It’s no secret that the Washington team that takes the field on August 31 against Weber State will be significantly different than the one fans saw fall to Michigan in the National Championship game in January. In the seven months and change between those two games, the Huskies had their coaching staff leave for Alabama, sent 13 players to the NFL, and scattered other pieces of their roster across the country.
Jedd Fisch knows all of this, and he knows it will be a challenge to live up to those expectations. At Big Ten media days, he acknowledged the unique position this job puts him and the Huskies roster in.
We have to build on all of that success with a brand-new team, something that’s never been done before in college football. We will have 46 new scholarship athletes on a team that competed in the National Championship. We’ll have an entire new coaching staff, an entire new training staff, an entire new strength staff, an entire new nutrition staff, and 21 of 22 new starters on August 31st. That has never been done before, and we’re excited about that challenge.
We have four players on our team that recorded one start, and we are now starting over, and it’s a true reboot, but so is college football. It is a whole lot of new. Everything that we’re dealing with now with revenue sharing, NIL, with all the changes in the roster size, we believe it is the perfect time to rebrand and reboot.
That one returning starter is linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala, who will be joined by Carson Bruener in the middle of the Washington defense. Cornerback Elijah Jackson could also count as a returning starter depending on how you view the impending battle in fall camp between him and Thaddeus Dixon for a starting spot opposite Arizona transfer Ephesians Prysock.
Either way, Fisch makes a good point. It’s exceedingly rare that a national championship-level squad endures this much turnover in a single offseason, largely because those teams are established powers not in danger of losing coaches to bigger programs. Only two players from Washington’s opening two deep on offense last season are back – wide receiver Denzel Boston and center Landen Hatchett.
It’s a little less bleak on defense, where nine members of the two deep are back, including Tuputala, Bruener, Jackson, Dixon, defensive tackle Jacob Bandes, edge rusher Voi Tunuufi, and safeties Kamren Fabiculanan, Makell Esteen, and Tristan Dunn. At least half of those players will be expected to step into starting roles or more – Bruener and Fabiculanan were two of Washington’s three player representatives at Big Ten media days alongside Fisch.
Fisch is correct, however, that they aren’t the only ones dealing with larger-scale changes on the horizon. The NCAA announced a scholarship increase from 85 to 105 the week of media days and NIL continues to be an enigmatic issue in some college buildings.
But if Fisch’s tenure to this point is any indication, Washington is on the right track. The Huskies have been hyperactive in the transfer portal – partly a necessity due to their roster attrition – and Fisch has been vocal about the need for Washington to bring their NIL funding more in line with the power players in the Big Ten. The Huskies have also recruited strongly – their 2025 class is currently ranked No. 18 in the 247Sports Composite.
It’s all setting up for Washington to re-emerge as a major player on the national stage. The next step is for Fisch to prove it on the field.