There are big splashes, and then there is Texas A&M’s offseason coaching search. Jimbo Fisher was an expensive splash — $75 million guaranteed up front, to be exact — but the Aggies made their intentions clear.

Not since Johnny Majors left Pitt for Tennessee in 1977 has a coach with a national title ring left the school where he won it to take another job.

But College Station — with its resources, devoted fan base and talent-rich location — was enough to lure Fisher away from Tallahassee, where Florida State boasted much of the same. Fisher inherits a capable, talented roster built through the boosted recruiting that accompanied Texas A&M’s SEC membership, but one that needs plenty of work to bring home the trophies the Aggies covet.

“I’m learning (the roster),” Fisher said. “You don’t want to pass judgment too soon. Certain guys learn at different paces. You just got to keep a good attitude and see if a guy is engaged mentally. Right now, I like where our attitude is. I like our offseason, and that’s not just coach talk.

“These guys want to learn, and they want to be coached. They allow you to coach them. We’ve coached them hard. They’ve accepted that, and it’s been good.”

Fourteen starters return from last year’s team, but the offseason has been about teaching an entirely different offense with few proven targets in the passing game and two young quarterbacks — Kellen Mond and Nick Starkel — vying for the job. Fisher’s pro-style offense will be markedly different than the spread Kevin Sumlin embraced and used to help Johnny Manziel win the Heisman Trophy.

Fisher turned to former North Texas coach Darrell Dickey as his offensive coordinator, though Fisher will handle play-calling duties.

“I don’t know who we are or what we’re going to play,” Fisher said. “We have to maximize our abilities in all facets of the game. And in our character and our discipline and how we live our life to be able to have a chance. I don’t know that yet. All you can be is everything we can be.”

The adjustment will be simpler defensively.

The Aggies swiped Mike Elko from Notre Dame to revamp a defense that never cracked the national top 50 in defensive yards per play after hiring John Chavis away from LSU. He’ll be aiming to turn his version of the 4-2-5 scheme into one that proves more effective than his predecessor.

“I’m going to be demanding,” Elko told 12th Man Productions in an interview this spring. “We’re going to coach ball the right way. We’re going to get this defense rolling, the way people around here are used to seeing it back in the day when A&M was playing some good ball.”

The Aggies’ early schedule will show Fisher what he has (or doesn’t have) in a hurry.

Clemson, who played in each of the last three College Football Playoffs and won one, arrives in College Station for a Week 2 tilt that will be a measuring stick for how close the Aggies are to being who they desire to be. Two weeks later, Fisher will take his Aggies to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama and his mentor, Nick Saban. The two teamed up to win a national title in 2003 at LSU, when Fisher was Saban’s offensive coordinator.

There are plenty of tools to use on both sides of the ball. Running back Trayveon Williams should be one of the SEC’s best, and Jhamon Ausbon is a promising young receiver. Justin Madubuike was a spring standout defensively, and along with Kingsley Keke and Daylon Mack, defensive tackle should be a strength on the roster.

An experienced linebacking corps that returns all three starters gives hope to the second level, too.

But will it all be enough for a satisfying Year 1 for Fisher, the most high-profile coaching hire in college football this offseason?

Expectations won’t make that an easy task.