Potential Michigan football coaching candidate reportedly no longer being pursued

On Tuesday, multiple reports began to surface about Washington coach Jedd Fisch no longer being considered by the Wolverines as a candidate for the open head football coaching position at Michigan.

Although it's still unclear as to why Michigan is seemingly moving off of him as a consideration, college football analyst Josh Pate seemed to confirm the reports on his show that Fisch is unlikely to be a factor in the Wolverines' search moving forward.

"There's been some sentiment about Jedd Fisch," Pate said. "There's been some though this week—and granted, it's only Tuesday (at the time of his show). But there's been some thought this week that Jedd Fisch's name may be climbing. And that's because Michigan was taking a hard look at him.

"There's been some sentiment today that maybe Jedd Fisch's name has cooled. I think that's accurate. And I think they've done a fairly good job, especially if you're on The Fort (On3's The Wolverine) on the message boards over there, I think they've done a fairly good job of detailing that. Not necessarily details that I think it's important for us to dive into—it's more minutiae based.

"The critical take home points here are—I don't know that Jedd Fisch is going to be a factor in the Michigan search moving forward. He's got himself a good job at Washington. It's one of the better jobs in the Big Ten. In fact, Jedd Fisch may have one of the more underrated jobs in the country. So, it's not like he needs to be desperate to leave Washington. But I think his name was a factor, I'm not so sure it's going to be a factor moving forward."

Fisch's history at Michigan and where Wolverines go from here

Fisch was considered a quality candidate for the job due to his extensive background in coaching, which includes four different NFL stops and coaching at seven different college programs.

He was the head coach at Arizona from 2021-23 and led a turnaround for the Wildcats under his watch before becoming the head coach of the Huskies in 2024.

In the 2015-16 season, Fisch served as Michigan's passing game coordinator while also helping with the quarterbacks and wide receivers in his only year with the Wolverines under former head coach Jim Harbaugh.

With Fisch apparently now likely off the board, it looks like the Wolverines will turn to other names of interest.

Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham and Alabama's Kalen DeBoer still seem to be the names that are being thrown around the most during Michigan's search.

During his show, Pate discussed Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz as a name that is involved.

Former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who is now in the same role with Harbaugh's LA Chargers, also seems like a possibility, but the NFL Chargers likely making the playoffs could make things tricky timeline wise to make that happen. Plus, Minter is very likely to be considered for an NFL job in the near future, meaning the Wolverines would likely have to compete against other NFL teams to hire him.

The clock is ticking with the winter transfer portal window beginning on Jan. 2, so whoever Michigan hires, ideally it would be done before that date comes up.

— Sign up for the Michigan Daily Digest newsletter for more free coverage fromMichigan Wolverines on SI —

Jim Harbaugh discusses texts to Sherrone Moore after firing from Michigan

Michigan football interim head coach says players feel 'very betrayed'