Washington head coach Jedd Fisch details his goals for the Huskies | NBC Sports

so welcome to Washington but let's rewind to January 9th 2024 you're happily the head coach of the University of Arizona and then Nick sain retires and all the dominoes start falling so why this job why then yeah it was trick I really had no idea wasn't expecting it there was no thought in my mind at that time that I was going to be the head coach of Washington uh really looking forward to our fourth year at Arizona and what we built there and then uh the call came in that Saturday about this job and I guess it kind of went from Nick Sav retiring to kayin getting hired to then the job opening and how could you not say yes uh University of Washington has everything to offer and the opportunity to come into the Big 10 was a huge deal um and I really beli that the programs were going to be about the SEC in the Big 10 and that's what college football was going to become and uh I wanted to be a part of that table and uh then to be at a place where just played the national championship with all the history and um with the city of Seattle it was just uh too good of an opportunity to pass up so walk me through like that day and and how much time you have to make a life-altering decision the first time I got even contacted was Saturday afternoon about 2:30 and I had to make the decision by Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. 7:30 a.m. uh I had about a 30-minute conversation on that Saturday afternoon I was at the office I was recruiting I was I had a team meeting on Friday I had no inclination that they were going to call and then um talked to Troy Dannon for about 30 minutes on Saturday and then that was it called me back 10 p.m. Saturday night and said I want to offer you the job and I want to send a plane uh tomorrow morning and uh I said well let's sleep on it let me think about this and he said I'm going to sleep on it also and um they'll have anou in your inbox tomorrow morning and kind of went back and forth with the agents for about an hour two hours in the morning and then um they got on an airplane and uh we signed a contract and it was really really hard day there was a lot of crying in my house I have all daughters I was crying more than the other three than the daughters my daughters and my wife but we were all pretty upset about the situation but knew that um take emotions aside that the intellectual decision was to was to come to Washington and that's what we chose to do so this is a team that played for a national championship last year but I know you said it's a totally different team so what did you find when you got here well I found a totally different team uh there was only one returning starter of the 22 that played in the national championship there was uh 47 players I believe on scholarship when I got here out of the 85 there was about another 12 Walk-Ons and they had 120 players the year before so we were about 60 players short uh from the team that played in the national championship um and then we had to have a brand new staff I brought 21 people with me I was talking the other day I don't know if anyone's brought 21 staff members to a job um and we were able to bring seven coaches plus four strength coaches plus our operations department plus our recruiting department plus our equipment manager plus our director of player programs so everything was brand new and uh I found a team that was starving to play wanted to go out again uh just got um we upset by the fact that they didn't win the national championship and then we upset by the fact that their head coach left and it was someone that it was a group that we had to build a culture build a roster and really teach them our way so what's the biggest challenge when like day one first ground floor uh the biggest challenge for sure was the idea of we're going to do it different but that doesn't mean the way you did it wasn't right you're coming off a 14- one you're coming off a 25 and three in the last two years so You' have to be careful I felt like we had to be careful as a coaching staff of not doing something that well we didn't do it that way and we won so why do we have to do it that way and um the challenge is it's really was the starters did it one way but this is a whole new group and a lot of these guys were dying for the opportunity to play they were waiting for this opportunity to prove to their coaches that recruited them that they could do it and then those coaches are gone so uh relationship building has been the challenge of the spring and teaching brand new schemes on offense defense and special teams with no carryover so when you have a young team which you do how do you see the pros and the cons of that because it you can mold and and go into the system that you want but also they're young and inexperienced yeah uh well we certainly are young and inexperienced and we have a high standard here uh number one because we're Washington and number two um because that's the way we believe in coaching with a high standard but there's going to be mistakes that are going to be made right now we we are completely uh I don't use the word rebuilding but we are retooling uh we did reconstruct the roster uh there are changes that have been made at every position group most players that are going to be starting on offense weren't on the team a year ago let alone uh became starters and then most of our players on defense most of our coaches weren't even coaching the in college football our defensive coordinator came from pro football our safeties coach came from pro football so on defense you've got guys that our assistant D line coach came from pro football our analyst came from pro football so it's kind of really on defense learning the game of college ball and getting the team together on offense it's bringing a group of individuals together and see if we can make a team so when I ask you about Will Rogers he was here before you got here he comes