While fans of the Washington Huskies football program have every right to be upset that former head coach Kalen DeBoer bolted for Alabama shortly after Nick Saban's retirement, the hiring of Jedd Fisch should've been met with cautious excitement and optimism. In just three years as the head coach at Arizona, Jedd Fisch transformed the Wildcats from a 1-11 program to a 10-3 Pac-12 contender that was 11th in the final AP Poll of the 2023 season — their highest finish in over 25 years.
Prior to his time turning Arizona into a conference title contender, Fisch had a handful of stops around the NFL over the course of a twenty year coaching career. He was a wide receivers coach in Denver, a quarterbacks coach in Seattle, offensive coordinator for the Jaguars, a senior offensive assistant with the Rams, and then a quarterbacks coach once again with the New England Patriots in 2020, their first season without Tom Brady. It turned out that this one year of familiarity with former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick would end up paying off, as Fisch hired The Hoodie's son Steve Belichick to be his defensive coordinator at Washington.
Fortunately for Jedd Fisch and the entire Washington football program, landing Steve Belichick turned out to be a package deal, because as Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reports, the six-time Super Bowl winning head coach was very hands-on during the week he spent in Seattle this offseason.
“When the former Patriots coach visited Seattle this spring, he went to work,” Feldman noted. “Other Washington staffers were blown away by how locked in the 72-year-old was that week. Belichick spoke to the team. He spent all day with the defensive staff for the seven days he visited. On a Sunday evening, Fisch popped into the office and found the Belichicks watching film of their scrimmage for the third straight time. Fisch ended up staying until well into the evening when the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach knocked on his door and asked him if he wanted to get sliders.”
Having Bill Belichick serving as an advisor of sorts is nothing new for Jedd Fisch. During his three seasons coaching at Arizona, Fisch had the luxury of the senior Belichick watching his team's film on the opposite coast each week.
“He is fully invested in our program,” Jedd Fisch told Feldman. “When we were at Arizona, I would get emails or calls from Bill and he would give me things that he saw in our film. He watched our film every week. He would give me a whole rundown of certain things to look at and think about, which was just incredible. Now he has a little more investment, got grandkids here, too, which is more of an advantage. It’s not just his own son. Everyone likes grandkids better.”
Can Jedd Fisch and the Belichick's keep Washington competitive?
Whether or not it's true that Bill Belichick likes his grandkids more than his own son is irrelevant to Huskies fans. All they care about up in the Pacific Northwest is that after losing their head coach to Alabama, ten starters to the NFL Draft, and dozens more players to the transfer portal, Washington can find a way to continue to build upon what was arguably the most successful two season stretch in program history. Given the state of the Huskies roster and their move to the ultra-competitive Big Ten, that will be much easier said than done.
“This rebuild is so unique,” Fisch explained to Bruce Feldman. “We have to figure out a way to expedite relationships that did not exist. We have 15 players that were at Arizona or committed there (who) are now here; 38 players that were on this roster prior; and another set of 19 freshmen; and another 15 transfers outside of Arizona transfers. We have to get these four sets of players to play as one team ready for Aug. 31.”
Washington opens their season on August 31st against Weber State. After three more home games, the Huskies face their first road test of the season, a Big Ten conference game all the way in Piscataway, New Jersey against Rutgers. One week later, Washington will welcome Michigan up to Husky Stadium in a National Championship Game rematch.
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