Former Bruins HC Gearing Up to Face Former Team

The UCLA Bruins will compete against one of their former coaches when they travel north to face the Washington Huskies on Friday night. Huskies head man Jedd Fisch is looking forward to playing the program he had a brief first chance as a head coach.

Nov 2, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Washington Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch signals for a two-point conversion try against the USC Trojans following a touchdown during the fourth quarter at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

The UCLA Bruins (4-5) will compete against a familiar face this Friday night as they travel to play the Washington Huskies (5-5) in Seattle for a chance to win their fourth-straight game and become a .500 team for the first time since Week 2.

Huskies first-year head coach Jedd Fisch is no stranger to the Bruins as he spent a season on the staff as the offensive coordinator. He has played them the past three seasons as the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats and has considerable experience against his former team.

"We're going to play a foe that we know in terms of UCLA, a team that's a former member of the Pac-12," Fisch said earlier this week. "So we're familiar with them, we're familiar with their team, their staff. I worked with [Bruins coach] DeShaun [Foster] at UCLA; he was our running backs coach when I was there in 2017 as the offensive coordinator and certainly have familiarity there. We've played them the last three years at the last place I was at, and it'll be fun."

Fisch will face the program that he once coached for back in 2017. He commanded the offense for a majority of the season before assuming an interim head coach role in the final two games of the season.

Fisch was asked by the program to assume head coaching duties after former head coach Jim Mora was fired following their Week 12 loss to in-state rival USC. Fisch mentioned his first opportunity to be a head coach and the leap he took that has propelled him into a firm position with several schools.

"I always wanted to be a head coach," Fisch said this week. "There was never a doubt while I was growing up in the profession that I wanted, one day, the opportunity to run a team. It certainly gave me some insight to what it was going to take to be a head coach. It certainly was a big jump from a coordinator."

The Bruins are on one of the hotter streaks in college football after a brutal start to the season. It is hard for any opposing coach to ignore what this team has done over the past month and how they have grown into a dangerous opponent to any team in the conference.

Fisch gave praise to his former coaching colleague for the work him and the rest of the coaching staff have done to turn this team and this season into a successful one.

"I think Coach Foster's done a tremendous job of getting that team to win the last three games in a row," Fisch said. "They went to Rutgers and won 35-32 and then Nebraska, 27-20, and then this past game 20-17, and it was a game that they went down 10-nothing, so they're resilient. [Bruins QB] Ethan Garbers is playing really good the last couple weeks, especially the last six quarters. I thought he's played really well and I think that they've got some players that are making some Big Ten plays. They got an outstanding defense, he's [Foster] got them playing really hard. They started 1-5, could have gone anyway at that point in time, and they went the way of 3-0. So, this is a really good football team. They were 8-5 last year, the year before they were number nine in the country."

The Bruins are one of the more veteran groups in the conference with three and four-year players littered around the field, specifically on defense. Fisch recognized senior defensive lineman Jay Toia, along with several other key members of this staff, who have led this team to a three-game win streak.

"They didn't lose a lot, they have a lot of old players, they only have one transfer in their front seven on defense," Fisch said. "They probably have the best nose tackle in college football, number 93 [Sr. Jay Toia], and I think what impresses me the most is how the teams played together, how they've improved and coach [Eric] Bieniemy has done a really nice job on offense with [Offensive line] Coach [Juan] Castillo and we know that they're continuing to become a pretty explosive team on offense and getting really good on defense."

There will be an elevated level of knowledge on both sidelines as Foster and Fisch are familiar with each other's tendencies and what should be expected from their respective teams. Much like the last three games for the Bruins, a close game is expected and both sides will have a competitive edge.

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