Jedd Fisch details process of identifying top players at Washington

New Washington head coach Jedd Fisch is not walking into a cushy situation despite taking over a program that competed in the national title game two months ago.

During a sit-down talk with On3’s Andy Staples over on the On3 YouTube channel, Fisch explained that just months after a 14-1 season and CFP appearance for Washington in 2023, he’s having to piece together the roster on the fly for 2024.

“Yeah, I think we’re at 20 of 22 starters are gone, which is pretty incredible,” Fisch reported of his current team. “All 11 on offense are gone, and then nine on defense are gone. So we’ve got to figure out, really, who we are as a team, we got to figure out what we want the program or the team to look like.”

Losing every single starter one on side of the ball is no joke, especially when some of those starters were Michael Penix, Rome Odunze or Dillon Johnson.

I think it’s so rare that you’re looking at a spot where you have five offensive linemen all gone, what arguably could be a first round quarterback, first round receiver gone, second round or third round receivers gone, the whole defensive front gone,” Fisch continued.

So obviously there’s still plenty of roster management still to deal with, and in the middle of Fisch trying to navigate actually coaching his team for the first team. Some busy months ahead for the Huskies and their new staff.

“So, spring ball for us, we’re going to push it back, gonna start in April and play our spring game in May and see, like, how long we could use this amount of time for weight room, meetings, etc. — just try to get it going a little bit and get to know the kids,” said Fisch. “So, we have about 74 scholarship players right now, and then, after that, we’ll figure out how we can add in the spring portal.”

Well, Washingon certainly isn’t finished with its roster, at least according to new head coach Jedd Fisch. He wants a good look at what he’s got in the spring before assessing potential additions in the next portal window.

Whether it’s replacements from within or perhaps some headliner transfers in the next window, Fisch is going to have a very tough time matching the success of the two prior seasons, especially in the Big Ten. But he’s still got a long offseason to build towards a strong start in year one.