Texas A&M University athletic director Ross Bjork has an uncanny ability to do or say things that always come back to haunt him. It dates back to his time at Ole Miss (*cough Hugh Freeze cough*) and continues into present day.
The 51-year-old most recently set extremely high expectations for the football program. Bjork set up endless 8-4 jokes in doing so, which have haunted the Aggies for years.
This is not an 8-4 job. It’s not. Because of the decision we made (to fire Jiimbo Fisher) but also because of the resources and expectations. Does somebody have the wherewithal to deal with that, the weight of (the job) and the magnitude, and not get fazed and rattled, not panic, and if something doesn’t go right, they fix what they need to fix?
Do you have the chops to deal with this job? (It’s) not for everybody.
— Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork to the Aggie Fan Zone radio show
Bjork is incorrect. It is, historically, an 8-4 job.
Outside of one 11-win season in 2012 (when Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy), Texas A&M has not finished with 10 wins or more since the turn of the millennium. Its average record over that 24-year span hovers around 7.3 wins per year.
Even in the year that Jimbo Fisher lost just one game, the Aggies finished with only nine wins because of the pandemic. They simply cannot hit the 10-win mark without the best player in college football at quarterback.
Ross Bjork wants that to change. He and the fanbase, despite every indication that Texas A&M is not a national championship contender, believe that Texas A&M should compete for a national title every year.
As the fifth-year athletic director searches for Fisher’s replacement, the expectation is greater than 8-4. For Bjork to say that is fine. That should be the standard.
For the Aggies to believe what he said, based on the track record of 8-4, is wild. Bjork is responsible for Fisher’s massive buyout. Bjork recently extended a large portion of the Aggies football staff and their jobs are now in limbo because he fired the head coach.
Texas A&M is an 8-4 job and 8-4 jokes are never not funny to every college football fan that is not associated with the program. If history continues to repeat itself with a new coach at the helm, Bjork’s comments about the upcoming hire will be all-time hilarious.