from Mississippi State what have you seen from him so far what kind of impact can he have yeah well will was here like two weeks before I got here I think they kind of I got that commitment right after the Mississippi State uh bowl game uh or right after the Washington end of the season I don't know exactly the timing of it but um they brought will in and then will was trying to figure out what just happened right and then I was trying to figure out what just happened and what's the quarterback situation going to look like and uh sat down with Will and within the first few days I would say of being here maybe within a day or two and just explained to them our vision for the quarterback and we were able to show him what we did with Josh Rosen we were able to show him what we did with Jaden Delora we were able to show him what we did with Noah ffid and what we did with Wilton Spate Jake rudock all of these guys that we've coached in college football and what that looks like let alone the NFL guys and what we spoke to him about me and Coach Doty uh Jimmy dty our quarterback coach was we see you in that same line of progression we see that you can have those same type of numbers you can be that productive uh if you believe in the system the way those guys did and you've got to want to believe in what we're teaching you and believe in that system and then in turn we're going to do everything we can to help you be successful so tell me a little about his skill set and and how you see that in in the system you run yeah well um the first thing is he's a very good decision maker he's made I think he has like 1900 pass attempts in college football and he's thrown 28 interceptions so when you the the first part of the skill set is to be a good decision maker the second part is to be able to throw with uh Rhythm and timing uh and that's kind of been the biggest transition for him because in the offense that he ran in it wasn't so much uh dictated by your footwork it wasn't so much dictated by taking Snaps from under Center and the Rhythm you have to play with or even in shotgun the Rhythm you have to play with it was more you know smaller group of plays you can kind of have an idea of what they were trying to accomplish and find the open receiver ours is a little bit more coverage based ours are a little bit more um schematically or you know we probably have more plays more volume more things that uh we were asking him to do but I felt like he was really smart when I sat and talked to him uh he has outstanding penmanship on the board good indicator of a quarterback that cares and um he's able to talk the game dad's a coach so those were the skill sets that that stood out to me now um we're challenging him to be able to push the ball down the field to be willing to take those shots down the down the field but uh thought was a beautiful go ball and that's where our offense starts so you mentioned wanting this job because it's in the Big 10 and that that's where college football is moving at the highest levels so it's going to be the first year of Washington in the Big 10 how do you approach that and from a structural standpoint program standpoint travel food all of that we practice outside in the rain except for yesterday we have to be prepared to play in all the elements number one uh we have a road game against Penn State November we have Road games against against Iowa in October H so we don't know right we don't know what the weather is going to be like so we have to be prepared to handle any weather um we have four East Coast trips so we have to prepare um to get our our sleep habits right to get the time zones correct we're going to have to go two days ahead of time uh just like we did in the NFL uh I had an opportunity coach at the Rams in the sew so I've been on West Coast teams traveling East so been able to talk um from guys over there on how we did it and why we did it what was important about the meals on Friday the meals on Saturday um and for us the meals on Thursday the meals on Friday uh to make sure we handle that properly um we're going to have to deal with the the fact that we have the oldest facility in the Big 10 and it's only 11 years old so we're in the middle of a big uh revamping of our facility we want to try to refresh and look different and make it feel brand new um we working on all the different aspects of being in the Big 10 as I've said to our donors as I've said to our players you played Michigan once last year now you're going to have to play them six times now there were different uniforms one will be a Penn State uniform maybe an Ohio State uniform a Wisconsin uniform but you got to play that brand of football that type of football it's probably six seven times um next year and um we got to be ready for that you have experience in the Big 10 the Pack 12 the teams that are coming into this league experience all over the country how does that help help prepare for a move like this um well you know each year is different the team's different so yes I had a chance to coach at Michigan and Minnesota uh UCLA so I understand right the the pack to Arizona the Pack 12 the Big 10 and what that looks like but I think in the end really what it's going to what it's coming down to is what are our players prepared for uh sure I could tell them it's going to be loud in the big house although we host them here uh I could tell him that Iowa at night is a very tough place to play uh and we could talk about all those things but in the end Coach sper used to always say if you want to win on the road bring a good team so that's really the our Mantra and that's what we're going to have to work on over the next couple months so I want to talk about your staff because there's a lot of bigname Offspring on your staff we have a belich a Carol Del Rio how did you build this staff and and why is that so important that they have these ties and experience in the NFL and ties to some of the greatest coaches that have ever