What the hell is Jimbo Fisher talking about?

Jimbo Fisher is a character. Mark Stoops’ old boss is a National Championship-winning head coach that does not pull punches. During his trip to Hoover for SEC Media Days he was overshadowed by conference realignment talk from one of his school’s old rivals, but still found a way to sound like the coachiest football coach that’s ever coached.

A favorite phrase among coaches is, “The standard is the standard.” What exactly does that mean? Great question. During his 30-minute conversation with the media, Jimbo said “standard” 26 times. One answer in particular invoked his favorite cliche, eventually leading him to say this:

“How you do that is that Kent State is Alabama. Colorado is Alabama. New Mexico is Alabama.”

I don’t think New Mexico is walking through that College Football Playoff door anytime soon.

I’m not going to let Fisher off the hook so easily. What exactly does “the standard is the standard” mean? We’ll examine another question to find the answer. Fisher once emphatically stated his intent to beat Alabama. The Texas A&M coach was asked if he regretted making the comment publicly.

“I don’t have any regrets. That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? Isn’t that why everybody’s here? That’s what makes this league this league. That’s what we expect to do at Texas A&M. In saying all that — Nick and I are friends. We’ve known each other a long time. We coached together. We’re from the same world, if that makes any sense. I have the utmost respect for what he’s done and what he’s accomplished. He’s the standard, and the standard is what you have to play to.

“Just like the standard at Florida State to take over the ACC and go win a National Championship. That’s our standard here, and you have to play at that standard, and they have set that standard. That’s what great teams do. You’ve got other teams that want to match it, accept that challenge and go play at that level and go play him and beat him. We have to play him each and every year.

“We look forward to playing him (Saban). Understand we have the utmost respect. Understand me saying we’re going to beat them doesn’t beat them. We have to develop the skills, the right practice habits, coach the heck out of the players and let them play, and be able to play those games and understand how to play those games.

“How you do that is that Kent State is Alabama. Colorado is Alabama. New Mexico is Alabama. You play at that standard all the time. You play big games is how we had such success at Florida State. The bowl games, the National Championship games, that’s the standard you play.

“Your opponent has nothing to do with how you play. You play to your standard. The standard is the standard of excellence, and you have to meet that standard. It doesn’t matter who your opponent is. They have set a high standard. We have to play to that standard each and every week, so when we play them, it’s like playing another game. You have respect for them. I have the utmost respect for Nick and his program and everything he’s done. That’s what we’re here for, why we’re here, and what we expect to be able to do.

“That’s how we approach it every single week. We can’t sit here and say we’re going to do it. Everybody talks about winning. Everybody wants to win. Preparation wins games and not being able to worry about the results. Create the standards each and every day, and no matter who your opponent is, it’s how you play, how you measure yourself, your sense of accomplishment, your since of how you see yourself and what you want to achieve, and do you have the discipline and the self-discipline as a team, as a disciplined team, and the self-discipline as an individual player and coach to get where you need to go? That’s what it’s about.”

“The standard is the standard” is a coachy way to say that “We aren’t playing to our opponent. We are playing and competing to reach the high standard we’ve set.” It’s silly, but coach-speak like this is one of the things that makes college football great.