Jedd Fisch addresses ongoing Jacob Manu lawsuit against NCAA

Washington head coach Jedd Fisch addressed the ongoing lawsuit involving Jacob Manu against the NCAA Tuesday. Manu, a linebacker for the Huskies, is a part of the “five for five” lawsuit against the NCAA, which petitions NCAA athletes to have five years of eligibility in all sports.

Manu was injured in mid October last season while playing for Arizona. He transferred to Washington last December to reunite with Fisch, who coached him for a few years with the Wildcats.

He’s only played in two games this year due to his final year of eligibility, while he petitions for one more in 2026. So right now, Fisch has to manage his player’s game reps with six games remaining in the regular season.

“Jacob, we’ll make a decision again, like we did last week … if we don’t know anything regarding his lawsuit, then we’ll decide this week on whether or not we’re going to use one of the two available Saturdays that we have left until the season comes to an end,” Fisch said. “We’ve used two games. That means he’s got two games available of the next six, and then the postseason doesn’t count, so that he can play the entire postseason.

“My only comment on it is, I think it’s crazy that you can get injured in October and you lose a year. You get injured in September. You have a year. You have a nine month injury, you could start the whole season. You have an 11 month injury, you have to make a decision each week on how you redshirt.” 

In two games this year, Manu has nine tackles and one tackle for loss. He set a career high with 71 tackles in 2023, his last year under Fisch while playing for Arizona. He also had 9.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and an interception that season.

“But Jacob has been a part of our family now for five years, since I started recruiting him when he was a senior in high school,” Fisch said. “I told Jacob, I will always do what’s best for him, and we will make sure that we don’t put him in a position where he misses out on opportunities through NIL, we don’t want to put him in a position where he misses out on opportunities through revenue share. We don’t want to put him in a situation where he misses out on opportunities for the NFL because of the fact that his injury happened on October (17th) rather than October (1st). 

“If it happened October (1st) last year, none of this would have been a discussion … So we’ll see whatever happens with the courts and if it works out for Jacob’s favor, then that will give us an opportunity to play him the rest of the way.”