Washington Huskies' football culture a 'work in progress' - Jedd Fisch | NBC Sports

well coach first of all congratulations on the job uh you inherit a team that played in the national championship game last year uh but if I would say if this is a case study for the world we live in in college football this would be it right this team played for a national championship last year new coach tons of new players probably doesn't look the same as they looked you know a few months ago right yeah I'd say the logo played in the national championship not the team uh the university played thetion na Championship but this team uh we only have 38 scholarship players from last year's team wow uh on our roster and um we have one starter from last year's team and uh no coach from last year's team so it is a uh completely different team we just happen to wear the same jerseys so the 38 players that you have that were on this team last year I mean what what's the vibe with them what did you feel about the guys that decided to stay yeah I I think it's uh it's still a work in progress we're still working through a lot of things right now we're still trying to figure out um our culture and uh they were a you know very much of a player run program they were run by a lot of the players that aren't there anymore and um they had to really grasp some of these guys have had four head coaches uh some of these guys that were uh the two of the guys that we brought here today uh to Media day are wind up guys that had um were recruited by Chris Peterson so it's defin definitely a unique environment and uh we have to get those guys on board with the way we like to do things and they're becoming uh really a part of one team which is pretty awesome yeah great turnaround at Arizona a place that's not the easiest place to do what you did uh you know three years great turnaround what what from that experience can you apply to where you're at now and what needs to be done at Washington yeah you know when we were at Arizona we really felt like it was critical that we got a quarterback you know that's number one that we had to make sure that so in our second year we brought in Jaden Dora and our third year uh we had Jaden and Noah faid for really for both of those years and um we managed to have really good success on offense from those guys um we established a culture where we were going to act like pros in everything we did and we were going to talk about professional football every single day we weren't going to shy away from it we were going to talk about our NFL experience we're going to bring in speakers that talk about the league and how you act and how you practice and how you behave um and we're going to use that exact same model um at Washington the other thing we did is we really lived through High School recruiting uh we brought in some on the portal you know maybe six or eight guys a year but uh we would sign a class of 25 or 28 players and we're going to keep that same model because I really do believe it's a lot easier to train then retrain and if we could bring in guys at 18 and teach them how to play and teach them um we were the youngest team in college football in 2022 in 2023 we went 10 and3 and wound up being in a situation where with that team we had about 17 returning starters going into the 24 season at Arizona so um we're going to build through the draft as I like to say and then we're going to use free agency when needed well you talked about finding a quarterback what you have Will Rogers who came from Mississippi state is a guy who has a lot of game experience played a lot of big games and big venues uh what does he bring to the table for you and for your offense yeah his football acument is excellent um he's a high school coach's son he played for leech um for three years and then um this past year at Mississippi State he played for a different coordinator that was a little bit more Pro style so you know will now going into his third coordinator or third offensive coach um he's now really become well vered in a lot of different systems and I think with that is really going to help him uh be able to execute what we're asking for which is kind of a mix of under Center and gun and a mix of play action and drop back game and um being able to check at the line of scrimmage and uh have a lot of control up there as a quarterback so will brings that that age of maturity but also that football maturity and and he's leading a room where deont Williams um is an elite player true freshman that came early in January that was committed to us at Arizona um and uh he's really teaching him some of the the different aspects of college football that's cool um we talked about the players uh your your coaching staff how many guys came with you from Arizona and or where did you pull some of your other guys from yeah we brought 21 with us from Arizona so um we brought our entire offensive staff and we brought two of our five defensive coaches special teams coordinator head strength coach nutritionist um player programs recruiting you name it um G uh so we brought as many as we could and then we hired three defensive coaches we hired two from New England and one from Alabama so we hired Steve belich to be our defensive coordinator and uh hired Vinnie sineri to coach our safeties both of those guys were at the pat at the Pats uh played in Alabama as you know and then we hired Robert Bala who was a linebacker coach for coach Sabin uh to be our linebacker coach and that's our staff so we've had the privilege of working together for a while uh offensively uh we've worked together