Loud and Clear, Fisch Hears His Critics After Rutgers Loss

Fans pick apart his play-calling and game management.

Jedd Fisch, with tight end Decker DeGraaf next to him, plots his next move against Rutgers. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The University of Washington football team lost to an opponent that was clearly inferior. This all took place on the road. Weird stuff happened. People questioned the play-calling. They wanted the coach's head on a platter.

This previous scenario aptly described Kalen DeBoer, who in his sixth game as the Husky coach in 2022 was a 45-38 loser to a down-trodden but suddenly re-energized Arizona State team in Tempe that fired its own coach a few weeks before.

To hear it back then, DeBoer was in over his head, apparently didn't have a firm grasp on things and wouldn't be long for Montlake.

To close out the first half, DeBoer had Michael Penix Jr. throw a pass that hit offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland in the back of the helmet, was intercepted and returned 38 yards for a Sun Devils touchdown.

To open the second half and trailing 24-17, DeBoer went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Husky 32 only to have Rome Odunze dropped for a 3-yard loss on a wide-receiver run and another easy ASU score resulting.

Horrible play-caller, people grumbled.

DeBoer, in fact, dropped consecutive road games to UCLA and ASU.

None of it played well back in Seattle.

DeBoer, of course, was gone after two seasons, banished to Alabama -- where he just beat the No. 2 team in the nation 41-34 in what noted SEC observer Paul Finebaum described as the greatest SEC game played in the past 40 years.

So now comes Jedd Fisch, hearing about his every coaching discrepancy following a 21-18 defeat at Rutgers.

In five games, he's now lost twice, by 5 and 3 points.

In his first half-dozen games, DeGoer lost by 8 and 7 points.

He's a train wreck. Horribly undisciplined team with horrible game management week in and week out.

— Himothy Smith-Njigba (@ksherman1818) September 28, 2024

From the outset, Fisch warned everyone he was venturing into uncharted coaching territory, where the Huskies returned just one of 22 starters from their national runner-up team, and he wasn't sure what was going to happen.

He's still just getting to know his entire team, players such as redshirt freshman safety Vince Holmes, a DeBoer recruit.

Oh, those two have chatted before, when Holmes entered the transfer portal once DeBoer left, changed his mind and asked Fisch to come back if he could convert to wide receiver, entered the portal a second time during spring football and then asked Fisch to have him back once more, returning to his original position at safety.

On Friday, Holmes was merely a spectating UW player when he rushed onto the field to celebrate teammate Lance Holtzclaw's field-goal block, only he did so before the play was over and was penalized, negating everything. That one play might have had more of an effect on the game's outcome than any other.

Clearly Fisch and Holmes know each other a lot better now as they share in that miscue.

I don't believe in Fisch. He is a used car salesman. Listen to his press conferences. He always talks about things that illustrate the limitations/roadblocks he must navigate. It's like he's formulating a built in excuse.

— NWGUY2531 (@mattmil43281062) September 28, 2024

Moving forward, the Fisch-led Huskies will host defending national champ Michigan on Saturday in a rematch of their Houston encounter this past January and no one outside of a few fan-flavored websites will pick the UW to win.

With the brutal part of the schedule next up, the losses are bound to pile up for Fisch's team -- Iowa, Indiana, Penn State, USC and Oregon are all highly successful opponents so far who certainly will be favored in those games. Empty seats at Husky Stadium invariably will be an uncomfortable byproduct. Fisch will be heavily criticized over and over. There won't be any shortage of nay-sayers.

With the media, Fisch has been fairly accommodating but he shields his players from that responsibility and makes only a pair available at any one time -- the least by any Husky leader going back to Tyrone Willingham. So currently, we all have a gripe with him.

That isn't exactly the smartest PR move because people don't really get to know his football team very well and want to sympathize. And, of course, with Fisch doing all the talking on all matters Huskies, this just leaves him open to more criticism.

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