Huard weighs in on if UW Huskies’ Jedd Fisch could leave for Michigan

Just when it seemed like the UW Huskies might be safe from head coach Jedd Fisch coming up in coaching carousel rumors, a brand new vacancy has reopened the conversation.

Michigan is looking for a new head coach after Sherrone Moore was fired Wednesday due to what the school said was for an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.

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Fisch came up as a potential fit for both Florida and UCLA recently, but there were no reports that he was interested in either job before those positions were filled. The 49-year-old Fisch, meanwhile, tried to dispel any thought that he could leave Washington just two years after coming to Montlake from Arizona in a press conference a month ago.

There’s no telling if Fisch would be tempted to leave UW for a bigger program in the Big Ten that he has ties to, but Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard wouldn’t be surprised if Michigan looks to find out.

“I think it absolutely makes Jedd a legitimate candidate,” said Huard, a longtime college football analyst and former Huskies quarterback, of Michigan’s vacancy during Thursday’s edition of Brock and Salk. “I think it probably makes him one of three or four (candidates).”

Fisch had various offensive assistant roles on the Michigan coaching staff under Jim Harbaugh in 2015 and 2016, and has an added to his impressive resume over the past five seasons as head coach at Arizona (2021-23) and Washington.

“Jedd Fish is way up there (as a candidate),” Huard said. “He coached for Harbaugh a couple years there. He won 10 games in Arizona. He’s won six, he’s won eight, he’s building this thing (at Washington). Give him the resources and all the things that Michigan would provide at the top of the food chain from a budget standpoint, yeah, you could start to make a case there, especially this late in the hiring cycle.”

Fisch may not be Michigan’s top target of coaches who have ties to UW, though. Before Fisch, the first name to appear on the list of Michigan coaching candidates in an article by The Athletic college football reporter Bruce Feldman on Thursday morning was the man Fisch replaced on Montlake: Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer.

Huard agrees that DeBoer going to Michigan would make a lot of sense, both because of his history and the state of an Alabama program that has sky-high expectations.

“If it doesn’t go well (for Alabama) vs. Oklahoma in the playoff and they lose a fourth game – I think (Michigan) is a whole lot closer to home, to where he has been,” Huard said of DeBoer. “He was at Eastern Michigan, he was at Southern Illinois. He cut his teeth, obviously, in South Dakota, so the Midwest and that area I would think would be an incredible fit. And that’s why, if it doesn’t go well, again, in the playoff for Alabama, that could be a possibility.”

Brock Huard answers three football questions during Blue 88, a segment that typically airs at 7:45 a.m. during Brock and Salk. Catch Brock and Salk live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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