coached the game we built it two ways number one we built our stuff initially at Arizona with most of the staff members that are here and um most of them had NFL experience and that's because I came from the NFL when I got hired Arizona I came from New England prior to New England I was in LA so I've spent well now exactly half of my career in both places but prior to Arizona I had more time in the NFL than I did in college and I had more experiences with the staff I knew more people in the in pro football and we also believe in becoming a pro and teaching that model when we left Arizona to up to Washington we were able to bring a lot of those coaches so that was first and foremost then it became who was going to run our defense and that was a huge decision because of the fact that I spend so much time on offense and I call the plays on offense uh you have to if you're going to do that you have to commit so um I thought to of all the coaches I've worked with uh who is the right fit to run our defense and Steve belich by far was the right fit now granted um his dad's Bill and granted our offensive coordinator and line coach is Pete Carrol's son Brennan but Bren and I have coached together six years now you know at three different places so I never gave any thought to well let's make sure we have Pete Carol's son on our staff in Seattle uh I just said I got to make sure Brennan's on the staff because that's who I've been with so often with Steve it was we wanted to do something different and if you look back at the most the best defenses right now in college football it's guys that have come from the NFL the coordinators from the NFL what Michigan did last year you know Jim did a great job of Mike McDonald and then um Jesse Minter and bringing guys in that were NFL guys and um that's what we wanted to do the same thing Danton Lynn at UCLA took the defense up 80 spots um so that was our philosophy hire an NFL guy let him run the defense just happens to be that his dad's the greatest coach of all time which is pretty cool and those dads have been to the facility um I joke it's like take your dad to workday so so tell me what that's been like as those greatest coaches have come by it kind of started in Spring ball with Coach belich saying I'm going to come in town and um like to spend four or five days with you guys and your staff so that's a dream come true um for so many people our staff was like in football Heaven uh we set up an office for we have our honorary head coach office that overlooks the water that has a nice treadmill in it and a locker for these guys um computer set up for them so uh bill came first and he spent four or five days here and boy we all learned a lot and then um Bill transitioned out and Jack Del Rio came in and uh Jack is great uh Jack uh I've known for a very long time I think I talked to him once about a job back in the day and when Luke was looking for a job he called me about bringing Luke here which we were able to do so he spent two or three practices with us and he gave great feedback and what he saw and then uh while he was leaving uh coach Carol uh made his first appearance and he tried to be Incognito he tried to just view from the upper deck but uh he was spotted um and then I think once he got spotted he's like well it's more fun to be on the field so the next practice I'll just show up and be on the field so he was on the field B bopping around and then on Saturday uh John Lynch came to practice because his son's our defensive graduate assistant so we were able to just continue to mix and match and bring guys in and what an awesome experience our our players heard from all four of the coaches um team meeting uh on the field in the building uh John Lynch talked to him after practice Pete talked to him after practice Jack in the meeting room coach Bel in the meeting room and uh they heard similar messages and that's to be a pro uh Washington's a place for you you've said that you want this to be like the 33rd NFL team so what does that mean um it means that we want to surround you with NFL Talent we want to surround you with an NFL mindset uh we're never going to bring in a speaker that doesn't know what it takes to get there you're going to hear about the league constantly we're not shying away uh from getting you ready we want you to have the best combined interviews we want to teach you how to speak the game of football you're going to get uh put on the Whiteboard to learn you're going to know how to speak the game better than anyone else we're going to open up our facility the NFL program is better than anyone else does um we're going to give more contact more more ability opportunity uh we're going to treat you like a pro you're going to address appropriate you're going to look appropriate you're going to get media training so you're prepared and uh we're going to do everything we possibly can to get you ready that the only thing left for you is to use your talent and that's kind of how we look at it and that's how we train them so bill bich was here for 5 days what was his message or what was he like for the coaches even um well I'll tell you the most intimidating one is that uh I walked in on a Sunday morning I dropped something off of my office and he was here and then I came back six hours later on Sunday afternoon and he was still here reviewing tape so I got my I I realized that I I was missing out on six hours of good work but he um he spoke to our staff about everything of fundamentals see if you think about Coach Bel it's about really blocking and tackling it's about running to the football it's about doing things right schematically it's about putting your players in the right position to be successful and it's about having a competitive stamina that you can outwork anybody and uh we believe in that you know we're not we're not looking to you know rush home uh so to speak we're looking to do the best job for our players we're looking to do the best job for um