The Texas A&M Aggies were confident they got their guy to lead the football program to a national championship in Jimbo Fisher. In fact, they had already given him a plaque with a fill-in date for when the Aggies do win the College Football Playoff and take home a national title. Instead, after six years, the university fired Fisher and are now set to pay an over $76 million contract buyout.
When any college coach, especially at a high-profile school like Texas A&M, there is speculation to who would be a candidate to replace the one that was fired. Oregon's Dan Lanning has surprisingly been linked to Texas A&M. That's because he has a buyout of $20 million for whenever he decides to leave Oregon.
On Monday, Lanning told local reporters that he's not considering leaving for the Texas A&M head coaching job. Lanning said that he has "unfinished business" at Oregon and that there's "zero chance" he would coach somewhere else."
Dan Lanning adamant he's staying at Oregon, won't leave for Texas A&M job
"There's a lot that I want to accomplish here at Oregon," said Lanning, h/t The Athletic. "My No. 1 priority is being elite here at Oregon and we have the resources, the tools, anybody that can't understand why you would want to be here at this place does not understand exactly what exists here."
Lanning had recently signed a six-year, $45 million contract extension with Oregon. But the caveat of the contract was that he would earn a $20 million buyout if he were to leave the program for another opportunity. But as Lanning let reporters know, he won't be using it to leave for Texas A&M.
In his first season as head coach of the Ducks, Lanning led the team to a 10-2 record in the regular season and a 28-27 Holiday Bowl win over the North Carolina Tar Heels. As for this season, the Ducks are 9-1 as of this writing, with their lone loss being to the Washington Huskies 36-33. They are in contention to make it to the Pac-12 Championship Game, likely against Washington. With a win, they could very well be in the College Football Playoff.
The Aggies will continue their search for a head coach while paying Fisher $19.2 million within 60 days of his firing and $7.2 million annually through the 2031 season.