{"id":72198,"date":"2025-02-04T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=72198"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:39:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:39:03","slug":"washingtons-jedd-fisch-discusses-winter-football-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/02\/04\/washingtons-jedd-fisch-discusses-winter-football-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington\u2019s Jedd Fisch Discusses Winter Football Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington football coaching staff is back in town after several weeks of recruiting across the country. On Monday afternoon, the media met with head coach Jedd Fisch, the offensive and defensive staff, and several of the players in a Winter press conference. Fisch broke down all that had transpired since the bowl game, introduced the new members of the coaching staff, and set dates for Spring practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s Jedd Fisch Discusses Winter Football Updates<\/h2>\n

Jimmie Dougherty Named Offensive Coordinator<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The biggest news from the day was the announcement of Washington\u2019s next offensive coordinator. Jimmie Dougherty will be the next offensive coordinator of the Washington Huskies while maintaining his role as the quarterbacks coach. Just hours before the press conference began, Brennan Carroll was announced as the Las Vegas Raiders\u2019 offensive line coach. Carroll and Fisch had been on the same staff since 2020 and were together in 2011 and 2012 prior to that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the decision to promote Dougherty from within was the immediate move for Fisch. \u201cI did not speak to one [other] person about a position on our offensive staff,\u201d Fisch said on Monday. He made it clear that Dougherty was the only name he considered for the job when the position opened up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving Jimmie as our offensive coordinator means a great deal to me,\u201d Fisch said. The new Husky coordinator was the first person who joined Fisch\u2019s staff at Arizona. Dougherty was also the first person he reached out to when discussing the coaching opportunity at Washington a year ago. Fisch and Dougherty were together in 2016 and 2017 at Michigan and at UCLA as well. The relationship between the two extends into recruiting. Former UCLA wide receivers Kyle Philips and Chase Cota, as well as quarterbacks Noah Fifita and Demond Williams Jr.<\/a> at Arizona, were all recruited by the duo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan Walters Introduced as Defensive Coordinator<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fisch emphasized that the coaching search was the same process on the defensive side of the ball. \u201cI did not speak to more than one person for a position as our defensive coordinator,” he said. Ryan Walters was named the team\u2019s defensive coordinator<\/a> shortly after the bowl game. He was the candidate that Fisch pursued immediately after having the final conversation with Steve Belichick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRyan Walters is probably the best defensive coordinator in the country.\u201d Fisch pointed to his head coaching experience as one of the most significant factors, along with his success as the defensive coordinator at Illinois. The four College Football Playoff semifinal teams each had a former head coach as one of the team\u2019s coordinators. Fisch addressed this, adding that having a coordinator with head coaching experience allows for a greater perspective of what needs to get done program-wide. That perspective allows a coordinator to get the best out of their individual staff without losing track of the goals of the team. \u201cTo bring somebody in with head coaching experience [is] critical to our success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At Illinois, Walters constructed a group that was number one in scoring defense (12.3 points per game), interception defense (24 total), and red zone defense (11 touchdowns allowed, fewest in the nation). Fisch listed these, and every other accolade that the Illinois defense achieved<\/a> that season, reiterating his excitement for Walters on his staff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Husky Player Updates<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Washington will have 85 scholarship players participating in Spring football this season. Last season, the program had just 61. This group includes 16 Winter transfer portal additions like Omari Evans<\/a>, CJ Christian, Tacario Davis<\/a>, and Anterio Thompson<\/a>. In total, there are 110 players available for Spring practice in April.<\/span><\/p>\n

The offensive line will look significantly different this Spring compared to what it looked like last year. There will be 18 offensive linemen available for Spring practice. Last year, there were just nine. At times, there were as few as seven offensive linemen suited up due to injury. Right now, Fisch said they like where they are, and don\u2019t have an immediate interest in bringing in any other players on the offensive line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Coaching Changes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In addition to the coordinator announcements and introductions, Fisch addressed the other coaching changes for Washington football on Monday. The new offensive line coach will be Mike Switzer, taking over Carroll’s duties for the position. On the defensive side of the ball, Taylor Mays will be the new safeties coach, replacing Vinnie Sunseri. Mays previously coached at USC. John Richardson was promoted from cornerbacks coach to defensive backs coach, and Aaron Van Horn was elevated to the outside linebackers coach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dawgs After Dark<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A handful of programs around the nation are considering canceling Spring games to avoid speculation of tampering.\u00a0 \u201cWe will not do that,\u201d Fisch said on Monday. \u201cWe want to make sure everybody sees what we\u2019re doing at the University of Washington, and make sure that our program is at the forefront of what\u2019s being done. He jokingly added that he wants it televised on CBS, NBC, ABC, and ESPN. It\u2019s clear Fisch wants to continue to bring attention to Montlake. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about what we have, and we\u2019re excited about what we\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring football practice for Washington begins on April 2nd and will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The \u201cDawgs After Dark\u201d Spring game will be played on May 2nd. \u201cOur goal is to sell it out,\u201d Fisch concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Image: Nick Lemkau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington football coaching staff is back in town after several weeks of recruiting across the country. On Monday afternoon, the media met with head coach Jedd Fisch, the offensive and defensive staff, and several of the players in a Winter press conference. Fisch broke down all that had transpired since the bowl game, introduced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":72208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,35612],"tags":[1666,2721,10272,509],"class_list":["post-72198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-washington-huskies","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-jimmie-dougherty","tag-ryan-walters","tag-washington-huskies"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72209,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72198\/revisions\/72209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}