Jimbo Fisher has been out of coaching since Texas A&M fired him in 2023. He has spent the time since at SiriusXM, the ACC Network and ESPN, collecting checks and reminding everyone who would listen that he wants back on a sideline.
Now he has a target. According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Fisher wants the Florida State job.
“60-year-old Fisher, who led the Seminoles to the national title to cap the 2013 season and then oversaw the beginning of the program’s backslide a few years later before taking the Texas A&M job, really wants the job, we’ve heard,” Feldman wrote.
Feldman added that industry sources say Florida State brass is “looking into the possibility.”
The Job Might Actually Open
This is not idle speculation. Mike Norvell has been sitting on the hot seat, and the pressure intensified this week when athletic director Michael Alford was fired. New athletic directors hire their own coaches. That is how this works.
Then came the box truck outside Norvell’s house, which set the internet on fire before Norvell explained it was a desk delivery. Whether or not anyone believes him, the fact that a moving truck became a national story tells you where the program’s temperature sits.
The Resume Cuts Both Ways
Fisher’s career record is 128-48 across 14 seasons, eight at Florida State and six at Texas A&M. In Tallahassee he went 83-23 and won the 2013 national championship with Jameis Winston. That is the pitch, and it is a strong one on its face.
Here is the part the pitch leaves out. Fisher also presided over the beginning of Florida State’s decline before he left for College Station, and his Texas A&M tenure was one of the most expensive failures in the history of the sport. He never won more than nine games in a season with the Aggies. He was paid roughly $77 million to go away.
Why Nostalgia Is A Bad Hiring Strategy
College football in 2026 is not the sport Fisher won a title in. Revenue sharing, the transfer portal and NIL collectives have turned roster construction into a year-round negotiation. Fisher’s reputation at Texas A&M was that he recruited elite talent and then failed to develop or deploy it. Those problems do not get easier when half your roster can leave in December.
Fisher is also 60 years old and three years removed from the job. Coaches who sit out that long in this environment tend to come back a step behind, not refreshed.
What Florida State Should Do Instead
If the Seminoles move on from Norvell, they will be one of the most attractive openings in the country: elite brand, elite recruiting footprint, real money behind it. That job can attract a rising coordinator or a proven Group of Five winner who understands the modern machinery.
Hiring the guy who helped start the slide because fans remember 2013 fondly is how programs stay stuck. Florida State has spent a decade trying to get back to where Fisher left it. Bringing him back does not undo the decade.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.