Appalachian State Athletics Photo / Appalachian State tight end Henry Pearson gets a lift from offensive lineman Isaiah Helms following a touchdown during last Saturday’s 17-14 upset of Texas A&M in College Station.Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher made college football history last Saturday, becoming the first $9 million coach with an $85.6 million buyout to lose at home to Appalachian State.
Fisher has yet to experience double-digit wins during his College Station tenure, which is now into a fifth season, but taking care of nonconference opponents had been a plus. Only quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Clemson during the 2018-19 seasons had hung defeats on Fisher’s Aggies from outside the Southeastern Conference, but the Mountaineers’ 17-14 win marked the first setback for Texas A&M to a Group of Five team since opening its 2008 season with an 18-14 home loss to Arkansas State.
That was four years before the Aggies began playing as an SEC member.
“When you coach a long time, that happens to you,” Fisher said Wednesday. “It happens to everybody who’s in coaching. I remember early at LSU when I was a coordinator, we lost to UAB in the third or fourth game of the year (2000) and had to play Tennessee the very next week, and they were No. 7 or No. 8 in the country.
“We came back and won the football game. I don’t know whether we will do that here or not, but that happened there, and it’s happened in different scenarios and at different places throughout the year everywhere. It’s happened to every coach who’s ever been in this business.”