Tag: Jedd Fisch

Former UCLA TE Caleb Wilson joins Jedd Fisch’s staff at Washington

Former UCLA TE Caleb Wilson joins Jedd Fisch’s staff at Washington.

The college football coaching carousel continues to spin a bit. On Tuesday, former UCLA tight end Caleb Wilson joined Washington’s staff as a quality control coach, per Bruce Feldman of The Athletic.

Wilson was previously at Purdue but spent time playing for Fisch at UCLA when both of them were there.

Wilson was the final pick in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals but had a short career, spending time with the Washington Redskins and the Washington Football Team, Philadelphia Eagles, and Denver Broncos as well.

The Bruins had been rumored to potentially bringing Wilson to the UCLA stuff but now he is headed to Washington in the new-look Big Ten Conference.

After Jedd Fisch left Arizona for Washington in a domino effect following Kalen DeBoer’s departure to Alabama, he has put together a new-look staff with the Huskies, and Wilson is the latest piece of the puzzle.

Former Saints draft pick, Alabama football star takes high-profile college coaching job

Former Saints draft pick and Alabama football star Vinnie Sunseri has taken a high-profile college coaching job at Washington:

Here’s some good news for a former New Orleans Saints draft pick: Vinnie Sunseri has taken a high-profile college coaching job as the Washington Huskies safeties coach, where he’ll be tasked with developing the next generation of defensive backs at a West Coast powerhouse with national championship ambitions.

Things have come full circle. Sunseri was a standout at Alabama during his own college playing career, and Alabama’s decision to hire Washington’s former head coach Kalen DeBoer led to a lot of turnover for the Huskies coaching staff.

Sunseri, 32, was picked by the Saints in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft. But he struggled to get on the field after dealing with a series of injuries. He finished his NFL playing career with the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers.

After hanging up his cleats, Sunseri began a coaching career at Alabama as a graduate assistant; he returned to the Patriots in 2020 to get more experience, where he first worked with the defense before moving to the offensive side of the ball for three years coaching running backs. Now he’s going back to his roots with much more responsibility under new Washington head coach Jedd Fisch.

The job comes with high expectations. Washington is fresh off a national title bid, and the school has sent many defensive backs to the NFL draft in recent years; Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon were both top-50 picks in 2022, while Elijah Molden was selected at No. 100 overall (followed by Keith Taylor in the fifth round) in 2021. Byron Murphy and Taylor Rapp were each second-round picks in 2019 with Jordan Miller also drafted in the fifth round. Sunseri will be charged with recruiting and developing players to follow in their footsteps. Good luck to him.

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Jedd Fisch shuts down interest in UCLA opening

Jedd Fisch has shut down the rumors involving the UCLA HC interview.

There were plenty of rumors involving current Washington head coach Jedd Fisch and the UCLA head coaching job. Fisch’s photo on Saturday night created quite a stir, and other reports of him interviewing for the UCLA position created an even bigger stir.

But, those can be put to bed for good, as Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported late Sunday evening:

Saw the report that UCLA had interviewed Jedd Fisch this weekend. I reached out to Fisch who said that report could not be more false. “I had zero conversation with UCLA nor would I.”

Fisch leaving Washington for UCLA would be quite the move given he hasn’t even been with the Huskies for six weeks, not to mention the reaction from Arizona fans after he left the Wildcats to go up to the Pacific Northwest.

So, Jedd Fisch will not be the head coach at UCLA.

The big question is, who will be?

Jedd Fisch causes a stir with photo as UCLA searches for new head coach

Was Jedd Fisch in LA? Did he interview for the job? Lots of questions circulating.

The UCLA Bruins head coaching search is on. One name that probably would’ve gotten a long and hard look is current Washington HC Jedd Fisch. He recently left Arizona to go to Washington and replace Kalen DeBoer.

