Jedd Fisch, Arizona Wildcats Head Football Coach

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Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downy Unstoppable's in wash scent beads. We're live in Houston for the national championship game tonight between Washington and Michigan at NRG Stadium. And my next guest knows both of these programs very well. He is the head coach at Arizona. What a success story they've been from one win to five wins and then ten wins this past season.

And he's Jed Fish kind enough to join us via Zoom. Coach, appreciate the time as always. Thanks so much. Congrats on an excellent season.

How you been? Great. I appreciate you having me on and looking forward to tonight's game for sure. And then also looking forward to getting back with my team here in two days and starting our 24 Odyssey.

Yeah, absolutely. Let me start you off with your squad. I love when coaches come on in and a lot of times patience isn't given but you've gotten some patience and you've seen some results and growth from year one to year two and then you had such an awesome year three. Just take me through your philosophy on how you were able to kind of build this program and get them moving back in the right direction. Yeah, I mean, when we got here, we took over a program that was on a 12-game losing streak and lost by nine touchdowns to their rival in the last game they played in 2020. And we kind of, we felt we needed to not just rebuild, we needed to start from scratch.

And we laid the foundation in the bricks and we said, hey, we're in a situation that this is not year one, this is year zero. And we got to figure out what we need to do. We got to understand our roster. I didn't kick one player off the team. I signed two recruits. I said, we're going to figure out what we have here with the 85 players.

I brought in about six, seven transfers that were available at the time late in the game. And we realized we weren't good enough. We were one in 11 football team. We played some games close and then we really committed to that year of recruiting that class of 2022, both transfers and high school kids changed the program. And we went five and seven and everybody returned. We added to that group. We didn't lose anyone from that group. And then went 10 and three this year and won seven in the last seven in a row.

And I feel really good. We didn't lose any starters in the transfer portal. We didn't lose any backups in the transfer portal. And I think we should have a really good team with 18 returning starters for next year. And it's not easy what you were able to do because I was at Temple and I remember seeing Matt Rule build that program up from nothing to then having college game day come to Philadelphia. But now that would never be able to happen at a university like Temple because of the NIL transfer portal as well.

I know Arizona has a bigger brand and you guys got some good weather out there. But to be able to go through some rough times and get that buy in from the players where not only they trusted you, but you trusted them so quickly. It's really testament to not only you, but your entire staff.

Are you able to build that so quickly? Yeah, our staff did an amazing job. I mean, we don't have some of the NIL resources that some of these other programs do. Some teams want to try to come in and pluck your players and take your players. What you got to do is you got to be able to fight them off with creativity. I always tell our kids, hey, we're not going to sell you on NIL. We're going to sell you on NFL. And I've got 13 years of experience coaching in the NFL.

I've coordinated in the NFL and coached positions and quarterbacks and wide receivers for Mike Shanahan and Bill Belichick and Sean McVay. We're going to teach you how to do it right. And we're going to ask you to trust us and believe in us and have a little delayed gratification.

And if you can do that, I think it's going to work out. And our kids so far, for the most part, have done it and believed in us. Jed Fish, did you have to change anything when you got the head coaching job at Arizona with maybe understanding the transfer portal now? Did you have to change your philosophy in coaching at all? Have you always been the same coach that you've been throughout this journey?

Yeah, I've tried not to change it. I've felt that our best bet is for me to be the genuine me and our staff to be the genuine them and be honest. We've always been honest. Be family based. We're always family based.

Our kids are everywhere in our building at all times. And we want our players to understand, like, this is a four year window in your life. This is not your end all be all. This isn't the very, very last part of your career.

So let's do the most amazing job of creating a four year window that's phenomenal for you. Now, when you're coaching in the NFL, your job is to get these guys the most amount of money possible because this is the end of their playing career when they're in the NFL. And you have to help them become as good as they can be.

But in college, to me, it's still about relationships and it's still about helping them build for the future. Talking to the head coach of Arizona and Jed Fish, kind enough to join us right now. National championship game tonight. You did go up against Michael Penix Jr. this year and also last year as well. He's been sensational along with Kalen DeBoer at Washington. Since you had that NFL background as well and knowing the college game too, being at Arizona with all of the information and resources that you have when you kind of put on that scouting brain and you kind of look at Michael Penix Jr. What do you think he could be at the next level?

Because it's weird. This guy's been dominating the last two years and I think nationally now a lot of people are finally starting to say, wow, I can't believe this guy's actually a pretty damn good quarterback. Yeah, you know, I've played him twice. So I know him pretty well. Last year we lost 49-39 and he threw for 500 yards and Jay DeLauro threw for 400 yards and made eight touchdowns together. And then this past season, we lost 31-24 and he threw for 350 and Noah Fafina threw for about 280. And, you know, so I've seen him. I've seen him throw the ball over the yard. And this kid is a special kid.

Reminds me of Tua. Not just because he's lefty, but because of his ability to anticipate throws. He doesn't need to have the strongest arm intermediate in the world. But what he does do is he throws a deep ball beautifully. He understands how not to get sacked. He understands how not to throw interceptions and be a great decision maker. And he seems very likable. All those are the traits you want in an NFL quarterback.

So I'm excited to watch him. And then obviously I'm biased towards Michigan. I worked for Coach Harbaugh. I was his coordinator, his quarterback coach, his wide receiver coach. And the first couple of years at Michigan and I have a very close bond with him.

So certainly excited to see them play tonight. What's your biggest takeaway? You've been around some big time legendary coaches working with Jim Harbaugh at Ann Arbor. What's your biggest takeaway from what you're able to learn from him?

