UCLA Football Preview: Will Saturday's Game Determine Jedd Fisch's Future?
The Huskies' head coach is thought to be near the top of UCLA's list of head coaching candidates.
Jedd Fisch is now in his second season as the head coach of the Washington Huskies. Last season, in the wake of an appearance in the CFP Championship Game and the subsequent departure of Fisch’s predecessor Kalen DeBoer, the Huskies finished with a 6-7 record. This season, they’ve already won more games than last season.
There h as been a lot of speculation that Fisch may not be in Washington past this season. Apparently, his wife Amber moved back to Arizona with their daughter. While Fisch has attempted to claim this was so that their daughter could finish high school in a familiar setting, many have speculated that Mrs. Fisch didn’t care for life in Seattle. Personally, I’m not buying the “she didn’t like Seattle” line. After all, Fisch spent a year in Seattle back in 2010 when he worked for the Seahawks. Not only that, but he’s also coached teams in Denver, Minneapolis, Michigan and New England, and none of those locations are known for having great weather.
That said, LA and Tucson were the only two cities where Fisch has stayed more than two seasons since 2008. He spent a season at UCLA and two seasons with the Rams and then he spent three seasons as the head coach of the Wildcats. So, who knows?
Despite the fact that the Huskies struggled in Year One under Fisch, both of Fisch’s coordinators left after last season. That’s because Brennan Carroll joined his dad’s staff with the Raiders while Stephen Belichick joined his dad’s staff with the North Carolina.
In place of Carroll, Fisch promoted Jimmie Dougherty to offensive coordinator. Fisch and Dougherty go back to Fisch’s time at Michigan. Of course, Dougherty had agreed to join the staff at Oregon, but he changed his mind so that he could re-join Fisch in Westwood. Dougherty stayed with the Bruins until Fisch got the job at Arizona, and he re-joined Fisch again in Tucson. So, it really isn’t surprising that, when the guy who had been Fisch’s OC for his time at Arizona and his first year in Washington opted to leave, he promoted the guy who he’s worked with at four different schools.
On the other hand, following the departure of Belichick, Fisch went outside his current staff and hired former Purdue head coach Ryan Walters. While Walters may not have been successful as a head coach with the Boilermakers, he was hired by Purdue after extremely successful stints as the defensive coordinator at both Illinois and Missouri.
This season, Walters has the Huskies ranked 21st in the nation in total defense, 20th in rushing defense, 51st in passing yards allowed, and tied for 58th in red zone defense. He runs a 4-2-5 nickel as the Huskies’ base defense.
Dougherty and Fisch aren’t the only two Washington coaches with Bruin connections. Former Bruin outside linebackers coach Jason Kaufusi left Westwood to join Fisch’s staff in Arizona and he followed Fisch to Seattle where he is now the Huskies’ run game coordinator and defensive line coach.
Additionally, two of Washington’s quality control coaches have UCLA connections. The first is defensive quality control coach Martell Irby. Irby, of course, started his collegiate career as a Bruin running back in 2018 before switching to defensive back in 2021. Irby had actually struggled with mental health and retired from football before transferring to Arizona as a walk-on when Fisch became head coach.
Irby isn’t the only Washington quality control coach with a UCLA connection. The other is none other than J.P. Losman. Now, some readers may say “Who?” while others may say, “He didn’t go to UCLA. He went to Tulane.” For those of you saying either of those right now, Losman was recruited to UCLA by Bob Toledo’s staff in the 1999 recruiting class, and he even enrolled early in Spring Quarter 1999 to compete for the starting quarterback job. But Losman was unable to win the competition as a true freshman and he left Westwood in July and eventually transferred to Tulane. This is another one of those situations in UCLA history which may have significantly altered the course of the program. If Losman had won the starting job, what might have happened in what became the final years of the Toledo era? Might the team have been able to have won enough games that UCLA’s then-new athletic director Dan Guerrero would have not fired Toledo in 2002? Would that have prevented the Karl Dorrel era entirely? It’s another one of those “What if?” situations that may have substantially changed the history of Bruin football. And, we will never know what would have been different.
Let’s look at the Washington special teams.
Special Teams
Senior Grady Gross will handle the field goal duties for Washington on Saturday. Gross is 7 of 10 on field goal attempts this season and he’s a perfect 46 of 46 on PATs. His season long this year was a 51-yarder against Washington State. Two of his three misses were attempts in the 30 to 39 yard range while the third was over 50.
While Gross has also kicked off seven times this season, junior transfer Ethan Moczulski has been the kickoff specialist for the bulk of Washington’s kickoffs. Moczulski has kicked off 55 times with an average of 64.22 yards per kickoff, and he’s had 40 of those land for touchbacks. Moczulski comes to Washington after starting his college career at Texas A&M and playing last season at Illinois. By comparison, Gross’ seven kickoffs have averaged 56.14 yards per kickoff even though four have been touchbacks.
Australian sophomore punter Luke Dunne joined the Huskies this season after spending the last two seasons at Oregon. He is averaging 39.76 yards per punt on his 21 punts and his longest was a 56-yard punt against Ohio State. Three of his punts have been longer than 50 yards while four have landed inside the 20 and four have been fair caught. Just two of his punts have gone into the end zone for touchbacks.
Sophomore running back Adam Mohammed has returned 15 of the Huskies’ 22 kickoff returns. Mohammed is averaging 25.6 yards per return. While his longest this year was a 41-yard return against Ohio State, he has returns longer than 30 yards in three othher games.
Senior running back Jonah Coleman has returned three kickoffs including a long of 26 yards, and he is averaging 19 yards per return. While four other Huskies have returned a kickoff, none of them were longer than 18 yards.
Junior wide receiver Denzel Boston has return eight of Washington’s 13 punts. Boston returned one of them 78 yards for a touchdown. So, he is a dangerous return man. Overall, he is averaging 13 yards per punt return.
Rahshawn Clark and Dezman Roebuck have each returned two punts. Clark’s returns were 17 yards and 12 yards while Roebuck’s were 5 yards and zero yards. Anthony Ward is the final Husky to return a punt. His only return was 16 yards in length.
Go Bruins!!!
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