re: frick Santino

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Texas A&M players come to defense of Jimbo Fisher, program

Jimbo Fisher has achieved at least one first for a coach at Texas A&M: Players circling the wagons in his defense prior to even coaching a game with the Aggies.

“This team has been the tightest it’s ever been,” junior running back Trayveon Williams said.

With Fisher’s debut Thursday night at Kyle Field against Northwestern (La.) State, the Aggies grew tighter this week, following allegations by former linebacker Santino Marchiol that Fisher is running an outlaw program at A&M in only nine months on the job.

“We didn’t pay any attention to that,” receiver Camron Buckley said. “It was nonsense to us.”

Part of the Aggies’ answers this week were rehearsed, with a handful of players reciting they were at A&M’s media day Thursday to talk about the opener and current players. Then, they couldn’t help themselves — their hearts took over their planned recitations.

“I’m having more fun right now playing football than I have in a really long time,” fullback Cullen Gillaspia said. “The coaching staff is great, and hasn’t misled us in any way. It’s college football. You’ve got to be tough. We’re grown men, and a lot of people here are training to go play at the next level.

“I can’t say enough good things about this staff and the way they’ve treated us.”

Marchiol, who has transferred to Arizona, said plenty of bad things about the staff in an article this week in USA Today. He said he received a combined $700 cash from A&M linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto over two weekends with the instruction to make sure a couple of recruits on unofficial visits “have a good time.”

Marchiol said A&M assistants exceeded offseason practice hours, and were present during “voluntary” 7-on-7 drills, in barking instructions at the players. He said the program’s new trainers made him push through an ankle injury in June, the last straw in deciding to transfer to Arizona, where former A&M coach Kevin Sumlin leads the Wildcats.

“We take them very seriously,” Fisher said Thursday of Marchiol’s accusations. “We’re open to all inquiries and will be very open in our records of everything we have. We feel very confident in the things in which we have done. We’ll cooperate in any way, shape or form in which they want (us) to. I feel very confident in our program and how we’ve done things.”

Yes, things are tougher at A&M under Fisher than Sumlin, senior defensive tackle Kingsley Keke said. And, yes, the Aggies hope that added toughness leads to more than seven or eight wins for the first time since 2013, he said.

“Coach Fisher has definitely brought a tough culture here — a tough mindset,” Keke said. “He’s brought effort, discipline and pride, and those are good qualities to bring to a team. I’ve loved everything about it. The team is 100 percent behind the coaches, and what they say.”

The story came to light because Marchiol is using a new NCAA rule to apply for immediate eligibility at Arizona, instead of having to sit out a season the old-fashioned way. He redshirted last season at A&M, so he has four years of eligibility remaining to play four seasons.

The rule allows transfers immediate playing time if “documented mitigating circumstances that are outside (the) student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete” come into play.

A&M sophomore receiver Jhamon Ausbon played his senior season of high school with Marchiol at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and Ausbon said Thursday that Fisher’s approach isn’t for everyone.

“We’re so much different — words can’t explain how much more mentally tough we are now,” Ausbon said of the current players. “We finally understand what it takes and what it has to look like, to be a great team now.”

Williams said Fisher’s tough-love approach has brought the Aggies closer than they’ve been in his three seasons with the program.

“We’ve grown together so much as brothers,” the former C.E. King High standout said. “When you go through a lot with your brothers, you find out who you can really trust, and who you can really lean on.”

Sumlin had a reputation for November shrivels at A&M, but Gillaspia said that will no longer be an issue for the Aggies.

“From a physical standpoint, we’re a lot tougher team,” Gillaspia said. “That’s what (Fisher has) preached from day one. I don’t think there will be a fall-off later in the season, like there has been in the past.”

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