By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Jedd Fisch gives state of the program press conference.

Husky head football coach Jedd Fisch sat down with the media   Monday morning and gave a state of the program press conference.  Since the Huskies played their last football game, a  35-34 loss to  Louisville in last year’s Sun Bowl, there have been many changes. Both Coordinators moved on and took coaching positions under their fathers. Offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll is with the Las Vegas Raiders, who are coached by Pete  Carroll.  Defensive coordinator   Steve  Belichick is  with  North Carolina, who are coached by  Bill Belichick

NEW HUSKY COACHES

In their place, Fisch announced that current quarterback coach Jimmie Dougherty would replace Carroll as the offensive coordinator and that Ryan Walters would step in as the defensive coordinator to replace Belichick. The Walters hire was announced on January 3rd. The Dougherty promotion was announced during Monday’s press conference.

In addition to  Dougherty, Fisch announced several other promotions.   OL coach Michael Switzer was promoted to full-time OL.  While not an internal candidate, former O’Dea  High School and USC star Taylor Mays was named the new safeties coach to replace  Vinnie Sunseri, who left  Washington for Florida. Mays’s father, Stafford Mays, played for the Huskies from 1978 -1979 and spent eight years in the NFL.”

MOVING PARTS AND LOOKING FORWARD

The usual off-the-cuff Fisch started the press conference by saying that he had prepared some notes to ensure he did not miss anything.

“I wanted to take this moment and just address what the last month has looked like, where we are as a team, what our plans are moving forward. Also want to make sure that I get to address a few other parts of our plans with the program, with the spring game, with our clinic with our head coaches, the social that we’re hosting,” said Fisch . So I made some notes, usually don’t do that but wanted to make sure I hit on everything. It’s been since December 31st since we spoke at the bowl game so clearly there’s some things to hit on.”

After congratulating  Carroll and Belichick on their promotions, Fisch addressed the hiring of his two coordinators.

“I want to let you know that I’m extremely excited about the stability of our offensive staff, our running backs coach, our wide receiver coach, our tight end coach, and our-now offensive coordinator, Jimmie Dougherty have all been together for five years. Extremely excited to also promote Mike Switzer  to be our offensive line coach whom we’ve been together for four years. Switz has been with us in 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023, and 2024. He had an opportunity to lead his room at John Carroll as the offensive coordinator/o-line coach,  Indiana State as the offensive coordinator/o-line coach, and now he’ll have the chance to be our offensive line coach here at the University of Washington.


RYAN WALTERS

When it came to replacing Belichick Fisch pointed out that Walters was his first choice.

“On the defensive side, I’m extremely honored to introduce our new defensive coordinator…Ryan Walters is probably the best defensive coordinator in the country. Hiring Ryan was a huge priority for us. He was the candidate I went after immediately after having the final conversation with Steve (Belichick) that he chose to go to North Carolina.

Steve and I spoke about what we needed here. Steve was an amazing ally and amazing friend, and we certainly felt that everything Ryan had to offer is perfect for what we needed. 24 interceptions in 2022. The No. 9 defense in third-down defense and the No. 1 red zone defense in the country, all inhave first and second-round talents.”

FULL ROSTER

 In addition to a full staff, Fisch pointed out that he was excited about the number of players participating in the team’s spring ball. “Other than our staff, I’m also excited to say that we are in a fantastic position with our team, said Fisch.  “We will have 85 scholarship players participating in spring ball. Last year, we had 61. We will have 16 transfers that will all be participating in spring ball.”

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