Fisch's Future still in question after LA Bowl win
1 of 2 | Jedd Fisch runs onto the field after Washington defeated Boise State 38-10 in the LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)
By Matt Calkins Seattle Times columnist
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Did the Huskies send a message, or did they send their head coach off?
Was this a launchpad for next season, or a catapult for a career?
The Huskies dominated Boise State 38-10 in the Bucked Up LA Bowl Saturday at SoFi Stadium. It was an exclamation point on the declarative sentence that was their 9-4 season.
Realistic Dawg fans couldn’t have hoped for much better given how barren the roster was after UW’s run to the national championship game two seasons ago. Head coach Jedd Fisch inherited a program that lost more personnel in school history, and in two years took the Huskies from 6-7 to 9-4 while locking down the 13th-ranked recruiting class in the country earlier this month.
But right now, Fisch’s accomplishments pale in comparison to his ambitions. Is he staying in Seattle — or heading to Ann Arbor?
That question dwarfs anything that happened between the lines Saturday. After Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was fired earlier in the week for having an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, Jedd quickly emerged as a leading candidate to replace him. Whether he is the favorite (Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham and Missouri’s Eliah Drinkwitz, among others, are in the discussion), or even wants to go, remains unclear. But Fisch is a proven winner and established recruiter who spent two years as an offensive assistant with the Wolverines.
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Granted, he said rather assertively that he wants to stay at UW when asked about a potential departure earlier in the season. He reiterated his commitment to the program the day before Saturday’s game and again after the win. His first comments in the postgame news conference were about how excited he was about the Huskies’ future. Asked if fans should read into that given how his name has been in the news, Fisch responded with the following.
“I’m fully focused on our team. Our team worked really hard this whole week and we all gave everything we had and we played at a very high level because of that. That’s all I would say on that,” Fisch said.
Coaches asked about their futures are put in an impossible position. If they’re noncommittal, they can lose recruits. If they claim to be fully devoted to the team, fans and media will lambaste them as soon as they leave. So yes, Fisch emphasized that he wants to be in the College Football Playoff with this group. He said how he’d gone from six wins to nine wins and that the goal was to notch three or four more victories next year.
But if we’re being realistic … what else was he supposed to say? Fisch never gave off Don James energy in the “I’ll be on Montlake for life” kind of way. He seems like just about any other red-blooded coach who would take a more lucrative and prestigious position if the opportunity arose.
Did he improve his chances of getting the Michigan gig Saturday if he wants it? Well, he certainly couldn’t have hurt them.
You never know how motivated each team is in a non-playoff bowl game, but the Huskies were clearly superior to the Broncos. They built a 24-3 halftime lead thanks to a pair of interceptions and three consecutive touchdown drives in the second quarter.
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They didn’t let up much when the second half began, scoring on their first drive of the third quarter and once more in the fourth to go up 38-3.
Quarterback Demond Williams Jr. earned offensive MVP honors after throwing for 214 yards and four TDs on 15-of-24 passing. That award just as easily could have gone to receiver Denzel Boston, who caught six passes for 125 yards and one touchdown. Running back Jonah Coleman added 85 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
Some might have wondered how much the starters were going to play in the second half, but they stayed in there and delivered one of the more lopsided bowl victories in UW history. Now the question is what they’ll deliver next year, and who will be wearing the helmets and headsets.
Williams, who will be a junior next season, is indisputably the future of the Huskies if he stays. If Fisch did accept an offer from Michigan, it would be tough to bring Demond with him. After all, Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood, a freshman, was the No. 1 recruit in the country. He is unlikely to be replaced as the starter. In fact, that bond between Fisch and Williams might be what keeps Jedd in Seattle, even if Michigan came calling.
Right now, of course, it’s all speculation. Washington is set up to make the playoffs, but losing Jedd would likely take a few wins off their final tally.
Huskies fans would like to have been able to enjoy this bowl and focus on a promising 2026. Instead, they’re left to wonder if another rebuild might be coming.
Fisch’s remarks about his commitment to this team have been strong. But in today’s college football landscape, one wonders if they can ever be strong enough.
Matt Calkins: mcalkins@seattletimes .com. Matt Calkins has been a sports columnist with the Seattle Times since 2015, where he has covered national title games, got a Seahawk to design his apartment and once extracted a two-word quote from Marshawn Lynch.
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Thanks Taft!
