“Be a Pro,” the NFL, competition, brotherhood, those are all things that Jedd Fisch has emphasized early on in his tenure as the Washington Huskies’ head coach and are the things that he wants to be the focal points of his culture in Seattle.
He built his program at Arizona around the same substances and led the Wildcats to just their third 10-win season in program history. Now, at Washington, he wants to instill a similar culture, and according to running back Jonah Coleman, he has done a great job of that early on.
“It’s going to take time to build back what three years [at Arizona was], but I like where we are after six months,” the junior running back said at Big Ten Media Days. “Those are my brothers, we’re connected, and I’d die for anyone in that locker room. They’re my guys, I’ll go to war with them, I’ll fight for them.”
On the other hand, Fisch knows that the Huskies have a long way to go before they’re where he wants them to be.
“We’re still working through some things and trying to figure out what our culture is,” Fisch told NBC Sports’ Todd Blackledge.
“We established a culture where we were going to act like pros in everything we did,” he continued. “We were going to talk about professional football every single day, [the coaching staff] were going to talk about our NFL experience, we were going to bring in speakers to talk about the league and how we act, how we practice, and we’re going to use that exact same model at Washington.”
Early on, Fisch has lived up to the goals that he’s set, bringing in Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider, along with eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick, and plenty more.
Going forward, Fisch wants to continue selling the vision of the NFL on Montlake and judging by the new neon sign in Washington’s freshly rennovated weight room that reads “Be a Pro” within a purple NFL shield outline, the culture seems to be coming together quickly.