Jedd Fisch insists his mind is 'strictly' on Washington State game amid being linked to open jobs

Two jobs opened up in college football this weekend with the respective firings of DeShaun Foster at UCLA and Brent Pry at Virginia Tech. Still, Jedd Fisch isn’t thinking about anything but Washington, and the Huskies’ next game this weekend with their rivalry in the Apple Cup.

Fisch, who hasn’t spent more than four years anywhere on his resumé to this point, addressed any job rumors that could come his way during his press conference on Monday. He turned his answer’s attention back on to Saturday’s matchup against Washington State, especially as the Cougars won over them last fall to give him his first loss as the Husky head coach.

“Yeah, I’m focused on the fact that we’re playing a team that beat us 24-19, and that is literally the only thing that I’m thinking about,” Fisch said. “We had a really tough game against them a year ago. We got stopped on the one-yard line. My mind is strictly on that.”

Fisch has spent the past quarter-century in coaching, but has moved around a lot in that career since 1999. He has been, from one to four years, with Houston, Baltimore, Denver, Seattle, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, and New England in the NFL while being at Florida, Minnesota, Miami, Michigan, UCLA, Arizona, and now Washington in college. That includes the past five seasons in Tucson and Seattle where, in his first opportunities as a head coach, Fisch is 24-28 (.463), including a 2-0 start to this season with the Huskies coming out of a bye.

UCLA is the one that is likely being more so referenced here, as it was his last collegiate job before becoming a head coach in 2021. Fisch spent 2017 as the Bruins’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach before taking over as their interim head coach for their final two games, a win over Cal in the regular-season finale and loss to Kansas State in the Cactus Bowl, after the school’s firing of Jim Mora. He also, despite coaching just about everywhere nationally at this point, has spent his past few jobs the past decade out on the west coast, which would be beneficial to that program down in Hollywood.

That said, Fisch sounded confident about where his current program stands at UW, especially when you compare it to the concerns that might be there as far as investment in either LA or Blacksburg. He knows that he can recruit players from there that’ll want to come to the Pacific Northwest.

“A lot of players want to come here recruiting-wise,” said Fisch. “A lot of players want to be a part of our program.”

Several coaches are going to hear this for the duration of this season now with two jobs already open and several more maybe projected to be later on by the time the carousel starts. But, as for the head coach of the Huskies, Fisch is focusing on Wazzu in the Apple Cup, and certainly not on where other people may think he’s going to go in the FBS.

“I don’t worry about what other coaches say about what I’m going to do,” closed Fisch.