However, Fisch caused quite a stir on Saturday with a photo that some said was in downtown LA. Other reports mentioned that Fisch did, in fact, interview for the UCLA opening.

Fisch is an intriguing name and was UCLA’s interim HC in 2017, so returning to Westwood likely would’ve been a preference if he had waited just a few weeks.

Some speculated this photo was in LA while others insist it is in Mexico. Regardless, this photo created a big discussion on social media.

But, the oddly-timed photo and other reports sure caused a stir on Saturday.

Arizona offensive lineman withdraws from the transfer portal, gives Jedd Fisch another loss

Raymond Pulido is staying in Tucson with Brent Brennan.

The Washington Huskies and coach Jedd Fisch continue to not land a number of high-value Arizona targets. The latest Wildcat to stay in Tucson instead of transferring out of the program: offensive lineman Raymond Pulido. The decision is yet another in a series of portal reversals from Fisch’s Arizona players, who have been split in their reactions to Fisch’s move to Seattle. Some have followed him, but many others have not. Pulido is the latest.

This is yet another instance not only of Arizona retaining a key roster piece for its move to the Big 12 in 2024, but of Washington not adding to its own pool of resources for the Huskies’ first season in the Big Ten. It’s good news for USC, Oregon, UCLA, and the rest of the Big Ten.

Washington was always going to lose Michael Penix, Rome Odunze, and other elite prospects to the NFL draft, but the Fisch move from Tucson was supposed to bring a tsunami of players from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest. It hasn’t been a tsunami. Maybe a small-to-modest-size wave, but nothing overwhelming. Is Fisch privately concerned about this, or will he calmly make the requisite portal adjustments to fully stock his 2024 UW roster? It’s a fascinating question.

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Portal News: Quarterback Will Rogers renews his commitment to Washington

Will Rogers won’t leave the Washington Huskies after all.

Following Kalen DeBoer’s departure for Alabama, the Washington Huskies were left with an uncertain quarterback situation. Will Rogers, who ranks second only to Aaron Murray in SEC history for passing yards, had transferred to play for DeBoer and chose to re-enter the transfer portal after the coaching change.

New Huskies coach Jedd Fisch then witnessed four-star quarterback Austin Mack, who was ranked 73rd overall by 247Sports, join Rogers in the portal. Late last week, Mack committed to Alabama, which paved the way for Rogers’ return.

Rogers told ESPN that Fisch’s NFL pedigree sold him. “That’s the plan. Coach Fisch told me today, ‘I want to treat you like a professional football player.’ I told him that’s what I want, and that’s what I’m looking to do.”

With over 13 years of experience in the NFL, Fisch primarily served as an offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. His two most recent coaching positions were with the Rams, where he worked as the assistant offensive coordinator under Sean McVay, and with the Patriots, where he held the role of quarterbacks coach.

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Arizona tight end, a former four-star recruit, stays with Brent Brennan and Wildcats

The mass exodus from Tucson to Seattle has not really materialized, at least not the way many thought it would.

The Arizona Wildcats are losing some players to the Washington Huskies, but they are retaining plenty of players instead of watching them follow Jedd Fisch to Seattle. New Arizona coach Brent Brennan has done an admirable job of securing players from the Wildcats’ roster. There hasn’t been a dramatic transfer portal exodus from Tucson, certainly not as large as initially feared by U of A fans. Yes, the roster is losing some depth from its 2023 iteration, but not nearly as much as first thought.

Two more Arizona players withdrew their names from the transfer portal on Monday, increasing the Wildcats’ chances of being able to compete with Utah and others for the 2024 Big 12 championship. Tight ends Keyan Burnett and Dorian Thomas both decided to run it back alongside quarterback Noah Fifita and star receiver Tetairoa McMillan. Arizona’s offense should be really good, and the Wildcats — while not the likely 2024 Big 12 favorite (that would be Utah with Cam Rising coming back at quarterback after missing all of 2023 with an injury) — are legitimately still in the hunt. Their roster has not been decimated to the extent many experts worried about.

