Fisch Has No One Else to Blame: Offensive Struggles Are On Him

By taking on two roles, the Husky football leader sets himself up for all the criticism when things don't go right.

Jedd Fisch works the sideline as the UW offensive coordinator with his play sheet. | Dave Sizer photo

The question seemed to catch Jedd Fisch off guard,

Yet with the way he's set himself up with his University of Washington football team responsibilities -- as the combined head coach and offensive coordinator -- if something's not working, Fisch is definitely going to hear about it.

And lately, he has.

Injuries aside, things haven't been operating smoothly at all offensively with the Huskies offering almost no rushing game whatsoever and Fisch's quarterback getting sacked 7 times by Minnesota.

Considering how all of this has come during the least competitive part of the schedule, during three non-conference outings, and with each of the first four games held at home, this development has been overly alarming.

Fisch's media inquisitor seemed to back into the aforementioned question, casually asking the coach how things have changed since offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty and the Huskies parted ways in the offseason.

Maybe just a tad defensive, Fisch verified how the departed Dougherty was really a quarterback confidante and nothing more.

"Jimmie Dougherty was never part of the game-planning process," the coach said. "He was part of coaching the quarterbacks."

To which the obvious inference remains going back to to that original question: with so much fall-off in a one-month sample, injuries or no injuries, has Fisch taken on too much while trying to run the whole show and be an offensive mastermind all at once?

Few people if any do this sort of thing across the FBS landscape and generally if they double up with duties, these multi-tasking head coaches tend to run the defense, not the offense.

Fisch's pat answer is he likes to be the play-caller. He's always done it this way, beginning at Arizona. And he will continue to do it in this manner.

Jedd Fisch shows a little weariness while his offense hasn't been consistent in the early going. | Dave Sizer photo

"Nothing has changed," he said. "My day to day is exactly the same as it has been for the last six years."

The downside to all of this was evident when someone previously asked in a postgame exchange something specific about the defense and Fisch conceded he had been so busy with the offense he couldn't address that particular question with specifics.

Again, the Huskies have had more than their share of injuries entering the season and coming after the season began, especially to the running backs and pass receivers.

Yet it is almost solely on Fisch to fix all of the lingering shortcomings and find ways to get the remaining players to respond. He doesn't have an offensive coordinator to blame stuff on. He asked for this.

"I think it's all what we hoped would have happened," he said, referring to the play selection. "I think we would have liked to have executed better."