CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One of the fastest speakers in college football has a home in 2025: The ACC Network is hiring national championship-winning coach Jimbo Fisher.
Fisher coached at Florida State from 2007-09 as an assistant coach and 2010-17 as head coach before jumping to Texas A&M. At FSU, Fisher rebuilt a program that had fallen on hard times late in the Bobby Bowden years and guided the Seminoles to the national title in 2013 and ACC titles in 2012-14. Fisher went 83-23 as FSU’s head coach.
After Fisher went 45-25 at Texas A&M, he was dismissed late in the 2023 season with a massive $75 million buyout as part of a lucrative fully guaranteed deal. Fisher did not coach in 2024 but made some appearances on satellite radio, including on EJ Manuel’s show.
Now Fisher, who is well known for his love of football and talking very, very fast, will join the ACC Network. Discussions began months ago and were finalized in the last few days, ESPN executives told the Osceola.
“His agent reached out to ESPN probably late spring just to let us know that he was available,” Senior Director of Programming Jeramy Michiaels said. “And that was something that we were immediately interested in. It was a no-brainer for us. It was an easy decision.”
Fisher was not at the ACC Kickoff event Tuesday to participate in any of the on-camera shows. It’s not clear when he will make his debut on the ACC Network, although he could be part of the channel’s on-campus tour in August.
“He’s got plenty to say and everyone knows he has a PhD level football knowledge,” VP production Alex Farmartino said. “So having that and the personality he brings, it’s going to be a new experiment but we think it’s going to be pretty interesting to say the least.”
Fisher will travel to college campuses weekly and be an analyst on “ACC Huddle,” a show that will broadcast on Friday nights to preview games and then the Saturday pregame show from 10 a.m. - noon. His week 1 assignment will be with “ACC Huddle” crew for LSU at Clemson on Aug. 30.
“I’m looking forward to joining the ACC Network and the Huddle team this season,” Fisher said in a statement released by ESPN. “I’ve always had tremendous respect for this conference and I’m looking forward to breaking down the action each week with such a talented group.”
Fisher will join Eric Mac Lain, Eddie Royal and host Taylor Tannebaum with the on-campus “ACC Huddle” shows. Mark Richt will join Tom Luginbill as analysts in a Bristol, Conn., studio with host Kelsey Riggs on Saturdays.
To some extent, Fisher is replacing Manuel. The FSU quarterback — whom Fisher recruited out of high school and coached from 2009-12 at FSU — will take on an expanded role at ESPN but will still make some appearances on the ACC Network.
Manuel and another analyst, Roddy Jones, will launch a weekly show, “ACC Network Football Show,” that is broadcast on the channel as well as on podcast platforms. The first date of the Manuel-White show has not yet been announced.
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