for four straight years we haven't lost a position coach so it's been the same five plus myself and every offensive room uh for four years so that's enabled us to have a little bit quicker transition than if we had to teach our scheme to others so you mentioned belich I know you also have Pete Carrol's son on the offensive side as your coordinator and now you're in Seattle and Pete senior I mean he's he's around there right how how cool is that to have him around you your staff your players your program oh it's great uh coach Carol I think was probably had five six seven practices this spring already um you know he'll B Bop around he was there at my press conference when I took the job and um you know he's living his great life he's living his life right now and uh mixing and being a grandpa so the good part is that BC's got three kids that um are around a lot so that brings Pete around uh coach belich has been around twice already he'll be back for training camp we'll spent about a week with us at training camp um and he's uh grinding it pretty good as well and then we also have uh Jack Del Rio's son on our staff oh wow so Jack's been around for a couple weeks now and so it's been great to have um legendary coaches obviously Pete and Bill um are you know members of the Mount Rushmore coaching so to have them as sounding board uh to have them watch our practice and to kind of give me some feedback is just invaluable yeah talk about just for you personally some of the other because I know you've you have an interesting career you've been a lot of places you had a lot of guys you've worked for and with who have been some of the main guys that you have pulled from or been mened by yeah I mean I I think it all starts with Steve Spurrier uh coach burier was the first guy that ever gave me a shot um first guy I went to Florida because of him and only only him um I wanted to uh learn how to coach I wanted to be around who I thought was the best their their their was at that time and uh it all starts there you know his uh he always likes to say you have fun competing but you compete every day and uh he's as competitive as anybody I know and um being around him and learning how to call offensive plays and Coach a quarterback uh was certainly something that I'll never forget and then being with Mike Shanahan uh you know I I've worked for Shawn i' McVey I've worked with Jeremy Bates I work with a bunch of guys that have worked for Mike but working for Mike directly as his wide receiver coach at the Broncos uh just is an invaluable experience to learn how to how to set up an offensive system and how to make sure that you're attacking defenses the right way um so you know I've had some privileges of being with the best of the best um obviously playing working for Coach Bel working for Shawn McVey working for Jim Harbaugh uh those guys are all just Elite as well so it's just been a privilege and uh I hope I can just keep it going yeah you talked about rebuilding and you know skilled people are great but you've got to you got to be good up front right and so you're kind of this was the Joe Moore award winning offensive line a year ago but none of them are there right so you're starting over and have to rebuild H H how do you go about that what's the best way to build there yeah well you know that that's one of those that you know the the portal has to be your friend when you're dealing with big guys because if you only build through High School recruiting you're not they're not going to be big enough fast enough so we we had to dip into the portal and bring um a different group of guys we brought an alignment from Ohio State we brought lineman from Maryland we brought an alignment um from Portland State we brought in a couple linemen well we have a couple linemen that were injured with ACL that should be back for training camp so I I think we have a good group you know we we do we just have to see if we can get Five Guys that play well together yeah um because none of them have ever played at Washington that'll probably be starting for us what advantage is it for you um you know there's a lot of talk about these four new teams coming into the league you're a new coach at one of those four new teams but you have competed against those other three I mean what kind of Advantage is that for you in your early pray yeah I I think that as we're going against those teams and you know I I think uh knowing UCLA even though it's a new coaching staff uh we have played them the last three years playing USC the last three years we've played Oregon two of the last three years um there's there's certainly some value of having some recognition we do play all three of those teams at the end of the year we play them all in November um maybe October November end of October November so uh we certainly will have a little bit of of more knowledge there we play uh Washington State yeah who we've also played the last uh three years when I was at Arizona so that's good and then the other opponents are all new now I've played them when I was coaching at Michigan when I was coaching at Minnesota but those were you know years ago now a lot of them have uh changed uh who's running the show and what they're doing but uh certainly recognize and experience uh or excited about the experience of playing against James Franklin or uh playing against Kirk fence and some of the icons of the Big 10 yeah I think the the penate game's already been announced as the white out game that you guys will be there so that quite an experience it's co pretty Co been a part of that one before good deal