our University and what coach reminded us of is don't ever forget Talent sets the floor but character sets the ceiling and um we say that we're going to recruit talented character not talented characters so you've coached under him you've coached under Shawn McVey you've coached under Jim Harbaugh coach under a lot of greats in this sport so who's influenced you the most over your career they've all been different they've all uh influen me in a different manner uh I've learned from uh so many of them on how to do things a certain way and then try to really um do it my way uh that's really the biggest influence is that Jim Harbaugh is totally different than Pete Carroll who's totally different than Bill belich who's totally different than sea McVey but yet all four of them are a lead at their job so how does that work and it works because they all stay true to their own character and that's where I've tried to uh do the same that I've tried to be me and be me the best I know how but on the same token understand what Shawn McVey does offensively and see how we can incorporate that offense into our program understand what Bill belich does not just defensively but leading a team and how do we incorporate that into our program obviously we're running the Patriots defense and the Rams offense here at Washington and then on top of it you know the joy that coach Carol brings to a program the competitiveness that coach Carol brings um how you you know competition is everything right that'll be his saying forever and uh I give him all the credit in the world for keeping that mentality in our program and then Coach Harbaugh not only um being there year one and two with him at Michigan and watching it from ground zero on what he built um winning football is a lot of fun so you don't have to worry about having fun because winning is fun and uh he's done a great job of making sure that I understood uh and really what the players understand of how important it is to compete and to practice hard and that football is the greatest sport in the world so I know you were around all these great head coaches you had a notebook about like one day as a head coach and taking all these notes so so when you finally got that that chance to be a head coach for the first time at Arizona how prepared were you were there were there surprises like how did you use all of this knowledge to do that for the first time yeah well Bill Parcels made a comment one time that said that uh you have your to-do list every night before you leave and then you come back and you got 10 more to-dos that you didn't think about the next day uh that's true uh I've certainly learned that that just when you think you're ready for the next morning five more things happen but um I do believe that over the 20 years uh I prepared myself for this job um to be the head coach at Arizona and now here I felt really good about walking into a program and knowing that we were going to accomplish uh certain things over time if we all stuck to our culture and our values I learned that football still goes down to blocking tackling running the ball Running With The Ball uh making sure you're physically and mentally tough and um whether I took all those notes or sat in those meetings or surrounded myself with the greatest coaches uh which I tried to do at every job change I made it was it came down to the fact that be good in football be good in football and that matters so you didn't play football you were a tennis player growing up and now you're surrounded isas coaching royalty and it's it's like you built this up over the course of your career but how did you get into football and decide you wanted to coach in the first place yeah well it started back in I guess when I was in 10 or 11 years old I was ball boying at Bergen Catholic high school because um my mom's uh boyfriend was the head coach there and uh I learned from him and how great football was and then my uh my dad was a college tennis player though so I kind of grew up playing tennis and went to IMG or ballary at the time and that was kind of my deal and that was kind of my world and um then I got applied to college and I said uh I'm going to go be a football coach and my dad kind of said well where are you going to do that at I said Florida were the best coaches Steve Spurrier and at that point in time it was 1994 Florida was on top he was scoring points and I showed up there and I thought it' be easy to get in the building and learned it was not at all it's not like it is now where you don't have four gas you don't have analysts you don't have student assistants uh there was one offensive GA one defensive GA and no Student Assistance until we uh we broke in and uh we could vinced uh I sat I worked a high school coach at PK young high school and I went to the clinic every year and while I was doing that I started leaving notes on Coach Brier's window and uh windshield and finally he responded so how many notes did you leave on his windshield uh probably over 400 I think it is I think it was about a year and couple months of leaving notes and kind of uh leaving reasons it wasn't all long winded notes it now you could never get away with that now you would be arrested for stalking but uh the world was different back in 1994 and uh 1995 I think it was actually and uh finally in 97 I got an opportunity to go into to start working in the football building and I was there 97 98 99 2000 2001 and had four and a half great years with coach burier and uh he finally let me in the door and then when let me in the door I uh never left so what did you learn from him I mean he was such an icon at that time especially of the sport and you know the first of these many great coaches you worked for yeah uh learned how to throw the football and how important the passing game is and to be aggressive you don't have to wait for third down to try to throw the ball past the sticks and if you want to score touchdowns you got to throw it in the end