A legendary Texas A&M head coach was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia. He played QB at Samford University. He turned down a spot on staff with Nick Saban at Alabama to join Bobby Bowden in Tallahassee as the Seminoles’ offensive coordinator. Fair enough considering the teacher-student duo had a war of words that time. Saban singled out his competitor for “buying” its top-ranked signing class and threw a spotlight on NIL. That was 3 years ago. Fisher has always carried the polish of a man shaped by titans, even if he ended up at odds with one.

“I mean, we were second in recruiting last year,” Saban had told the audience dating back in 2022. “A&M was first. A&M bought every player on their team — made a deal for name, image, likeness. We didn’t buy one player, all right?” But that was the tumultuous past. The feus is behind them. In a recent appearance on Trials to Triumph with Freddie Stevenson, Jimbo Fisher peeled back the curtain on how the two coaching legends helped mould his career. Not just tactically, but in terms of leadership and longevity. Fisher worked under Nick Saban at LSU for six seasons, but it was Bowden who gave him the keys to a blueblood program. The philosophies of those two Hall of Fame figures couldn’t have been more different. And yet, that “feud” tension and that contrast became the secret sauce in Fisher’s development.

“He was a defensive guy and took care of the defense and he wanted you to play a certain way on offense,” Fisher said of Saban. “He and I had a great relationship and I have great respect for him. I learned a lot of football from him, learned a lot of organizational things too.” That structure, the famously airtight Saban blueprint, was baked into every practice script and every personnel meeting at LSU. Jimbo Fisher sat at the intersection of grind and greatness, learning the unglamorous precision that defined the Saban machine.

But it wasn’t just Nick. “You had the Bowdens, then I had Nick. I mean, I was blessed at an early age to learn how to do it. They were two different people entirely,” Fisher explained. “One is the all-time winningest coach and the other has won the most championships, and they did it two different ways.” That’s when Fisher delivers the line that hits like gospel in coaching circles: “As I always say, there’s two different ways to skin a cat.” With Bowden, Fisher saw a players’ coach whose charisma matched his ability to delegate. With Saban, it was control, calculation, and culture through structure.

The Noles legend admitted, “I kind of took the best of both, that’s what I always tried to do. But I always had to make it my own.” And then the real coaching philosophy emerged. Not in chalkboard talk, but in authenticity. “What made both of them unique and successful, they were themselves. They weren’t fake,” Fisher said. “That’s what Bobby did one way, Nick did it another. And I always said, kids and people won’t follow people who are fake or try to be somebody else because it eventually bites you.” It’s wisdom rooted in emotional intelligence.

In Fisher’s 8 years at FSU, that synthesis of Bowden’s humanity and Saban’s rigor gave rise to an offensive juggernaut. Fisher’s Seminoles didn’t just win games, they overwhelmed the opposition. A record of 83-23, 80% winning record. The 2013 national title team led by Jameis Winston played with swagger, elite tempo, and with confidence built from a coach who understood both order and empathy. That’s balance born from coaching duality.

It’s easy to paint Fisher’s exit from Tallahassee as a money grab. $75 million from Texas A&M tends to leave a trail. But it’s also worth remembering the culture he built: Dalvin Cook, Derwin James, Jalen Ramsey. There was even a recruiting visit from Lamar Jackson, though Fisher’s staff wanted him at receiver. That one slipped away, but the eye for talent was never the problem. The unraveling at FSU was more about administrative alignment, or lack thereof, and less about Jimbo Fisher’s capabilities.

Jimbo Fisher & Saban bury the hatchet

Turns out, even the most high-profile feuds can be chalked up to a few hot mics and a lot of headset yelling. The three-year cold war between Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban, once as tense as a fourth-and-goal in Death Valley, has finally ended. Saban was the one to start the beef. He had taken a not-so-subtle jab at Texas A&M’s recruiting class. And Jimbo, never one to bite his tongue, swung back hard at his former boss.

Calling the rumors “clown acts” and “irresponsible as hell.” That press conference turned into an internet field day, and the SEC spring meetings that followed felt more like a heavyweight press tour than a coaches’ convention. Everyone knows Saban wasn’t thrilled about the direction of NIL. Back in 2022, he said the problem with it was “coaches trying to create an advantage for themselves.” Some have even whispered that his distaste for the new era might have nudged him toward retirement. But Jimbo? He was right in the fire, defending his program and his players with every word.

Thankfully, cooler heads,  and maybe some closed-door conversations, prevailed. Ahead of those spring meetings, the two talked it out. “We were good,” Jimbo said back then. “We had a great relationship, had a lot of success, did well. No issues.” And Saban? He smiled and gave the ultimate coach response: “You ought to hear a headset. You ought to hear a staff meeting.” 

Saban, for his part, made it clear as day, he has “no problem with Jimbo at all.” The longtime Bama coach also said he never should have singled out Texas A&M but made clear that he was not accusing his old colleague or the Aggies of operating outside the rules of NIL. The two former coaches have chosen to put their differences aside as they take on new roles in media for the coming seasons.