Washington's Jedd Fisch, 'a Harbaugh guy', reflects on his time at Michigan

The Huskies head coach discussed Michigan's national championship, his time coaching under Jim Harbaugh with the Wolverines, and the upcoming rematch between the two programs...

Matt Lounsberry | Jul 26, 2024

Michigan Wolverines' tight end coach Jay Harbaugh (left), quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch (middle) and head coach Jim Harbaugh (right) watch their football team warmup ahead of a regular season game during the 2015 college football season. / Detroit News

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Six days before being announced as the 31st head football coach at the University of Washington, Jedd Fisch was on the phone with former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, wishing his former boss good luck in the upcoming national championship game between the Huskies and the Wolverines.

Fisch, then the head coach at Arizona and coming off an impressive 10-3 season in Tuscon, had no idea he'd be moving to Seattle and taking over for Kalen DeBoer at Washington in just a week's time. Fisch, who was Harbaugh's quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator from 2015-16, watched the national title while wearing his Maize and Blue attire.

"I hope nobody shows any pictures of how I was dressed for the national championship game and holds it against me in Seattle," Fisch said coyly at Big Ten Media Days this week.

"But, we were a Harbaugh guy. You know, my wife and I are very close with Jim and Sarah. I talked to him the day of the game, I talked to him the morning after. I didn't have any expectation of coaching at Washington. I was [at Michigan] for Year 1 and Year 2 [of the Harbaugh era]. We won 20 games. We were a bad spot away from being in the Big Ten championship game."

Washington's Jedd Fisch believes Jim Harbaugh will be one of five head coaches to win a national championship and Super Bowl

Washington head coach Jedd Fisch (right) was the quarterbacks coach, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator at Michigan from 2015-16 under then-Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh / Melanie Maxwell - MLive

Fisch was happy to see Harbaugh and Michigan reach the summit of college football last season, after coming within inches of beating Ohio State and leading the Wolverines back atop the Big Ten in 2016. It took Harbaugh and Michigan an additional five years to get past the Buckeyes, but it's resulted in the Wolverines' most successful three-year stretch of the modern age.

"I'm just so happy for him and his family that they're now with the (Los Angeles) Chargers," Fisch said. "He's going to do an amazing job. I believe wholeheartedly he's going to be one of the five guys who has won a National Championship and a Super Bowl."

Fisch, however, does have one regret.

"Being with Coach Harbaugh was phenomenal. I was kind of hoping that he was going to be here for one more year so that I could have the privilege of saying that I got to coach against him," he said. "I coached against him one time as an offensive coordinator. We lost 42-10, so that wasn't very good."

Washington head football coach Jedd Fisch wants to bring Jim Harbaugh's toughness and grit to the Huskies program

Michigan passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch watches over a spring practice in Ann Arbor in March, 2016. / E. Johnson - Michigan Athletics

Fisch now makes his return to the Big Ten, as Washington makes its debut in the historically, Midwest-based league. The head coach's vision for the Huskies centers around many of the same ideals Harbaugh instilled into his teams in Ann Arbor.

"There's a toughness and a grit that he requires his teams to have," Fisch said of Harbaugh. "We talk about, it's all about the 'W' at Washington. It's about working, it's about winning and it's about Washington. Where, I think, when he was at Michigan it was about working, and it was about winning and it was about Michigan. So, hard work is what he believes in — blue-collar work shirts, lunch pails and I respect that about him. And that's what we're going to have our team look like."

When Michigan and Washington meet on Oct. 5 in Seattle this season, Fisch will be wearing the Purple and Gold. Other than those color schemes, there won't be much that remains from the two teams that squared off in Houston this past January. Washington is replacing 21 of 22 starters, and its entire coaching staff, from a year ago. Michigan, meanwhile, moves ahead with head coach Sherrone Moore, an entirely new defensive staff and just 19 of 22 starters from the national title game.

"Yeah, I think it's the same logos and the same universities meeting, but I think the change is enormous," Fisch said. "I don't know what their team's going to look like, they don't know what our team's going to look like. We've got to play five games before it, four games before it, so my focus right now is, what's training camp going to look like on Tuesday.

"We know we're going to have a fantastic atmosphere. We know that the greatest setting in college football is going to be exploding on that day. We expect every camera to be there, we expect every set to be there and we're looking forward to the opportunity to host Michigan, the national champion."

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