Neither head football coach from Texas A&M’s 51-10 win over Mississippi State last Saturday will be walking a Southeastern Conference sideline this week following the firings of Jimbo Fisher and Zach Arnett.
Fisher is receiving a staggering buyout in the $77 million neighborhood — again proving that longtime agent Jimmy Sexton has a better record than Nick Saban and Kirby Smart combined — while Arnett worked just 11 games for the Bulldogs following the death of Mike Leach and was never a head coach in an Egg Bowl.
There is always an awkward feel to the SEC’s weekly teleconference when interim coaches are involved, but the seasons must go on for the Aggies and the Bulldogs, and they will do so with Elijah Robinson in College Station and Greg Knox in Starkville. Robinson has been Texas A&M’s defensive line coach, while Knox has been serving as a senior offensive analyst at Mississippi State.
“I’ve got notes from doing this,” Knox said Wednesday, “so I go back and look at those notes. I try to refresh myself and make sure I’m doing exactly what I need to do in order to put these kids in a position for success.”
Knox, who had his share of stability as Auburn’s receivers coach from 1999-2008 under Tommy Tuberville, is an interim coach for the third time. He was Dan Mullen’s running backs coach at Mississippi State from 2009-17 and led the Bulldogs to a 31-27 victory over Louisville in the 2017 Gator Bowl after Mullen had been named head coach at Florida.