Washington’s failure to grab all the important pieces from the Arizona roster and bring them to Montlake to play for Jedd Fisch is a clear benefit for USC. The Trojans visit Washington next November as part of the Big Ten football schedule.

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Arizona parts ways with AD Dave Heeke citing ‘operational mismanagement’ among other reasons

Well, that escalated quickly.

It hasn’t been a great six months for the Arizona Wildcats. Despite the news that the University would be moving to a new conference along with Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah.

In recent months it has been reported that UA miscalculated their budget by $240 million. It could be a huge indicator of why they were unable to extend Jedd Fisch and he ultimately left for the Washington Huskies.

According to multiple reports including Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, Heeke was fired for “financial & operational mismanagement, resulting in an athletic department financial ‘disaster,’ loss of major donors & mishandling of former coach Jedd Fisch’s contract.”

The last act as athletic director for Dave Heeke was the hiring of former San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan to run the Wildcats program. Brennan played for UCLA from 1993 to 1994. He joined the Wildcats staff as a graduate assistant in 2000 before taking on a larger role with Cal Poly in 2001. Brennan was part of the San Jose State staff from 2005 to 2010 and returned as head coach in 2017.

He is 0-3 in bowl games and 34-48 overall in seven seasons. Perhaps this was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Heeke as far as the administration was concerned. Mike Candrea will be the acting AD in the meantime per 247Sports’ Jason Scheer.

Jedd Fisch preached loyalty to his Arizona players; now he’s paying a price for it

If Fisch assumed his Arizona players would follow him en masse to Seattle, he made a bad calculation.

One of the core values Jedd Fisch tried to communicate to his Arizona football players over the past few seasons was loyalty. Fisch made that an important part of his messaging to the Wildcats. Therefore, when Fisch took the open head coaching job with the Washington Huskies, he probably assumed his players would follow him to Montlake out of a sense of loyalty. It wasn’t the worst assumption to make. Plenty of us who follow college football know that in many cases, players play for a coach more than a university.

We saw this at USC when Tackett Curtis and Domani Jackson transferred out of the program rather than play for the new incoming defensive coaching staff. Alex Grinch and especially Donte Williams forged strong relationships with some recruits. Those recruits wanted to play for those coaches, not other ones. This is true at other schools as well.

However, at the University of Arizona, Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan wanted to be Wildcats in the same way Miller Moss wants to be a Trojan. Some players really do play for the school, not the coach. Fisch is not retaining nearly as many players in Seattle as he hoped he would. Arizona is not losing players the way it feared it would.

See what’s being said about Arizona’s roster holding up surprisingly well due to loyalty — to a school, not a coach:

Arizona running back Jonah Coleman transfers to Washington to join Jedd Fisch

Arizona is retaining some players, but not all of them. Washington and Jedd Fisch are getting in on the action.

Arizona football fans rejoiced on Saturday when they learned that quarterback Noah Fifita and receiver Tetairoa McMillan stayed in Tucson and refused to join former coach Jedd Fisch with the Washington Huskies. Arizona has done reasonably well in terms of retaining quality players for 2024 and its first Big 12 season under new coach Brent Brennan. However, some losses are going to occur. One is running back Jonah Coleman.

Arizona’s Rivals site has more on the departure of Coleman to Seattle, where Fisch will try to pick up the pieces for a Washington roster which itself has been gutted by the NFL draft and by the fact that previous coach Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama.

We wrote about Washington last week:

“Washington knows that the elite players who stayed for the 2023 season and lifted the Huskies to the national championship game will be going to the 2024 NFL draft. Rome Odunze is a surefire first-round draft pick. Other Huskies will be taken in the first 100 picks and give Washington a significant presence at the draft.”

USC has a chance to pick off Arizona and Washington players in the portal. We will see how these player movements continue to unfold.

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