Change Is His Charge

Jedd Fisch is embracing the new opportunity for greatness at UW as the change agent leading the program’s overhaul

BY BOB SHERWIN • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE

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It’s an accepted truth that people generally don’t like change. It creates fear and anxiety. Change means leaving your comfort zone and dealing with uncertainty over what’s ahead.

That’s not what Jedd Fisch believes. The first-year head coach of the Washington Huskies has experienced enough changes for two lifetimes. Change is his charge, a directive for his entire football life.

He’s 47 and already has worked for eight NFL teams, six universities, one high school, one Arena League team and has held just about every job except assistant to the assistant traveling secretary.

“I’m good with no more change for a while,” said Fisch as he prepares for his first Husky season, the university’s first in the Big Ten (now 18) “It gets harder and harder to put things together. But, yeah, I don’t mind it (change). It’s an exciting time to put your own stamp on things. That’s what I like to do. That’s what makes it cool.”

The most remarkable aspect of all is the fact that he’s even coaching football, a sport he never played in high school or college, and not tennis, his preferred sport as a teen. He said he knew early on that he wanted to be involved with football, attending the University of Florida specifically to be part of Steve Spurrier’s program. It took him until his senior year and dozens of pestering notes until Spurrier finally made him a graduate assistant for one season, 1999-2000.

Asked why football, he says “that’s been written 4,000 times by now. I’ve worked really hard to do it. But this was 25 years ago. There’s been a lot of coaching since then,” suggesting let’s put that issue to rest. He has proven he can teach, direct, build, lead and turn a program around. Could there be a better example than Arizona (2021-23), with some striking similarities to what he faces presently at Washington.

The Wildcats were riding a 12-game losing streak when Fisch and his staff took over in 2021. They won one game in his first season. They won five the next season and were 10-3 with an Alamo Bowl victory over Oklahoma a year ago.

Fisch takes over a Husky program in the same relatively struggling state as his first year in Tucson, yet from a completely different perspective. Washington was 14-1 last season, losing in the NCAA National Championship game to Michigan. The Huskies then lost virtually their whole team — a school record-matching 10 NFL draft choices and dozens who ended their eligibility or transferred. Just two starters — both on defense — remain from that remarkable season.

“Based on where Washington was a year ago versus where Arizona was when we arrived, both programs are certainly involved in a complete overhaul of personnel,” Fisch said. “With 20 starters that would be new, if not all 22, we've got lot of work ahead of us to where we were the past two years and not fall back to some of the historical drops here.

“It’s a matter of how quickly we can teach the kids. We’re excited to teach our guys our brand of football and not talk about the past anymore.”

Fisch brought along seven coaches from Arizona to the Northwest. All were part of the Wildcat turnaround. They know what works. They have a shared vision with Fisch, along with similar backgrounds, paying their dues, learning the trade and moving up the coaching ladders.

Except for running back coach Scottie Graham, in his fourth year of coaching after 21 years on NFL/college administration staffs, the six other former Wildcat staffers have a combined 29 years of college/NFL coaching experience.

All those stops, all those job changes, have provided a wealth of experience and knowledge.

“I believe in our process, and I believe in our people,” Fisch said. “It’s a great challenge, that’s for sure. It’s going to be quite a challenge to be in the Big Ten, playing on a weekly basis. It’s one of the top two (with SEC) conferences in college football. The national championship game last year was Michigan vs. Washington, two Big Ten teams were fighting it out.”

Change upon change. New conference, new staff, new team, new everything.

“The defense is brand new, the offense is brand new, the special teams (approach) is brand new. There’s nothing that has carried over. The staff is brand new,” he said. “So, when you have everything that’s brand new, there’s going to be a learning curve. We’re going to have to deal with the obstacles that come with that.”

Fisch is confident the Husky players can handle everything thrown at them. It’s not like they’re not used to this kind of thing.

“They’re accustomed to it around here,” Fisch added. “Some of our players have had four different head coaches. We have five or six guys that were recruited by Chris Petersen that are still on this team. We have players that have transferred from two different institutions. We have to deal with all that in the 2024 world of college football.”