Washington head coach Jedd Fisch shuts down UCLA rumors

The Washington Huskies’ head coach was rumored to be interviewed for the UCLA job, but what really happened?

Washington Huskies’ head coach Jedd Fisch was swept up in rumors on X (formerly Twitter) about his involvement in UCLA’s open head coaching position following Chip Kelly’s departure to take the Ohio State offensive coordinator job.

Reports went around that Fisch interviewed for the job while on vacation with his wife in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

While outlets suggested that Fisch was approached by UCLA about the position and there was some kind of preliminary discussion with Washington’s new head coach during his time in Mexico, it can hardly be called an interview.

It appears Fisch shut down any possibility of moving from Seattle to Los Angeles rather quickly, especially since the resources he appears to have available to him in Seattle would be far superior to anything the Bruins would be able to offer him. He then took to X to offer his own response to the social media frenzy.

“If UCLA had come open in this cycle before Washington, I think we’re living in a world where he is the Bruins head coach right now,” Arizona Varsity’s Jacob Seliga said on X. “UCLA knew that he’d definitely entertain the job. But the financial aspect made it to where this was never reasonable for UCLA to pursue anyway. Fisch has way more NIL/financial support at his disposal in Seattle compared to what he’d have in LA. From what I had heard, it was literally a ‘hey we want you’, ‘no thank you I’m happy where I’m at’ type of conversation that occurred.”

Seliga went on to say that UCLA will “run with it as an interview,” however, it should be defined as nothing more than UCLA’s athletic director Martin Jarmond doing his due diligence.

UPDATE: The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported that he spoke directly to Fisch on Sunday who told him, “I had zero conversation with UCLA nor would I.”