KAZ’S KORNER

AGGIES NEW COACH JIMBO FISHER IS THE BEST MONEY CAN BUY

Texas A&M’s football program operates on the old motto: “It takes money to make money.”

And that’s why it hammered out a deal to land Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher on a 10-year contract for $75 million, which happens to be the richest deal in college football history. Fisher takes over the Aggies’ football program headed by Keith Sumlin for the last six years.

Many Aggie fans were doing cartwheels off their bar stools after hearing the news of Fisher’s hiring last weekend. “Our expectations at A&M are very high,” A&M’s athletic director Scott Woodward chortled after closing the deal. Chancellor John Sharp added that A&M expects the new coach to win a national championship for A&M.

Their pipe dream of the Aggies having a chance to be the national champion has once again come into focus because they have a man at the helm who has already been there in 2013 amidst three consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championships.

The last time the Texas A&M’s football team actually was the national champion dates back to 1939, before most of today’s Aggie fans were even born.

Fisher really thought long and hard about leaving Seminole World, but that sweet fragrance of big money drew him to College Station like the mouth-watering aroma of grandma’s homemade pies on Thanksgiving morning.

Fisher becomes only the fifth Aggie coach in this century, according to an article in Saturday’s edition of the Houston Chronicle. He also is the first coach to leave a school where he won a national title for another program since Johnny Majors exited Pitt for his alma mater Tennessee following the 1976 season.

He will get his baptism to Aggie football in his first season by having to face the likes of Clemson and Alabama in two of his first four games. The Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide in last year’s national title game.

Texas A&M isn’t shy about getting rid of a coach with a winning record, either. Besides Sumlin’s 51-26 (.662) ledger, the geniuses in command also fired Orange native R.C. Slocum, who won more football games than any other coach (123-47-2) since 1894.

Fisher leaves Florida State with very impressive credentials—an 83-23 (.783) record, has taken the Seminoles to seven straight bowls and won five of them—with this season being the worst at 5-6. He has won at least 10 games in a season six times, including the national title four years ago with quarterback Jameis Winston at the throttle.

One item that should work in Fisher’s favor of getting off to a fast start is that he inherits a potentially talented group of players-- 55 of the Aggies’ 82 players on a recent traveling squad were underclassmen.

I look for Jimbo Fisher to have a successful reign at College Station until some unhappy introverted alumnus gets on Facebook, Twitter and the Internet calling for his head—the same way these people with more money than brains did to Kevin Sumlin and R.C. Slocum.

KWICKIES…A pair of Orangefield Bobcat behemoths have been selected to play in the annual Blue-Gray All-American Bowl game that will be held Dec. 18 at Jerry Jones’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Luke Padilla (6-3 ½, 335 pounds) who plays left offensive tackle (the blind side) and Aaron Galitz (6-3, 320 pounds) who mans the other tackle were selected recently to participate in the event. All players will get to keep their jerseys and helmet and receive a ring to commemorate this memorable honor.

The Dallas Cowboys’ impressive 38-14 victory over the Washington Redskins Thursday night and the NFC East leading Philadelphia Eagles’ weak performance in Sunday night’s 24-10 loss at Seattle have kept the Cowboy’s faint hopes alive. The Pokes are four games behind Philadelphia with four games left in the season.

It seemed like a “real” golf tournament with Tiger Woods in the field of last weekend’s Hero World Challenge. After leading at one time, Woods faded with a third-round 75, but managed to finish in a tie for ninth place. Tiger received tons of Facebook messages and Tweets from other professional athletes and golfers stating how happy they were to see him back in competition and wishing him well in the future.

Ohio State fans are really crying the blues by losing out to Alabama for the fourth and final spot in this year’s College Football Playoff. I believe what really spelled doom for the Buckeyes was when they were walloped 55-24 by Iowa last month. In the final Top 25 poll, Clemson was No. 1, Oklahoma No. 2, Georgia No. 3 and the Crimson Tide took the fourth and final spot.

Louisiana-Lafayette fired head football coach Mark Hudspeth a day after a season-ending 63-14 loss to Appalachian State, which prevented the Ragin’ Cajuns from becoming bowl eligible. Hudspeth went 29-38 in seven seasons, but the school had to forfeit 22 victories—including 2011 and 2013 New Orleans Bowl triumphs—because of NCAA sanctions stemming from a former assistant’s rigging of standardized test scores. Otherwise Hudspeth would have gone 51-36, including four consecutive New Orleans Bowl victories from 2011-2014.

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson’s 15 touchdowns in the fourth period is the most in NFL history.

JUST BETWEEN US…It was sickening listening to Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels cheerleading for the Philadelphia Eagles while “objectively” broadcasting the NBC Sunday Night Football game at Seattle.

They kept commenting on how potent the Eagles’ offense was, despite the fact they didn’t score their first touchdown until midway through the fourth period.

The two Magpies in the booth also glorified Philadelphia’s nine-game winning streak.

The only time the outcome of the game was in question was quelled when Orange’s Earl Thomas judo-chopped the football from the hands of Philadelphia’s rookie quarterback Carson Wentz as he was attempting to score on a quarterback sneak and it went for a touchback.

And those two idiots in the broadcasting booth gave the credit to another Seahawks’ player who was nowhere near the play.

Philadelphia was only the third team in history to be favored (4 ½ points) at Century Link Field and became the second one to leave with their tails between their legs as the Seahawks dominated the action and won 24-10 to keep their hopes alive of winning the NFC West Division.