Jedd Fisch reveals challenges Washington faces in 2024 in midst of total rebuild: 'It's a brand new team'

Washington essentially underwent full reset this offseason after one of their best years of all time. Jedd Fisch is now leading that new iteration of the Huskies in his debut in 2024.

Fisch discussed the shift in Seattle over the course of this year so far during an interview with On3’s Andy Staples from Big Ten Media Days. He pointed out how basically no name from last fall, whether players or coaching staff, are back to represent Washington again for this upcoming season. That leaves them with a lot to set about who they’re going to be as a program moving forward.

“Yeah, I mean you’re going to see, if you turned off the (national championship) game and then haven’t turned on again, you’re not going to know one guy,” said Fisch. “We’ve got maybe one. 21 new starters, I think, and all new coaches. There’s nobody that was on last year’s team that are now. I think we have 38 scholarship players from last year’s team out of the 84 scholarships that we have. So it’s a brand new situation, it’s a brand new team.”

“We’re trying to really reestablish ourselves and what type of football we’re going to play,” Fisch added. “It’s a completely different world when 10 players get drafted from that team, three more signed free agent contracts. That was an NFL team playing in that championship game. Now we’re sitting here and we’re trying to build ourselves back up to that level.”

Washington had just over 50 portal transactions since season’s end with 29 players transferring out and 22 more transferring in. You can also add, as Fisch noted, the 10-plus players who got to the pros to make it 40 or so names that are no longer Huskies. That’s just the roster too with the staff flipping fully as well from Kalen DeBoer to Fisch.

Still, Washington did bring in a Top-25 portal class with those nearly two dozen pickups. They also have 18 signees, some of which followed Fisch from Arizona, joining the team as freshmen.

The question now is how to piece this new roster and others to come together, especially in this era. Thankfully for Fisch, though, he has experience at the next level that will help him to handle this as his tenure begins with the Huskies.

“Yeah, I mean, I think, really, the experience of being in the NFL is becoming more and more important as we’re building these programs,” said Fisch. “It’s going to be a world where we’re going to have, what, 105 players on our roster. You’re going to have to make a decision on how many of them you’re going to scholarship. You’re going to make a decision, you know, between 85 and 105. Are you going to give half scholarships? Are you going to use the cap in that way? There’s going to be a large cap that we’re going to have to figure out.”

“Now, you’re not going to have performance bonuses or things that maybe we’re all accustomed to in the league. But this is the world we’re in now and it’s a professional world,” Fisch said. “Now, they’re not employees. It’s different in that regard but it certainly is that same mentality of distributing money and asking them to perform.”

Again, almost nothing from conference to coach to collection of players is going to be the same for Washington. Even so, Fisch is going to have to sort it out and set it up as his own starting with this season.