I mean, the man is all about football and family. Everything you see is real. Everything you hear is real. The genuineness just spews out. So when he makes a comment like when you ask about my future and he says I'm all for it, he means it. That's his, that's who he is. He's not going to sit there and pontificate, give you a million answers on things that are irrelevant. In his mind, he's going to tell you about what's going to help his football team win games. He's going to run staff meetings the same way, team meetings the same way. And it's about winning.

With Jim, it's about winning and everything he does. And I respect him so much. I love the guy.

His family and my family are close. But in the end, I just am such a fan of Coach Harbaugh and what he's done at Michigan. You got any inside scoop for us? Because I've been predicting all year that this is going to be his last year at Michigan and he's going back to the NFL coach. I don't know. I don't know. I think he wins the national championship. It's hard not to want to win the Super Bowl. But who knows?

I don't know what he's going to do. There's only 32 of those jobs in the world. They're pretty impressive. They're pretty, they're pretty exciting opportunities to have. But I'm sure he's going to have his pick of the litter and he also can stay at Michigan and be an icon there, which he is already. So I see this game tonight from a very basic way. Maybe you have more of an in-depth view of it with your coaching background.

Jed Fish, the head coach of Arizona here with us. I think the biggest key tonight is just Michigan to do what they do best. And that's run the football and dominate the time of possession with guys like Blake Corum, who's a stud, and Donovan Edwards as well.

Because you know how great Michael Pennix Jr. could be, even though Michigan has a really good defense. I think their best defense tonight is keeping him on the sideline and using that run game all night long. Yeah, I would think that that's definitely a good approach in the game. I think if you go into the game and you don't think to yourself like, hey, I've got to outscore Washington.

That's your best strategy. If you go into the game saying we're going to make them go the long way. We're going to see if we can control the time of possession. We had 30 minutes. They had 29.58 or something like that. And we had 30.02 in our game against them this year.

And it was 31.24. And that's what you want to do. And I think Michigan, the way they run the football, they're going to try to get to 36 minutes, 37 minutes of time of possession. And if they can do that, then they'll feel really good about their chances. You just can't turn it over. You can't give them a short field and you can't let Washington hit too many big plays. They're going to hit some, but you just can't let them hit too many because if they hit too many, then they're tough to beat as the last 20 opponents can attest.

Let me just preference my next question by saying I don't believe this will be the case. But there are some people that share the sentiment that even if Michigan wins tonight, they would view this as a tainted championship, which I think is so lame because of this sign-stealing scandal, which I think has been so blown out of proportion. Michigan wins tonight.

How would you respond to people that say that this is a tainted championship? I'd say if Michigan wins tonight, they're the national champions. And they're, what, 15-0? Is that what their record would be?

I think, right? They're 14-0 right now. I think if Michigan wins tonight, there is no question that they're the best team in America.

They're the best college football team and they would be the national champions with no asterisk in my mind. Jed Fish, I wanted to ask you about some of the other coaches you were with. What do you take away from your time with Sean McVay? Well, I mean, hats off to Sean. I mean, Sean, they were 3-6 this year and they'd gone 7-1.

Sean, this is awesome. He's an unbelievable friend, unbelievable coach, and understands how to communicate with players as good or better than anybody in America. Players will play for him. Players love him.

And his ability to be honest and be a great strategist but to be honest with players is awesome. And that's going to be some scene this upcoming weekend where you have Matthew Stafford, right, won a Super Bowl with the Rams but started his career with the Lions. You have the Lions who are humming.

They're looking for their first playoff win since 1991 as a football fan. I can't wait to see how that goes down between Dan Campbell and Sean McVay. Yeah, and between Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford.

I mean, it's the double whammy. It's both quarterbacks. When I was at the Rams in 2018-2019, Goff was our quarterback and went to the Super Bowl. So I'm sure that's going to be a big deal for everybody. It's going to be a great football game for sure.

Can't wait to watch that one. How do you view Jared Goff? Because that's always like it has conflicting emotions from so many people on their view of Jared Goff.

I don't think he's a polarizing guy, but whenever people talk about Jared Goff, it turns into a polarizing conversation. Yeah, I think he's uber talented, tough as nails, stands in the pocket. You watch him in the pocket and you see guys just falling at his legs, kind of going through his body.

And he just stands in there and rips the ball around. Unbelievable arm, smart, very, very, very smart. And, you know, I can't thank him enough for my two years with him.

We were 15 and 3. It was an awesome year in 2018. And then in 2019, we came back and I think we were 9 and 7. So, you know, my two years were 24 and I've been to a Super Bowl with him and I just think he's a special player, as is Matthew Stafford. Yeah, last thing I'll ask you, Coach Jed Fish, so you've coached against Bill Belichick, you coach with Bill Belichick. It's all up in the air about his future in New England. He's been there for 24 years as the head coach. We know, right, he's the definition of what a head coach is and he's been so successful and maybe the most successful head coach of all time. Would you envision Belichick not in New England next year?

Because that's been a thought for a lot of people, not only this week, but really for the last month. Well, he's the definition of the GOAT. There's no question in my mind about that. So, if somebody, if they make a decision for him to move on and he chooses to go elsewhere or if somebody chooses for him to go elsewhere, I know that whatever team he goes to will be awfully fortunate.

If he stays in New England, they're awfully fortunate. And you're talking about the greatest coach of all time. It's been a tough year.

Everybody has won. But the difference between him and everybody else is he's had won. And, you know, maybe you could say his first year in New England they went 5-11.

Last year maybe they were 8-9 or something like that with a couple one-point losses. But you look at his body of work in 24 years, what else do you ever want from a coach? Well, Coach, hats off to you. Once again, congratulations. You've done an incredible job with Arizona. Enjoy the game tonight. I appreciate you doing this. We'll talk to you down the road. All right. Thank you. I appreciate you having me.