College Football

Jimbo Fisher reportedly signs $4.1 million-plus annual deal with FSU

With a new five-year deal reportedly in place, Jimbo Fisher is effectively off the market for Texas, even though rumors will continue.

By Adam Jacobi Dec 31, 2013, 10:17am EST

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Any rumors connecting Jimbo Fisher to the Texas job are effectively quashed at this point, as Jimbo Fisher has reportedly signed a brand-new contract keeping him in Tallahassee for the next five seasons.

WarChant.com first reported the deal Tuesday morning, which includes a hefty base salary and rewards him substantially for on-field success:

With a base salary of over $4.1 million a year, Fisher will become one of the 10 highest paid coaches in college football. The contract is also reportedly very "incentive laden" and is tied to his team's success both on and off the field.

The timing of the deal is especially notable, seeing as how Mack Brown's career officially ended at Texas hours earlier and Fisher was one of four coaches reportedly on Texas' list of candidates.

The new deal fixes one of college football's most curious salary situations; per the USA Today, Fisher was making only ("only") $2.75 million a year in base salary, which put him out of the top 20 in 2013. Now, barring a rash of gigantic deals elsewhere in college football, he'll be in the top 10 and in line for major bonuses if his team replicates this year's level of success.

Now, without knowing the buyout figure on Fisher's new contract, we don't know precisely how safe FSU is from Texas' financial advances. But there are multiple indications that Fisher is simply not in play for the Longhorns at this point. For one, there's the issue of if Fisher was even interested to begin with, and WarChant.com's report indicates that he wasn't:

After 16 years as head coach of the Longhorns, Mack Brown announced in mid-December that he was stepping down after an 8-4 regular season. Since then the rumors that FSU's fourth year coach might be headed to Austin have intensified. However, a source close to Fisher told Warchant.com that the 48-year old native of Clarksburg, W. Va. is happy in Tallahassee and isn't interested in the opening at Texas.

And then there's the matter of what precipitated this deal and the timing of it, and as Tomahawk Nation reports, it was less about Fisher and more about his staff:

Source tells me hangup with contract Jimbo Fisher just signed with FSU was more money for his staff. Given timing, looks like he got it.
— TomahawkNation.com (@TomahawkNation) December 31, 2013

So with all that taken care of and the fact that Fisher's already playing for a national championship at Florida State (which is to say there's no higher goal that's out of reach in Tallahassee as opposed to at Texas) it's reasonably safe to assume that Fisher is safely ensconced at FSU for years to come.