Long before Jimbo Fisher was the head coach at either Texas A&M or Florida State, he was a quarterback for none other than former Auburn coach Terry Bowden.
Bowden was the head coach at Samford in 1987 when Fisher was his signal caller. Fisher has a long history with the both the Bowden family and Auburn. Bowden was hired as Auburn’s head coach in 1993.
Fisher was Bowden’s offensive coordinator at Samford and Bowden would bring him to Auburn for his first Division I coaching job. Fisher coached quarterbacks and would serve as Auburn’s offensive coordinator from 1993-98.
He tutored well-known Auburn quarterbacks such as Stan White, Patrick Nix and Dameyune Craig during his stint on The Plains.
Fisher moved on to be the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under both Nick Saban and Les Miles at LSU from 2000-06. Fisher coached against Auburn annually during this stint. LSU went 3-4 against Auburn under his leadership.
The last time Fisher coached in Jordan-Hare Stadium was in 2006. LSU mustered only three points in that game en route to a 7-3 Auburn victory.
Fisher continued his career at Florida State as its offensive coordinator from 2007-09 under Terry Bowden’s legendary father, Bobby Bowden. Fisher took over as Florida State’s head coach in 2010, and, of course, the most memorable game in his tenure in Tallahassee was when the Seminoles beat Auburn for the 2013 BCS National Championship.
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Gus Malzahn was in his first season at the helm of Auburn’s program during the 2013 national championship game, but that wasn’t the first time Fisher and Malzahn met with high stakes.
In Fishers’s last season as offensive coordinator at LSU, Malzahn was in his only season as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas. Arkansas was flying high with Malzahn’s spread attack and the matchup between the Razorbacks and Tigers was a top-10 matchup.
Fisher’s offense would get the best of Malzahn though, as LSU defeated Arkansas that day 31-26.
When Fisher arrives in Auburn this weekend, it will not be home like it used to be for him 20 years ago.
Kickoff between the Tigers and Aggies is set for 11 a.m. CST inside Jordan-Hare.
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