Jedd Fisch evaluates how he balances high school, transfer portal in recruiting

One of the most important things for college coaches to manage is how they build their rosters. That’s especially true for coaches at a new school, like Jedd Fisch at Washington.

Fisch explained that his goal is to be able to build through high school recruiting, even though the Transfer Portal has become so prevalent. That, to him, is a key for the Huskies moving forward.

“We’re about development here, and what we pride ourselves in is finding high school players and developing them,” Jedd Fisch said. “One of the issues that is happening in college football is high school kids are being looked over because everybody’s in this constant quest and pressure to have to win this exact second.”

Fisch has a seven-year contract with Washington, starting at $7.5 million annually. That’s about $54 million overall and he gets 85% of his remaining contract if he were to be fired without cause. That offers Fisch stability that he says helps build the roster the way he wants.

“The beautiful thing of starting on day two of a lengthy contract is, we can find a way to build this team for sustainable success and not feel like every year you have to go find transfers to fill holes,” Fisch said. “Now, we would love to be a team that can sign 20 high school kids every year, 25 potentially, and then use what I call free agency or the transfer portal to fill in the gaps.”

Washington currently has the 50th-ranked class in the 2024 On3 Industry Ranking Football Team Recruiting Rankings amid its coaching change. The Huskies have also been hit hard in the Transfer Portal, losing 23 players in the portal while 10 have joined the team through the portal. Of those 10 who are coming into Washington, three are coming with Jedd Fisch from Arizona.

“When you’ve coached in the NFL for a bunch of years, you learn that you want to build your team through the draft. You don’t want to build your team through free agency,” Fisch added. “You want to build your team with a mission that you can get players, develop players, keep players, retain the players and then bring in people to help you win the championship and that’s what our goal is gonna be. That’s how I envision it happening.”

Jedd Fisch explains if Washington is where he sees himself long-term

Settling into his first offseason at Washington after leaving Arizona, Jedd Fisch shared where he sees himself long-term.

“Well, I think that’s always a problem right? You can’t be right, you can’t be wrong, whatever you say. I know that comment is always gonna be made. Is it a destination job? I would answer it this way. The Big Ten, the SEC, right now is who’s leading the football pathways. The college football landscape is about getting to the CFP. There’s 12 teams that are going to compete every year starting next year in the college football playoffs,” Fisch said.

“With an opportunity to go out there with a fan base that’s dying to continue to win national championships, the idea of staying is why you come. The idea of being here is to win championships. And that’s all I can promise that we’re going to be here every single day doing everything we can to win the championship, knowing that Washington has the opportunity to do that every year.”