Yesterday, Jimbo Fisher sat down with Tex Ags to discuss his first few months on the job with the Aggies, and offered up some great perspective, especially for coaches early on in the process of building a program.
First up, Fisher talked about the characteristics that are important to develop in your new team before you even start to do any scheming.
"You have to educate as a coach. Your first job is a teacher, and their job is to learn and to be receptive to learning. And also explain to them why, and why they have to do it."
"I tell them all the time, we talk about toughness - mental and physical, effort, discipline, pride, and a little term called grit. At the end of the day, you've got to have a little grit. Those things, I always tell them, are like breathing. We don't ever think about breathing because it's natural, but we're worried about every other little thing. But if we don't breathe we die. We have no chance. And just because you breathe doesn't mean you're successful. Well these qualities, when you play, have to be like breathing. They have to be non-negotiable, like habit. Now, that doesn't mean that you'll be successful, but I promise you this, if you won't, you won't be successful."
"That's what the off season programs are, and how you practice, and that's the biggest thing we had to get across before you could even start scheming and doing the things that you have to do."
Another interesting nugget Fisher offered up during the interview cam after a fan asked what Jimbo and his staff need from the fans. Fisher shared that fan involvement is critical and to illustrate that point, he notes that only one team in the past decade has gone on to win the national title after failing to have 50,000 people or more at their spring game.
"People realize that we want to win, and we want to be successful, and we've got players and we've got this and that, but at the end of the day it gets down to people. The kids love being supported, which you get here, but the total commitment, the total understanding of how to build a program and there's a process to go through, and to be supportive all the way through. But I think total commitment from fans, just like you want total commitment from players, coaches and everybody else."
"When you're talking about winning a national championship, when you're talking about winning it all. People say 'What do I have to have?' My answer is - everything. You do. Because there is only one. You have to be all-encompassing, and then once you have all the ingredients to bake a cake, you still have to put them in at the right measurements, at the right amounts, and then there has to be some tweaking to it."