Washington HC Jedd Fisch details recruiting pitch, catching up in NIL

After a dream run in the College Football Playoff last season, Washington football looks a lot different entering the 2024 campaign.

Kalen DeBoer is off to Alabama and the Huskies hired Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch to man the ship in Seattle. Star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and others are gone, but Fisch and his staff still feel great about where things stand as the program makes the transition to the Big Ten.

Familiar matchups against Washington State and Oregon await, as do new tests against the likes of Penn State and Iowa, as well as a title game rematch against Michigan in early October. While pegged to finish No. 10 in Cleveland.com’s 2024 Big Ten media poll earlier this week, expectations remain high for UW.

From a recruiting aspect, Fisch is looking to take the Huskies to new heights. After inking top-20 classes for three consecutive cycles (2018-2020), Washington has finished inside the top 30 of the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings just once.

Things are looking good so far in the 2025 cycle, as the Huskies currently check in at No. 19 in the nation and No. 6 in the Big Ten. The class features 23 commitments, including seven four-stars.

“I think recruiting has gone extremely well for us and we’re going to continue to build,” Fisch told On3’s Steve Wiltfong on Thursday at Big Ten Media Days. “I think we’re gonna get a few more big hits here soon and a few surprises towards the season. I think we have the chance to have the type of class that we all dream of.”

Fisch using experience angle to appeal to top recruits

Competing with Oregon in the Pacific Northwest is always a challenge, as is competing with the recruiting titans in the Big Ten on a yearly basis. Fisch, who’s previously spent time on staff Michigan, Minnesota, Miami and UCLA, knows what it takes to win a recruiting battle.

When looking at his staff, however, Fisch also sees a wave of NFL experience, providing a different angle that some programs can’t match. If getting to the next level is your goal, then the Huskies feel they have the best staff in the nation to help you understand what needs to be done to get there. Fisch himself has spent time on seven different NFL staffs since 2002.

“I think that we have the most access to the NFL of any program in the country. We have the most relationships, we try to be identical to an NFL program in the way we practice, in the way we compete, in the way we talk to our guys and the way we prepare them for the next level,” he said.

“We have the privilege of having about 100 years of coaching experience at the next level … on top of that, I just think that being at Washington right now with the athletics and academics is the greatest place to be.”

Huskies have some catching up to do in land of NIL

When asked how Washington stacks up to other programs in NIL, Fisch was blunt in his response: Some programs have the luxury of having an outpouring of support in that space, and that currently isn’t the case with the Huskies. He also knows that that won’t be the case for long, as revenue-sharing is on the way to help even things out:

“We’re behind where they are substantially at this point. But we know that when revenue share kicks in we’re going to be equal, then we’re going to be able to utilize Seattle to our advantage and then hopefully surpass some of them.”

“You know, some of these teams are having rosters that are 10 million dollars higher than ours. We’ve got to find a way to continue to enhance that, but on top of that, understand that when revenue share kicks in, we’re all going to be playing with the same cap.”