Report: New Washington coach Jedd Fisch signed 7-year, $54 million contract

Former Arizona Wildcats leader Jedd Fisch is officially taking over the Washington Huskies, and the financial details are being revealed.

According to Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY Sports, the freshly-minted Washington head coach will be receiving a seven-year deal, with his salary starting at $7.5M and increasing each season, along with other incentives.

“Term sheet between Washington and new FB coach Jedd Fisch: 7-year deal, starting at $7.5 million and increasing by $75,000 annually (basic total of $54.075 million, avg of $7.725 million). He also gets $200,000 relocation allowance,” Berkowitz posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Fisch would get 85% of pay remaining on contract if fired without cause. The buyout he would owe if he ends deal starts at $12 million, then drops annually: to $10M, $6M, $5M, $3M, $1M.

“Fisch also will be eligible for up to $1.55 million in bonuses annually, and Washington will cover $5.5 million buyout that he owes Arizona.”

Moreover, Fisch was in the midst of a five-year contract with the Wildcats worth $18.3 million, reaching an agreement on principle with the program to restructure his contract according to Justin Spears and Michael Lev of the Arizona Daily Star.

It’s clear now that Fisch will be receiving a new, more lucrative deal with a new program ahead of the 2024 football season with the Huskies, and they’ll be hoping he lives up to heightened expectations with the program.

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Jedd Fisch returns to Seattle after being the quarterbacks coach for the Seattle Seahawks in 2010, boasting experience at the NFL and collegiate level as a coach. After being a graduate assistant with the Florida Gators for two seasons in 1999 and 2000, Fisch took his talents to the NFL, making stops with the Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens, and Denver Broncos before landing the first coordinator job of his career at Minnesota in 2009. 

Fisch would continue jumping back and forth between jobs at the pro and college level, spending time as the offensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes, Jacksonville Jaguars, and UCLA Bruins as well as stints with Michigan, the Los Angeles Rams, and the New England Patriots in various offensive assistant roles. 

After spending one season as the Patriots’ quarterbacks coach in 2020, Fisch was hired as the 32nd head coach of the Arizona Wildcats. Serving as the first head coaching job of his career aside from his time as the interim head coach of UCLA in the final two games of the 2017 season following the firing of Jim Mora. 

Fisch inherited an Arizona program that went winless in the shortened 2020 season and only won one game in his first year at the helm. But he quickly turned things around with Arizona finishing 5-7 in 2022 and an impressive 10-3 last season capped off with an Alamo Bowl win and a top 15 ranking. 

The Washington program won’t need to be turned around upon Fisch’s arrival, with DeBoer leading the Huskies to a 25-3 record in his two seasons with the team along with a national championship appearance this past season. But it will be interesting to see if Fisch can maintain the program’s recent success and make Washington’s investment in him a wise one.

On3’s Kaiden Smith contributed to this article.