Andy Staples breaks down Washington hiring Jedd Fisch

Washington has its next head coach, as it was reported Sunday that it is expected to hire away Jedd Fisch from Arizona. The Huskies believed so much that Fisch was the right man for the job that he was the only candidate they engaged with after making initial phone calls.

Coming off of a national championship appearance and getting ready to enter the Big Ten, it was imperative that Washington find someone to keep that momentum going. Fisch could certainly be that guy after leading Arizona to a 10-3 record and Alamo Bowl victory this past season.

On3‘s Andy Staples addressed the hire on Sunday, explaining why he believes Washington landed a rising star in the coaching profession.

“The guy has really turned around the Arizona program in a pretty short time,” Staples said. “What he took over is one of the worst roster situations you will ever see in college football. Went 1-11 that first year. Again, there wasn’t much in the cupboard. But starting in 2022 you saw the climb. 5-7 that second year. 10-3 in 2023 with a team that was built primarily around that 2022 high school recruiting class.

“That 2022 class was headlined by Tetairoa McMillan, one of the highest-rated recruits that Arizona had ever signed. His high school quarterback at Servite in Anaheim, Noah Fifita, who wound up taking the starting job from Jayden de Laura in 2023 and was the guy as the Arizona Wildcats went on that nice run at the end of the season. Will some of these guys follow Jedd Fisch to Seattle? I think there’s a chance that that happens.”

Behind the duo of McMillan and Fifita, Arizona ranked as the No. 8 passing offense in the country this season. Fifita took over in Week 5 and lost his first two games as the starter before going on to win seven straight to end the season. He threw for 2,869 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions on the year.

If Jedd Fisch can get those two to follow him to Washington, it would certainly help the Huskies to pick up where they left off this season. Washington ranked No. 1 in the country in passing offense on the way to the title game but is set to lose quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and receiver Rome Odunze.

Fisch also has a reputation as a good recruiter, as well as one of the most “interesting” resumes in football according to Staples. After getting his start as a graduate assistant at Florida under Steve Spurrier, he went on to serve as an assistant for eight different NFL franchises and big-time college programs like Michigan and Miami.

“He’s proven in his time at Arizona that he’s a very good recruiter of the West Coast,” Staples said. “He can recruit Southern California. So that is part of it, but there’s also another piece of his experience. Before he got the head coaching job at Arizona, he had one of the more interesting resumes in football. We’ll take you all the way back to when Jedd Fisch was a student at Florida. His roommate in college was a guy named Howie Roseman. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because Howie Roseman is the GM of the Philadelphia Eagles. So it was two guys who wanted to get into football.

“Jedd Fisch didn’t play football at Florida, but he would leave post-it notes on Steve Spurrier’s car saying, ‘I would do anything. I’ll work in the organization however I can.’ This is in the 90s. There’s not a bunch of analysts. That doesn’t exist at this point. He’s basically offering to work for free and do whatever they want him to do. That’s how he got in the door. That led to a career that sent him across all parts of the NFL. All parts of college football. Eight different NFL franchises. He’s been the offensive coordinator of the Jags. Quarterbacks coach of the Seahawks. He’s been the quarterbacks coach at Michigan and offensive coordinator at Michigan in the college ranks. So he’s done a little bit of everything and he’s worked with everybody. He’s worked with Bill Belichick. He’s worked with Sean McVay. For Jim Harbaugh. It’s a really interesting resume that brings him to Seattle.”

It’s quite the rise up the ladder for the 47-year-old Fisch. Just three years ago when he accepted his first head coaching job, not many had him on their radar. It took a bit to get things going, but he’s proved himself capable of turning around a program in a short amount of time.

With Washington, he’s tasked not with turning things around, but continuing to build the momentum for a program on the rise. In doing so, he’ll hope to keep building his own resume as well.

“This is a guy who, I think when he got hired at Arizona, there weren’t a lot of people who were thinking about Jedd Fisch as a potential head coach,” Staples said. “But everything he did from the moment he got to Arizona showed you this is a guy who had a plan, who knew exactly how to execute that plan and understood how to operate in this era of college football. I think that’s important. That’s one of the harder things to do because in the portal era, you can lose a team just like that.

“Since Kalen DeBoer’s left Washington, you’ve seen names just pouring into the transfer portal. There’s a chance with Jedd Fisch that Arizona has names pouring into the portal, too, and a lot of them may end up at Washington. We’ll find out, but this is a guy who a few years ago, I don’t know that you would’ve seen him on a lot of head coach candidate lists. But once he showed what he can do, he was a guy that everybody was interested in.