Jimbo Fisher stresses importance of toughness in Haynes King

The last time Texas A&M competed, they suffered a heartbreaking 24-20 loss on the road to Alabama that they were one lay away from winning. The Aggies may have suffered a tough loss, but the toughest player in that game for them was probably quarterback Haynes King, who was sacked three times and pressured 14. Head coach Jimbo Fisher spoke about the toughness of his quarterback and his play in their last matchup.

“And he was banged up in that game early, and the shots that he took and the things that he took,” Fisher said. “Phenomenal plays, and we gotta keep playing well around him, he made some mistakes, but when you really watch it he got out it what he had to get out it and give us a chance to win and competed well. Made throws, made plays, and did a heck of a job in the game.”

King threw for 253 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception versus Alabama, and orchestrated a ten-play, 69-yard drive that had the Aggies on the goal line with one play to win the ball game. King threw an incompletion on that play and the Crimson Tide snuck away with a victory, but it’s safe to say they wouldn’t have even been in the position to win without him and his grit.

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“Toughness is number one, you hear me talking about toughness mental and physical. The mental part of failure and success whatever you have to deal with and the physical part, and if you’re quarterback’s not tough your team’s not tough,” Fisher said.

King showed plenty of physical toughness in their last game, and thankfully he had a bye week to recover from some bumps and bruises from two weekends ago. But he’s also shown tons of mental toughness throughout this season, going back and forth between being the Aggie’s starting quarterback and backup quarterback based on his own performance and injury to others.

“And it’s effort and it’s discipline and all those things but toughness, listen you play in pads and a helmet for a reason, this is a violent sport, a physical violent sport. You can’t hide in this sport, I don’t care how skilled you are, the toughness will come out. You go look at the greatest players, even though how skilled they were, they were unbelievably tough and competitive,” Fisher said.

King’s toughness is definitely a great trait for this Aggies team, and hopefully for them, it can be contagious to the rest of the team and lead to wins as they head into the back half of their schedule.