Over the course of a wild weekend, the face of Washington football changed astonishingly: Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama on Friday and the Huskies chose his successor two days later.
DeBoer took UW to a national championship game.
Can Jedd Fisch finish the job?
Fisch — who led Arizona to a 10-win season and an Alamo Bowl victory this fall — will be Washington's next head football coach, the team announced Sunday.
According to the Athletic and ESPN, Fisch's UW contract is for seven years and averages $7.75 million per year. He owes Arizona a $5.5 million buyout, less than half of the $12 million Alabama will pay Washington to bring DeBoer on board.
Fisch, 47, announced his departure to Arizona players and staff just before 4 p.m. According to ESPN, he is expected to fly to Seattle at 8:30 p.m. and have a team meeting with the Huskies.
Over the past three seasons, Fisch has gradually revitalized Arizona — improving from 1-11 in 2021 to 5-7 in 2022 and 10-3 (with an Alamo Bowl win over Oklahoma) this fall. He inherited a program that went 0-5 under Kevin Sumlin in 2020, lost 12 straight games and last appeared in a bowl game in 2017.
The 47-year-old Fisch made the most of his first opportunity as a head coach after numerous assistant positions both in the NFL (with the Patriots, Rams, Jaguars, Seahawks, Broncos, Ravens and Texans) and at the college level. He was most notably the Seahawks' quarterbacks coach in Pete Carroll's first season, when Seattle went 7-9 in 2010.
A native of Livingston, New Jersey and a Florida native, Fisch has had high-profile FBS roles at UCLA (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2017), Michigan (quarterbacks coach, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator in 2015-16), Miami (offensive coordinator and QB coach 2011-12) and Minnesota (offensive coordinator and QB coach 2009).
Jedd Fisch's coaching career
“I think right now we're just working on the semantics to get this deal done. I think we're very, very close,” Fish told CBS Sports' Jim Rome on January 4th on the subject of contract extension. “We want to be finished here very soon and be part of this program for a long time.
“I've done a lot in this business to be here today – to be a head coach at a Power Five program, to win 10 games, to be a top 15 team, hopefully a top team. 10 [team]. We have 18 of 22 returning starters next year. So I have no interest in going anywhere. I'm very excited to see whether we can get to this CFP. Next year there will be 12 teams and I would love to have our team there.”
According to Michael Lev, senior writer and columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, Fisch's expected raise at Arizona would have been about $5 million per year. The Wildcats probably wouldn't be able to match Washington's offer, considering the university is counting on a $240 million miscalculation of projected cash resources and a $55 million internal loan that the athletic department has yet to repay .
Fisch never served in any capacity for more than four seasons, serving as an offensive assistant for the Baltimore Ravens from 2004 to 2007. Should he win at Washington — a program that has gone through three head coaches in the past five seasons — it's worth asking whether Fisch would stay.
But of course it's all about winning.
Kalen DeBoer — who left for Alabama on Friday — did a lot of that at UW, going 25-3 in two outstanding seasons that included a Pac-12 title and an appearance in national championship games. But Fisch would inherit a far more challenging personnel conundrum with the Huskies.
A flood of former UW stars – quarterback Michael Penix Jr., wide receivers Rome Odunze, Ja'Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan, running back Dillon Johnson, left tackle Troy Fautanu, right tackle Roger Rosengarten, edges Bralen Trice and Zion Tupuola-Fetui, Defensive lineman Tuli Letuligasenoa, linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio, etc. – are going to the NFL.
DeBoer's devastating departure also sparked an exodus into the transfer portal with quarterbacks Will Rogers and Austin Mack, cornerback Jabbar Muhammad, left guard Nate Kalepo, nickelback Mishael Powell, safety Asa Turner, linebacker Ethan Barr, tight end Tre Watson and defensive back Dyson McCutcheon , and counts Noah Carter and Keona Wilhite among the possible departures.
Of course, players are also allowed to remove their name from the portal and return to their current school. It will be Fisch's job to diligently recruit the current squad while also looking for reinforcements.
Logically, he should start in Arizona — where the Wildcats finished the season with seven straight wins, ranked No. 11 nationally and are expected to return 18 of 22 starters in 2024. Their three losses (against Mississippi State, Washington and USC) each came by seven points or fewer, two of which came in overtime.
Arizona's roster notably includes quarterback Noah Fifita, the Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year, as well as outstanding wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, linebacker Jacob Manu and running back Jonah Coleman. When a coach departs, that program's players have 30 days to enter the transfer portal.
Ironically, Fifita made his first career start against the Huskies, completing 27 of 39 passes and throwing for 232 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in a narrower-than-expected 31-24 loss on September 30.
“[It was a] There’s a hard-fought game out there that’s closer than you’d like it to be,” DeBoer said at the time. “But it’s honestly a game that we were willing to play for four quarters. We had been preparing for this all week and had nothing but respect for the knowledge that we were facing a good football team. …
“They have the firepower, especially offensively, to throw the ball down the field and make plays. We knew it was going to be a different style than quarterback play, we just knew who [Fifita] Was. We knew he would be able to pass and throw the ball accurately and give their guys chances to make plays.”
Fifita (72.3% completions, 2,869 pass yards, 25 pass TD and 6 INT in 12 games this fall), McMillan (90 catches, 1,402 receiving yards, 10 TD) and Manu (116 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss , 6.5 sacks) played together at California's Servite High School. The 5-foot-10 Fifita went 7-2 as a starter and ranked fourth nationally in completion percentage and 11th in pass efficiency rating (165.92).
If Fifita — who still has three seasons of eligibility left — follows Fisch, UW's quarterback situation will suddenly be somewhat calmed down. But given Penix's draft departure and Mack and Haskell's moves through the transfer portal, the Huskies' only scholarship quarterback currently is four-star freshman Dermaricus Davis.
(By the way, Davis was on an official visit to Arizona and is certainly familiar with fish and his system.)
Fisch's recruiting skills should serve him well in his second stint in Seattle. ESPN's Pete Thamel wrote Sunday: “Fisch's ability to recruit at a high level and his knowledge of West Coast recruiting stood out to the leadership in Washington.”
Fisch will also likely bring much of his staff to Montlake. That could include offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Brennan Carroll — the son of longtime Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, who served as Seattle's offensive line coach and running game coordinator from 2015 to 2020. (Carroll is also expected to be a candidate to replace Fisch in Tucson.) That could also include tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Jordan Paopao, who served as a Husky assistant from 2011 to 2019.
The Huskies' defensive direction, however, is more unclear. Last season, Arizona made significant progress in this area, giving up 357.9 yards (467.7 in 2022) and 21.1 points (36.5 in 2022) per game. But defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen and senior secondary coach Duane Akina recently joined the Texas staff, so Fisch still has more hires to make for Montlake.
Jedd Fisch's career as a head coach
This story will be updated.