Jedd Fisch Talks Move To Washington, Building His Staff and Team to Contend | Cover 3

[Music] back here on the cover three podcast live on CBS Sports Network pleased to be joined by Washington coach Jed fish now coach the the timing of uh of the arrival was a little bit later than a lot of the coaching Carousel you know the the way that these dominoes fall sometimes that happens but your experience of understanding Washington was there you know this was a program that that you competed against so what was your view of the Washington football program from the outside that really informed you wed to make the move yeah was certainly a challenge cuz it was January 15th or 16th somewhere in that range so the portal was closed you're you're already started with your team you've already had team meetings talking about the next season talking about what you want to accomplish in Spring football and um and then this happened with Coach sa and domino effect right so um I I was fortunate enough that we've played Washington the last three years that I was at Arizona played Washington when I was at UCLA so had four games against them and it understood what University of Washington was and 2021 they had a down year at 4 and8 and then you know saw what they did in the last two years after that with the same team and just kept them together and got better and better and better um and felt like we had two great games against them so I knew how good Washington could be um I knew they were just coming off a national championship you couldn't ask for a better setup in terms of hitting a team when they're hot um and then you know the team changed but uh we now have this the program is in a great spot and it was a chance to join the Big 10 yeah like I think back to when you first took the Arizona job you were inheriting a program that had gone winless the season before in the co season and it was a rebuild and now you're in a situation where it's rare Washington was in the title game last year but it's kind of another rebuilt how are you comparing the situations and with your experience at Arizona how is that preparing you for what you've got to do here I call more of a reboot here oh okay um because I think when you're in a rebuild um you really are laying foundation and then you're you're going one step at a time and trying to teach a team that has not that doesn't know how to win how to win when you're we're in a reboot meaning we don't have near we don't have the team we had um 21 to 22 starters are are gone and you know we have returning Star as on offense and and we kind of have aorus Borg of players from all different places but you know we hit that reboot button because they University of Washington knows how to win and guys that were on this team the 38 scholarship players that are back they know what it feels like to win 25 to 28 games the 12 guys that came to us from Arizona they know what it feels like to win 10 games and be on a seven game win street so my hope is that we're rebooting a little bit we know it's not necessarily where it would be if we had a bunch of fifth and sixth year players 13 of which are in the NFL right now but we also know that Washington has such a strong brand that we should be able to get it started quicker most important position in the game you got somebody with a lot of experience Will Rogers comes in after an illustrous career in the SEC so you know you're getting that how much of an advantage of that is at least knowing somebody that's been out there in the spotlight and has been able to perform at a high level yeah the big thing with Will is uh coach's kid right which is so so big right uh second thing is that 40 starts and not just 40 starts anywhere right 40 starts and in those starts it's Alabama it's Tennesse it's Florida it's um Auburn it's it's Georgia so the experience that he has of being an SEC quarterback The Experience he has to play in two different systems Mike leech's system and then his system he played in last year this is now going to system three but he has that ability to really understand football he has the ability to be very efficient he's a very high completion percentage guy and uh what we just want to do is continue to use his brain and his football Acumen to our advantage can you take us into um the process of hiring Steve bich as your defensive coordinator and the the person right because you we sometimes at the New England Patriots organization you get so fascinated with the figure head up top you don't always get to know all the different pieces so you know what have you seen from him any good Steve belich story Ries so far from uh from the time you all spent together yeah well I mean I would say this we we were able to bring 21 staff members with us from Arizona M and our whole offensive staff uh special team staff our strength staff our training staff um and we our defensive staff we brought two of the five guys and um we brought John Richardson and Jason KUSI and I knew that I wanted to hire an NFL defensive coordinator okay um I worked with Steve before when I was coaching for the Patriots so there was five or six guys that I reached out to that were in the NFL that I thought would be candidates for this coordinator job Steve was the one that I felt like if I could get him I he was going to be the guy uh I just didn't know he was going to wait to see if his dad took a job he was going to wait to see what else happened in New England so he was kind of in a holding pattern I was in a holding pattern but I really felt and I I kept telling our players and we lost some players in transition cuz they didn't know who our defensive coord and I kept saying I'm not going to rush it but trust me when I tell you you'll be happy with who I get um the guys that stayed were happy and uh Steve is just he's a he's a great person um he's a great worker he's like his dad that he's a great listener and uh I was able to bring him and Vinnie sineri both from New England and um then we were able to hire Robert Bala from Alabama to be our linebacker coach so that's our staff so our staff is really consists of everyone one that we had and then we added two patriots and a guy from Bama and I felt really good that we were going to be patient on defense and hire the three guys that I really felt were going to be best for our team real quick on a follow there so why' you say NFL defensive coordinator what was the how was that the the starting point for you yeah um Michigan yeah uh if you look at what Michigan did uh Coach Harbaugh and I are very close I talked to Coach arbaugh about it and he felt like when he made that transition to Mike McDonald and then Jesse Min that he really felt like they had a competitive advantage and then you look at what UCLA did last year uh when chip hired Danton Lynn MH uh they all of a sudden became a top 10 defense yep and then so you start looking around and you start saying okay these NFL def Al golden and noain top 10 defense came from the Bengals uh so you start looking at what what's working right now uh now the good part is none of them working running the Patriots defense so we'll be they can all run the Ravens defense and we'll run the Patriots defense but uh I felt that was what what it was for me and that's why I wanted to to do that we've talked a little bit about this and I'm curious to know what advice you've given to Steve about the difference in you know NFL you've got them all day you've got them from 7:00 in the morning till 5: at night you have all this time do you tell them to be careful be cautious pair it back like what's the approach between and I get that college players are becoming more professional but they still do have other requirements what do you tell them as far as what they can handle yeah um it's an ongoing conversation of realizing not only is it what they can handle but you're also defending a lot of different stuff in college football the there's not as much there's unbalanced isn't something they do in the league as you know they're not going to run a lot of X motion they're not going to sit there and be in wide splits with no you know pass blockers other than the five you're not GNA see that so I've told Steve like you're gonna see a lot of different offense and you're going to have less time with them so what we have to do is just be really good at fundamentals the beautiful thing about Steve and about that system that his dad and parel's created was that it's about the fundamentals like if you watch the Patriots on defense they're the best tacklers in the NFL period if you watch them on defense they play with their hands better than everybody else um they're gaap sound they do their job so do less but do that is kind of what we talk about so we're here at media days which to me has always been kind of like the de facto starting point for the season it means it's right around the corner as you're getting ready for week one what's the thing you're seeing with your team right now that has you the most excited for this season to get started they're coming together they're they're coming together culturally they're coming together um off the field they're they scheduled a dinner on their own at some Japanese Habachi Steakhouse the other night they had a barbecue at one of the players houses um they they five of them took out boats and they packed 8 10 12 yeah we won't talk about on the boats um they they do a they Grill every Saturday after their lifts um those are the things that we needed to do we're like a you know I always say we're like a Mother's Day buffet this football team like you got like lamb chops and omelets going off the same time you know so we have to grab from 12 different universities our our team last last year our team is built from guys that played at 12 different schools so we've got to get them together and we got to get them close fast so we're going to spend a lot of time what we call mind time um during training camp where we get to know each other better and and see how close we can become as a team he is Jed fish head coach of the Washington huskys Jed thank you so much for spending time with us here on the cover three podcast thanks guys appreciate it coach coming up on the other side we will turn our attention to the reigning Champion the Michigan Wolverines joined by Sam web of 24/7 Sports all that and more next [Music]