Fisch Finally Addresses Ongoing Job Speculation Involving Him

Every so often someone sneaks in a question to Jedd Fisch regarding the ongoing speculation tying him to a handful of college football job openings and each time he dismisses it practically with the wave of a hand.

Until Monday.

Seemingly having let this situation fester some, the second-year University of Washington football coach was ready with a lengthy response at his regular week-opening media session, which was rapid-fire and offered his first public explanation as to why his wife and two daughters live apart from him in Arizona.

"Those lists are made by people that have no idea what's going on," Fisch said. "They don't know what's happening in our program. They have no idea how excited I am about the youth in our program. They have no idea how excited I am about the fact that we're playing six to seven true freshmen. [They have] no idea how excited I am about the fact that Demond Williams has a chance over the next year or two years after this to be one of the all-time best quarterbacks that have come through this area."

For those who haven't been reading or listening to the rumor mill, the Husky coach has been name-dropped over and over for the openings at Florida, where he received his undergraduate degree and was a Steve Spurrier graduate assistant, and at UCLA, where he was an interim coach and the offensive coordinator for Jim Mora.

Fisch, in the second year of a seven-year contract that pays him $7.75 million annually. continued on with his explanation for why he wouldn't be leaving any time soon. He bought up all the costly facilities upgrades that the school has made at his request.

"I don't think they would know how I enjoy coaching here, that we've spent a ton of money into building this program the way we want to build it," he said. "I had a great hand in all the facilities. I was a big part of making the decisions on how we wanted to recreate this space to give our players an unbelievable opportunity to have a recovery room they never had, working on making sure they have the best nutrition they could possibly have, [and] give them great new meeting rooms, new office spaces for our coaches."

Fisch complained that the list-makers just randomly throw names around and hurt his program in the process, forcing him and his staff to waste needless time defending themselves behind the scenes, especially to potential recruits.

Jedd Fisch twists and turns during an Apple Cup play in Pullman. | Dave Sizer photo

"I think unfortunately what happens is they just want to tie coaches to lists and then we have to sit there and defend it rather than just tell our fans that our players, our coaching staff, myself, my family -- we love coaching at the University of Washington," he said. "The ridiculousness of people that want to claim that, because my wife and daughters are living in Arizona because I have a 16-year old who has been in five different schools the last eight years to finish her high school, has anything to do with my decision. Or the ridiculousness of just putting my name on a list just to do it, not only it does affect recruiting, it affects our team, it affects our staff."

Fair enough.

However, what Fisch doesn't take into effect here is the fact he's been incredibly mobile and ambitious throughout his college and NFL coaching career, staying no longer than four years in any one job, so he's inadvertently made himself a ready target for endless speculation.

What he fails to recognize, too, is his Husky coaching predecessor, Kalen DeBoer, practically was on a jet to Alabama with the Huskies' national championship appearance barely in the books and having spent just two years on the job. Fisch is paying for the residue of that move.

Jedd Fisch, plays in hand, walks out onto the field during the Ohio State game. | Dave Sizer photo

And what Fisch has to know all too well is the family of previous UW athletic director Troy Dannen, the man who hired him, didn't care for Seattle and he couldn't get out of town quick enough to placate his spouse and kids, leaving after six months for a job at Nebraska.

So while the Fisch job speculation can be unfair and certainly negative for his program, it's unfortunately become part of the college game these days. It's almost hard to believe that anyone is going to stay anywhere for long, or be allowed to do that, especially when people in the game are so mobile, coaches and players alike. And the demands to win have never been greater across the board.

Meantime, Fisch fights the good fight in selling himself as a long-term Husky football coach.

"My hope is that our players, our coaches, our families understand how much we love it at Washington," he said.

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