Jimbo Fisher is the poor man's Mack Brown. aggy will hate to hear this but it’s the truth. The man their new coach most resembles is the same Mack Brown who they hated, reviled and envied for years when he was in Austin. The parallels are eerie but Jimbo is not as good.
Both coaches are known for their recruiting but neither one was much of an innovator or an Xs and Os guy. Both managed to recruit that one transcendent player, surround him with talent and ride that to a NC. The biggest difference is that Mack also got very close on several other occasions and has had more sustained and consistent success.
Both changed the timeline in Texas HS recruiting by moving it up and offering players in an earlier window. This paid off for Jimbo in 2019 and for Mack throughout his time at Texas. The problem for Fisher is that instead of playing defense, Herman counter-attacked with the indirect approach by going OOS – hitting aggy in the flank. In the end, Jimbo earned a draw in the battle but lost the war. After adjusting to the timeline surprise attack, Herman (and Riley) appears to be pushing them back towards their historical top 15-20 type recruiting for 2020. The major differences from Mack's style are broadcasting large numbers of offers vs exclusive, high hit rate offers and the character of the recruits. Mack often filled up early with some non-elite players to create a sense of urgency while Jimbo recruits a bunch of academic, character and psych risks. Both ended up taking a lot of guys who will never contribute but for very different reasons.
The biggest weakness of both Texas under Mack and FSU under Jimbo was Offensive Line. The OL requires the most detailed evaluation and development and both men are more known for their ability to sell to recruits and fans than their mastery of operations details so that makes sense. You can see the disaster that Jimbo left behind in Tallahassee and we are still dealing with the ripple effects of Mack’s errors on that front.