What I learned at Jedd Fisch's introductory press conference
First impressions of Washington's new coach.
SEATTLE — Former players and curious staffers filled the room, and the band played the new football coach onto the stage, and later, he stood with the athletic director and held up a team jersey bearing his last name.
It happened at Washington on Tuesday, and it will happen at Arizona soon enough, and again at San Jose State, and also at South Alabama, and, reportedly, at Buffalo, all because it happened at Alabama last week.
Four days after it played for a national championship, UW found itself waylaid by college football’s food chain, Alabama snatching Kalen DeBoer to replace Nick Saban. Two days later, Washington wielded its own status to replace DeBoer, hiring Jedd Fisch away from an Arizona program that just won 10 games and finished ranked No. 11 nationally and had designs on chasing a Big 12 championship in 2024.
Washington more than doubled Fisch’s salary, to $7.5 million in his first season, with gradual increases thereafter. It presented to him, Fisch said, a salary pool for assistants that “allows us to be able to hire anybody we want.” And just as DeBoer left Washington to better position himself for regular championship contention, Fisch addressed UW fans this way in his initial remarks: “I chose this university because you believe that every year is a championship year. Winning in football is a priority in Seattle.”
It’s all relative, isn’t it?