First-year Washington head coach Jedd Fisch met with the media this week to preview his team’s road trip to Indiana.
Fisch, who spent the previous three seasons restoring the football program at the University of Arizona, accepted the position at Washington in January after Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama.
Washington is off to a 4-3 start following an appearance in the national title game under former Hoosiers DeBoer and quarterback Michael Penix, Jr.
The Huskies are 0-3 on the road this year, with losses to Washington State, Rutgers and Iowa. They own Big Ten homes wins over Northwestern and Michigan.
Fisch says Washington is flying out Thursday morning to Indiana for the Saturday contest. Here’s what he had to say about he Hoosiers.
On the injury to Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke, planning for Tayven Jackson
“I saw [backup quarterback Tayven Jackson] was 8-for-9 and threw two touchdown passes. If I was going off that small sample, I would say they don’t have to do too much different. I would guess they’ll make some adjustments. He did play last year, and then Rourke came in, I think Rourke and Will Rogers had almost identical numbers at this point in time of the season. Obviously it’s unfortunate when anybody gets hurt, and it didn’t look good when I saw it, so it didn’t surprise me that he wasn’t able to play in our game, a throwing thumb is a tough one. We’re going to have to see what they’re going to do on offense. They’ll probably have some changes but they certainly didn’t have to make any big changes in that game and they were able to continue running the offense that they have done extremely well with.”
On Curt Cignetti’s roster construction
“I think the biggest difference is [Indiana coach Curt Cignetti] got hired November 30, so the transfer portal and the guys he brought in were there all spring. I think he brought in 13 starters from [James Madison University] and I think he did a really, really, really good job of bringing in productive players. I think his quote was that he was looking for production over potential when he was building that roster up, and that December, January, that’s the portal that you want to build your team off of if you’re going to go build it in the portal. I thought they did a great job of that, they found a great quarterback, they have a really good scheme, he has a staff that’s been together, his defensive coordinator has been with him 14 years. His offensive coordinator was with him at JMU, and the guys they brought with him, they were able to go from JMU to Indiana, and most people are going to want to make that jump. So they were able to get really everybody he wanted to bring, he brought, and you can see how that’s paying dividends for them.”
On safeties coach Vinnie Sunseri’s brother (IU quarterbacks coach) Tino Sunseri
“I think [offensive coordinator] Mike Shanahan calls the plays and I think Coach [Tino] Sunseri is the pass game coordinator/co-offensive coordinator over there. Coach Shanahan is the receivers coach and calls the plays. It doesn’t bring any extra insight, it would work for both sides then. We know we’ve got a good team that we’ve got to play, they’re playing fantastic football, they’re scoring a ton of point, and they’re certainly in the conversation of being one of the best teams in the country right now. Beating Nebraska 56-7, that’s a monster win; they know how to score points, that’s for sure.”
On CB Jordan Shaw, who played for Indiana in 2023
“We knew him as a high school player. We took him at Arizona and then brought him here, but we knew him as a high school player and really liked him. We got on him a little bit late, that was one of our transitions into being able to have an impact in Southern California. That was after our first year at Arizona. We tried to get him at the last second to come over to us, but we really didn’t have much of a relationship at that time. We just really went on overdrive the last couple weeks of recruiting when we were trying to build our roster. So when he became available after a year, we were very familiar with him, we were excited about the opportunity to get him [to Arizona], and then obviously when we all came here we were excited about him wanting to join us here.”
On teams not running the ball against Indiana’s defense
“I think the biggest thing against Indiana is they’ve never trailed. So, they’re playing with a lead every single game and when you play with a lead there’s play-caller anxiety. When you’re an offensive play-caller, you’re sitting there if you always feel like you’re behind you have more of a tendency to want to call pass. Or if it’s an either/or in your brain you lean pass, and I think that’s what has been going on with Indiana. They’ve been getting up on teams 7-0, 14-0, quickly. I think Maryland did a good job of balancing both. I think it was 28-all going into the fourth quarter. Northwestern, they had a situation where it was 14-10 at halftime or something to that effect, and then all of a sudden it’s 21-10 and the run game slows down a bit. So yeah, the key for us is to be able to run the ball, we have to be able to run the ball. That’s how we’re building this team. That’s how we’re building Washington football for years to come. A good run game, great defense and the ability to take shots down the field on offense, be explosive, and get wide receivers touchdowns. That’s what we believe in, that’s who we are, so we need to run the football if we’re going to be successful.”
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