Jedd Fisch explains adding Steve Belichick to staff without college experience
One of the most important things for a new head coach is bringing in the right staff to succeed, and that’s no different for the new Washington Huskies head coach, Jedd Fisch. One of those hires that Fisch made was a big splash, bringing in Steve Belichick to be the team’s defensive coordinator.
Fisch spoke about the hire during an appearance on Andy Staples On3, explaining the addition despite Belichick not having college experience.
“Steve’s great. Steve’s like, ‘What acronym is this again? What is this acronym you guys are talking about?” We have an academic meeting going on,” Jedd Fisch said. “But, first of all, you’ve got to be a great football coach. That’s the number one prerequisite for us hiring a coach at Washington. You better be a good coach. You better have shown your ability to make players better and develop players. That’s why hiring Steve was a coup in some regard and a huge win for our program in others.”
As his name suggests, Steve Belichick is the son of Bill Belichick and he’s been a coach on his father’s staff in New England since 2012. That includes time as the team’s defensive coordinator. That’s also where his connection to Jedd Fisch stems from, with Fisch coaching in New England during that time.
“He called the defense for four years at the Patriots. In those four years, it was the number one total defense over a four-year span. Yes, he’s coached in the NFL 12 years. Prior to that, he was a college student, at Rutgers, as a long snapper for Greg Schiano. What I think we got from Steve is we got this ability to put a system in that we know is gonna work.”
One major challenge for an NFL coach going to college is learning how to recruit. However, as someone who did it himself after spending most of his career in the NFL, Jedd Fisch isn’t worried about it with his assistants who haven’t done it before.
“Then, recruiting is not difficult. Recruiting just takes time. If you have guys that work hard and are committed to working hard, anybody can recruit. It’s just the want to work hard. I brought in Vinnie Sunseri as well from the NFL, but Vinnie’s dad [Sal Sunseri] is one of the most well-known college coaches there is. So, Vinnie grew up in it. Vinnie saw his dad recruit with maps and pay phones. Now to cellphones and now to laptops to iPads to text messaging. So, I wasn’t worried at all in that regard, but I wanted great ball coaches. Then, we brought in Robert Bala from Alabama, and he was a linebacker coach for Nick Saban. So, I felt very confident that he understood that, but he was from the West Coast,” Fisch said.
“Then, everyone else I brought, I coached with at Arizona. They were all on our staff for three years each. So, we brought 21 staff members from Arizona and came and joined our program here and we built it the way we wanted it.”