zone and you can't live in the world of being scared and be aggressive and be attacking and call your plays don't be afraid to be the play caller as the head coach uh so I learned all that I think that um he's the biggest influence on me of all of the coaches by far I try to do it like him I try to wear I wear a visor because of him I call the offense because of him I use some of the verbage that he used back in the day just in honor of him and uh there's no question in my mind that if it wasn't for him there'd be no way we'd be sitting here today the best oneliner what's your favorite he's had so many oh he's I mean my f his my favorite I guess you can't spell Citrus without UT that was a good one you always had great Tennessee ones um you've over the course of your career you've talked about all these different influences you've had you've you've worked for seven NFL teams six FBS teams in college football moved around a lot over the course of your career what was that like and why did you want to have all of those different experiences programs what was the like for my wife or what was the like for me uh it was a lot on our family to um make this commitment and Amber from the very beginning was we're going to go we're going to go where football brings us and we're going to make that home and um for me and for us every decision was strictly based on where's the best place to learn um I I love to read I love to be a student I love to learn and you have one life and there was why pass up an opportunity to work for Bill belich if you don't have to why pass up an opportunity to work for Shawn mcy if you don't have to and I can go down the list um why I passed up an opportunity work for Brian bck who just won the Super Bowl of the Ravens and then called to hire me away from Houston I mean I could have said no numerous times and stayed where I was at and tried to do the best job I could there but when Mike Shanahan calls you to go be wide receiver coach at the Denver Broncos and you get to learn from Mike I don't think it's a good career decision not to say yes and uh just like I didn't think it was a good career decision not to say yes to Washington so 15 moves in 20 years was your wife in charge of like the house flipping like how is that actual Logistics of this let's be clear my wife is in charge of everything but football uh so she makes every decision about the house flipping the packing the selling the the uh where we go and um but we're a great team um she's an incredible mom and she makes sure that the girls are ready to go and uh football is our Common Thread well we're the happiest when we're all on the field together um the girls are at every single game and yeah it's just one of those deals that we've just really embraced change um I get to go right to work and she has to meet all the new people and she has been an incredible Trooper along the way how do you guys and you specifically build those communities build those relationships fast when you when you have moved around a lot I mean I'm sure you got like a blueprint of of how to build relationships and connect with people yeah be fully invested where you're at that that was the the hardest thing that you know you're you're not not telling the truth when you're fully invested of where you are um you just be fully invested on where you are and then if something happens that changes that that doesn't make you not invested in where you were um and that's how we that's how we live our lives we show up to Seattle on the very first day we were here or I was here January 16th she came with me of course course and we are now washingtonians we are now invested in University of Washington and every single thing we do every decision we make is all about Washington and All About Seattle and all about the Huskies for you and what you did at Arizona you inherit a team that was winless um and and you needed to to build from the very bottom how do you take what you learned there and and the way that you were able to leave that program 10 wins and and reaching all sorts of benchmarks into what you need to build at Washington which does have a totally new team but they did just play for a national championship yeah um it's a great challenge it's a totally different challenge obviously um but on the same token it's still about the players it's still about the scheme it's still about the people and it's not about what you did last year and that's our message and it was good to have Coach belich remind him of that as well that no one cares what you did last year it's about what you're going to do next year and each year is its own year especially now with the transfer portal especially now with nil especially now with the way the comings and goings of College athletics how could it matter what you did a year ago when all that matters right now is the 85 players you have on your scholarship your your roster and your 110 total players and we're going to try to make them the best team we can so you didn't have those types of connections when you were breaking into football that your team has now that you have now why is it important to stress those yeah um I think it when I did it it was so unique and rare to be able to break in the way we I broke in uh I'm not sure that can be done again or replicated um so many things had to hit but I want to make it easy on my guys if they can I want to make it I want to give them the best chance possible to be successful that's why I coach so granted there was some challenges of being a non-player and not having a tie-in and not having a last name of a coach and any of those things that uh maybe is a opportunity for others but in the end be good at your job give them an opportunity to be successful and teach them and that's why I picked college football over pro football um to be able to watch kids develop watch them grow and any chance that we have to help them be more successful because of opportunity and connections we're going to do it