Fisch Pushes His NFL Connections to the Max to Sell Husky Football

The Husky coach and his staff have a lot of pro football experience to share with their players.
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Every major college football program promotes itself as a gateway to the NFL, as a proving ground if not a launch pad to the pros.

Yet as the new University of Washington coach, Jedd Fisch is taking this approach one step further, turning the Husky experience into what amounts to a concentrated pro football seminar if not a continuous mini-camp tryout.

"I think the NFL is a lot more important than NIL," Fisch said, referring to the college game's player payment arm. "I think when you have an opportunity to sell the NFL, you should do it. The difference in some programs is they want to sell it — we can tell it. We can tell you what it's exactly like."

Fisch will do this with a UW staff that consists of four former NFL assistant coaches, who include himself and both of his coordinators, with the latter two answering to the legendary coaching names of Belichick and Carroll. 

He also counts two of his UW coaches as former NFL players, plus a third who was an ex-Arena Football League player.

Fisch and his guys collectively bring 36 years of NFL coaching experience to Montlake. In contrast, Kalen DeBoer's Husky staff had a single year of pro experience, with former co-defensive coordinator William Inge serving as an assistant defensive-line coach with the Buffalo Bills in 2012.

New UW defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, safeties coach Vinnie Sunseri and Fisch coached together for the New England Patriots, with Belichick spending a dozen years with the franchise answering to his father Bill, while offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll worked a half-dozen years with the Seahawks and his father Pete.

Running-backs coach Scottie Graham and Sunseri played six and three NFL seasons, respectively, with Graham also spending 15 years working with the NFL Players Association. New wide-receivers coach Kevin Cummings played a season in the Arena League. They have a lot of first-hand pro football experiences they can share.

"When we get all of these guys here, we can tell these kids what it looks like, what it feels like, what to expect," Fisch said. "What real money looks like, not NIL money, but actually the real money, the real salaries, the opportunity to get a second contract and make 10x, 20x, 30x, that you've never dreamt of making."

Jedd Fisch has coached for eight NFL teams, including the Denver Broncos in 2008.
Jedd Fisch has coached for eight NFL teams, including the Denver Broncos in 2008 :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Fisch promises the Huskies will utilize schemes on each side of the ball that mirror the pros, thus enhancing his players' chances of landing pro football jobs once they're done with the UW.

By putting his players in a pro offense and in a pro defense, Fisch isn't shy at all in making guarantees that his Huskies will be seen by the NFL more than other programs, that every UW game will practically turn into a mini-camp tryout. 

"We hope not only does our messaging hit, but we hope our scheme hits," he said. "The NFL watches our games, which they all will. They will see what it looks like at the collegiate level to run NFL schemes — and we hope that translates to the draft."

Fisch isn't telling people anything new in pushing his program's NFL connections, he's just doing it in a far more aggressive manner than anyone else previously thought to do.


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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.