We hear you, Jimbo. Please don't leave us.
From a story today at the Orlando Sentinel:
But Florida State is committed to competitively paying any new football coaching assistants needed to assist Fisher in steering the Seminoles back in the winning direction.
The program also is committed to fulfilling Fisher’s request for a football-only complex to streamline productivity for the program’s coaches, players and personnel.
After starting the season ranked No. 3 in the country, Florida State is in the midst of its worst season in a generation -- and Jimbo is still at the negotiating table.