Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher calls out 'clown acts' for spreading message board NIL rumors

Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher had a few things to get off his chest on Wednesday.

As the Aggies put the finishing touches on an excellent 2022 recruiting class (currently ranked No. 1 in the country by Rivals.com), Fisher addressed a rumor about the role name, image and likeness (NIL) played in A&M’s stellar class.

As many of the great ones in college football do, this rumor — that A&M donors spent “between $25 and $30 million” on NIL deals for incoming recruits — came from a message board. That juicy bit was posted on an Oklahoma message board by a user named “SlicedBread” and then blogged about on BroBible.com.

Got all that?

Well, it made its way around the internet rather quickly. When that happens, it doesn’t take too long for something like that to transform from far-fetched message board post to spoken about as fact.

Let’s just say Fisher wasn’t too happy about it despite the fact that it would be completely legal if that rumor turned out to be true.

“There is no $30 million fund. There is no $5 million. There is no $10 million. This is garbage, OK? It pisses me off,” Fisher said in his signing day news conference. “It comes from a site called ‘Bro Bible’ by a guy named ‘SlicedBread’ and then everybody runs with it. So it’s written on the internet and it’s gospel. How irresponsible is that?”

Fisher, who received a 10-year, $75 million contract when he left Florida State for A&M in late 2017, said it’s “insulting” to the players who choose A&M to insinuate that they did so because of NIL payments.

Jimbo Fisher calls out other SEC coaches

Fisher also called out the media, other SEC coaches and an unnamed Notre Dame “vice president” for purportedly spreading misinformation.

“We’ve got writers who have said it off a guy named ‘SlicedBread’ who made it up. And then to have coaches in our league say it? Clown acts. Irresponsible as hell. Multiple coaches in our league,” Fisher said.

On Tuesday, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said he made a joke wondering if “Texas A&M was going to incur a luxury tax in how much they paid for their signing class.” Kiffin has been aggressive in the transfer market this offseason and jokingly dubbed himself the “Portal King” on Monday. Fisher took notice.

“And the guys griping about NIL and griping about the transfer portal are using it the most and bragging about it the most. That’s the ironic part. It’s a joke. It does piss me off,” Fisher said.

Later on, Fisher let us know that he “knows things” about how other coaches recruit.

“I know how some of those guys recruit, too. Go dig into that. I know the history, I know the tradition and I know things. Trust me. You don’t want to go down that avenue,” Fisher said. “It’s ridiculous and it’s irresponsible. It’s unbelievable. And I ain’t just talking about one. Multiple people got NIL issues… The hypocrisy is an absolute joke.”

Last offseason, Nick Saban made headlines when he noted that Bryce Young — who had yet to play any meaningful snaps — had earned “almost seven figures” in NIL money. Fisher didn’t forget about that.

“It’s funny. When Nick Saban said his quarterback got a $800,000 deal it was wonderful. Now it ain’t wonderful no more, huh? We ain’t got that. Ours are on record what comes up. We didn’t do a lot of big deals,” Fisher said.

Texas A&M added defensive end Shemar Stewart and safety Jacoby Mathews to its class on Wednesday. Both are rated as five-star recruits by Rivals, giving A&M five five-star recruits in its 2022 class. With Stewart and Mathews officially joining the fold, Texas A&M has the No. 1 class in the country.