Texas A&M is proving to Mizzou and college football that acquiring Jimbo Fisher was a good investment

John James Fisher Jr., no doubt stationed on a fancy beach somewhere, sipping mai tais freshly picked up by uniformed personnel, must have done a strong double-take at what he saw on the big screen next to the cabana on Saturday afternoon.

There was his former club, which he left behind at the helm with a weak record of 45:25 and a takeover fee of a staggering $77.5 million and which looked downright serious on the football field.

Texas A&M, which in recent memory would have already lost track of the season by this point, whipped No. 9 Missouri up and down and around Kyle Field. 12. Man? Hell, when the Tigers finally hit the ejector seat, they must have felt like they had 15 or 16 Aggies coming at them from every direction.

We invoke the once-mighty name of Jimbo Fisher because Saturday was a stark example of what could have been and what actually is – with reality thwarting the alternative for 60 Minutes.

Texas A&M didn't just bat around Mizzou like a very big cat playing with a very small mouse. The Aggies simply exposed coach Eli Drinkwitz and the visitors for the cosplay top 10 team they were.

And in the process, Texas A&M also sent the following message to the rest of the SEC: We're no longer afterthoughts, so you best bring your A game when testing out first-year coach Mike Elko and the Aggies.

After the gun smoke cleared into the late afternoon haze, Texas A&M cruised to a 41-10 victory over Mizzou. In doing so, he broke the Tigers' season-opening 5-game winning streak and increased his own to 5 games after losing to Notre Dame to open the 2024 season.

Oh yeah, the Notre Dame game. Various experts out there (including the current organization) saw the 23-13 loss to the Irish at Kyle Field on September 1st and concluded, “Yeah, it's just like that again.” Jimbo or not, it will Ever get serious in College Station?”

It's this flawed assumption logic that makes college football so unique. The Aggies dusted themselves off after the season-opening L to train McNeese and then go on the road and take care of Florida. Sure, Texas A&M followed The with less spectacular wins against Bowling Green and Arkansas, but there the Aggies made it back into the top 25 on Saturday and gained something of a momentum.

This dynamic immediately created a tidal wave against Mizzou. Running back Le'Veon Moss paced the Tigers with 138 yards and 3 touchdowns, the most of his career, and Conner Weigman threw for 276 yards in his first start after missing 3 games. Amari Daniels had two rushing scores and the Aggies' defense was so stifling that the 97,049 citizens in attendance chanted “overrated.” at Mizzou in the final moments.

Mizzou certainly helped Texas A&M in some critical moments as well. The Tigers were unable to muster 6 feet on a 4th-and-2 on their opening drive, and a 75-yard touchdown catch by Luther Burden III was called off the field in the first half for an illegal play downfield deleted.

But no matter what Drinkwitz and Mizzou tried, Elko's Aggies were there for a definitive answer. The victory was already in hand when the Tigers scored a touchdown in the 3rd quarter, and another late defensive attack forced Mizzou into a meaningless field goal (unless you invested in the over-under, natch…).

Texas A&M's triumph on Saturday confirmed several things. First, Mizzou — moving on from the old Faurot for the first time this season — looked downright FSU-esque in its preseason faux top-10 uniform. And secondly, this is no longer Jimbo Fisher's team.

Even though the crazy new economics of college football seem to refute conventional wisdom every week (Re: Sluka, Matthew at UNLV), it was still hard for Aggie Nation to digest the ridiculous buyout number Fisher received last season caused him to leave. This kind of dough is not insignificant, even to the good old Aggies who sell this sweet Texas tea by the barrel.

But for at least one week, Texas A&M was finally the team it had hoped to be for years under Fisher. Yes, $77.5 million is a truckload of cash, but during Saturday's 60 Minutes in the Sun, it also felt like money well spent.