Jedd Fisch describes difference between Arizona, Washington arrivals

Jedd Fisch has arrived at his last two coaching jobs with the programs in diametrically opposite places. And he’s pretty aware of the differences in his start at Washington as opposed to what the beginnings at Arizona were like.

Speaking with On3’s Andy Staples, Fisch reflected on the contours of getting going at each spot, a process that’s still ongoing at Washington. And given the seemingly higher baseline for the Huskies, Fisch is optimistic about where things could go.

“I think Washington in itself has a huge name recognition,” Fisch said. “One of the few Pac-12 teams that won a national championship, I think them and USC. And now we’re entering into the Big Ten. So now, not only are we building a new team with new players, but we’re building it in a new conference.” 

The biggest difference in the two programs that Fisch took over was their records the season before getting hired. Arizona went 0-5 during a Covid-shortened season in 2020 before Fisch came in; the Huskies are coming off a 14-1 campaign culminating in a trip to the College Football Playoff National Championship.

And that means some of the challenges that were at Arizona were not nearly as prevalent in the Pacific Northwest.

“Yeah, I think the difference is when we got to Arizona, in 100 years they only won 10 games three times,” Fisch said. “And when we took over at Arizona, they were coming off a nine-touchdown loss against a rival. And we had about 10 or 11 returning starters on that team. We were trying to figure out who wanted to play football, who wanted to be a part of it. We didn’t have a recruiting class, we had no freshman in that first year. We were kind of trying to figure it all out at once. This time around, we’re taking off a team that played in the national championship game, went 14-1. The year before played in the Alamo Bowl, which we played in at Arizona last year.”

Fisch managed to add a 10-win campaign at Arizona, leading the Wildcats to a 10-3 mark in 2023 and parlaying that success into getting the job with the Huskies.

And he knows that even coming from a position of strength last season, this Washington team will need some retooling.

But for a program that had three coaches in the matter of four years in recent memory, the Huskies have shown change at the top isn’t enough to stop them from being competitive.

“And trying to figure out exactly like, ‘What does this team look like? Who are these guys? Why didn’t they play?’ Because there’s a lot of talent out here,” Fisch said. “They just had an extremely, extremely talented, older football team. Michael Penix was in his sixth year of college. A lot of those guys were a part of three head coaching staffs with Chris Petersen, Jimmy Lake and Coach [Kalen] DeBoer. So it’s just a complete different program in that regard.”