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What to expect from UW football's new coach Jedd Fisch

caption: New Washington head coach Jedd Fisch laughs during an NCAA college football press conference to introduce him to the community, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Seattle.
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New Washington head coach Jedd Fisch laughs during an NCAA college football press conference to introduce him to the community, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Seattle.
Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press

This is going to hurt for University of Washington football fans to hear. But it has to be said that the recent loss of coach Kalen DeBoer was, on some level, to be expected.

What should fans expect now? Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, and according to Danny O'Neil with The Dang Apostrophe, that's what UW football is now focused on.

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Coming off a successful season that brought the Huskies to the national championship, Coach DeBoer is now leaving UW football to become the new head football coach at the University of Alabama.

“We like to think of (UW) as one of the elite, cornerstone programs. We are, but not in comparison to Alabama," O'Neil told Seattle Now. "Alabama plays in the Southeastern Conference, which is considered the best quality of college football. The Big 10, where the Washington Huskies are moving, is the richest, but the SEC is where the most future NFL players are, and Alabama has two of the winningest coaches in college football history. Kalen DeBoer is going to replace one of them.”

DeBoer is being replaced by coach Jedd Fisch from the University of Arizona, and while UW may lose some players along with DeBoer, the team is also likely to gain new players who will come to Seattle for coach Fisch.

“College football is different than it was even 10 years ago. It’s easier for players to move schools," O'Neil said. "It’s always been fairly easy for coaches to move schools, but because of the volume of money involved ... you used to have five conferences, now there are really just two top conferences. The shape of the sport is starting to resemble a pyramid … everything is becoming more fluid at the college level.”

What to expect from UW football under Coach Fisch

From coach Jedd Fisch, O'Neil says UW fans can expect "a polished, buttoned-down approach. A sharp offensive mind.” But perhaps Coach Fisch's most attractive quality is what he can do off the field.

Fisch's resume covers roughly 20 years. Previously, Fisch worked under head coach Pete Carroll as the Seahawks' quarterback coach in 2010. As a college coach, he has been known as a "relentless recruiter," O'Neil said. Fisch has been able to bring high school players to the University of Arizona when it didn't have much momentum. Still, under his coaching, the team had 10 victories last season.

UW Director of Athletics Troy Dannen recently stated, as UW looked for a new football coach, leadership wanted a recruiter.

“And not just somebody who knew they had to recruit, but somebody who is maniacal about it," Dannen said. "I can say this, after every characteristic — recruiting, recruiting, recruiting is first and foremost the number one consideration in who we were looking for."

So, expect a few changes to UW football's roster in the coming seasons.

“A coach is only as good as his players, and in college sports, your ability to recruit essentially means talking 17- to 21-year-old men into the idea that it is in their best interest to come play for you at the school you coach at," O'Neil said. "College football has always been driven around cults of personality and your coach’s ability to talk players into playing for him. They say, ‘You commit to a school, not a coach.’ That’s not really true. If it ever was true, it’s certainly become less true.”

For all of the insights and takeaways about all the changes around UW football, check out Seattle Now's full episode with Danny O'Neil.

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