Jimbo Fisher confirms major change in offensive strategy for 2022

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher wants to add the deep ball to the Aggies’ regular offensive repertoire in 2022 with an emphasis on throwing the ball downfield, something they didn’t do much of last season.

“We’ve thrown the ball down the field very well on days when we didn’t have the wind,” Fisher said about throwing during spring practice. “But still, I want to keep doing it, I don’t care if we had wind, let’s see what happens and see who can make plays or make catches. Explosive plays are a huge reason you win.

“We’ve gotten better at it this spring and we’re going to continue to get better. We had an emphasis all spring that we’re gonna throw the ball down the field. You’ve got to be able to create plays. I mean, last year we didn’t do it as much, with injuries, lost two or three receivers and things. We’re going to take shots down the field, you’ve got to be able to do it, and you got to be able to create it, so you’ve got to practice them.”

Further emphasizing the want to launch deep balls next season, Aggie quarterbacks Haynes King (11-of-33, 130 yards, 21-yard rushing TD), LSU transfer Max Johnson (13-31, 117 yards, 2 TD) and Conner Weigman (7-19, 116 yards, 1 TD) all saw action under center during last Saturday’s spring game. Amari Daniels led the way on the ground with 16 carries for 128 rushing yards, while five-star plus incoming freshman Evan Stewart added seven receptions for 75 yards. 

Last year, Aggies’ quarterback Zach Calzada ranked third from last behind in passing yards (2,185) for SEC starting quarterbacks last season, only trailing Vanderbilt‘s Ken Seals and Mike Wright, who split minutes throughout the season. Instead, Fisher and the Aggies’ offense focused on the run game as tailbacks Isaiah Spiller and Devon Achane combined for nearly 2,000 rushing yards by themselves last season.

With a top recruiting class featuring five-star wide receivers Stewart and Chris Marshall and returning top receiver Ainias Smith for his senior season along, Fisher might have all he needs to create those explosive plays through the air.

Smith caught five passes for 115 yards and a score, while Hezekiah Jones and Jalen Preston combined for 11 receptions and 145 yards during Saturday’s spring game.

“We had it planned that way,” Fisher said of the number of chunk plays. “We wanted to try to create big plays down the field and we also didn’t want to create a lot of piles. When you keep running the ball in spring games, you get this far there’s no sense to create a bunch of piles. When you create piles, that’s where everybody gets hurt.”