Hasselbeck, Huard share thoughts on UW Huskies coach Jedd Fisch

Jan 15, 2024, 12:36 PM

Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch during a game against USC on Oct. 29, 2022. (Chris Coduto/Getty Images)

(Chris Coduto/Getty Images)

Seattle Sports

Jedd Fisch may be new to fans of the UW Huskies, but the man Washington hired as its head football coach on Sunday is not new to Seattle.

Kalen DeBoer emotional about leaving UW Huskies at Bama intro

In 2010, Fisch served as quarterbacks coach under Pete Carroll with the Seattle Seahawks. The starting quarterback that season for the Hawks was Matt Hasselbeck, who joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Monday morning.

Asked about Fisch, Hasselbeck made it clear he’s a fan.

“I love Jedd Fisch. I really think highly of him. He’s incredibly smart,” said the Seahawks legend. “He’s earned this opportunity, it’s not something that was given to him. He’s been everywhere.”

That last part is certainly true. Prior to his three seasons with the Arizona Wildcats, his first stint as a head coach, Fisch made a dozen stops between the college and NFL coaching ranks. Among the more notable positions he held are New England Patriots QB coach, UCLA offensive coordinator (and a brief stint as interim coach), OC with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and wide receivers coach for the Denver Broncos.

“He coached for (former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, he coached for (Los Angeles Rams head coach) Sean McVay, he coached for (former Florida coach) Steve Spurrier and (former Baltimore Ravens coach) Brian Billick and Pete Carroll – really everybody,” Hasselbeck said. “He’s a Mike Shanahan guy, to me, because when I met him and he was my quarterback coach, he was basically coming from the Denver Broncos with the Mike Shanahan tree of guys. Now he has definitely grown and evolved and changed as a coach since that time, but his players love him and I would just say he’s a really, really intelligent football coach and I’m excited for his opportunity.”

Listen to the full Brock and Salk conversation with Matt Hasselbeck in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.

Huard on the hire

Hasselbeck wasn’t the only former Seahawks QB in the conversation Monday, as Brock Huard was on the other end in his role of Brock and Salk co-host. Huard, who is a UW alum and current FOX college football analyst, was asked earlier in the show by Mike Salk if Fisch was the best choice for the Huskies’ job that had become open Friday when Kalen DeBoer went to Alabama.

“They got the best guy for the job right now that they could, yes,” Huard replied.

It was a quick turnaround by first-year Washington athletic director Troy Dannen to replace DeBoer, and it was necessary. The Huskies had a roller-coaster week that began with a loss to Michigan last Monday in the College Football Playoff National Championship, and when DeBoer left it was known that the cupboard was being left pretty bare when it comes to UW’s roster with more departures in the transfer portal likely.

“The more that I thought about this, and certainly for Troy and the school, they had to make a move, they had to make it quickly,” Huard said. “(They had) to get somebody in that situation, in that conference to say, ‘No, no, I’d rather go there. And I’m gonna bring some of these resources here, and I’m connected on the West Coast, and I know coaches… I lived up in Bellevue when I coached for the Seahawks. My wife and girls are going to love it. This is a place that you can obviously win at. They’ve been to a semifinal and a final in the last six, seven years.'”

For more, listen in the player below.