Inside The Huskies

Reboot or Rebuild? At Least Fisch Didn't Say Reload

The Huskies still face a considerable challenge in putting things. back together.

Dan Raley

Husky coach Jedd Fisch speaks to the press during the Big 10 football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Husky coach Jedd Fisch speaks to the press during the Big 10 football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium. / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

Smartly dressed in his pale summer colors, Jedd Fisch stood before an assembled gathering at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis and delivered a campaign speech as if he were running for president, speaking enthusiastically yet in a strategic manner.

Like any emboldened candidate these days, the first-year University of Washington football coach seemed to take credit for someone else's work -- mentioning how "we" had beaten Oregon, Texas and USC multiple times in recent meetings.

If anyone had tried to correct him at that interval, they might have pressed Fisch on exactly what happened when Washington and Arizona, his new and old teams, played the past three seasons: Did we get beat by us?

However, that wasn't the coach's message that brought the biggest double-take in the great state of Indiana.

The catch phrase for Husky football now are this: True reboot.

At least Fisch didn't say reload.

No, a reboot seems to suggest the coach simply will be plugging and unplugging the cord to the Husky football router, which ultimately might be the case.

After all, Fisch has shown he can coach. He and his staff feverishly have sifted through the transfer portal and high school ranks to find ready roster reinforcements, though it's still not clear if more than one or two guys can be an effective blocker on a completely refurbished offensive line.

No, whenever you return just two starters from your football team, it officially is a rebuild.

Had players such as Parker Brailsford (Alabama), Germie Bernard (Alabama), Austin Mack (Alabama), Nate Kalepo (Ole Miss), Julius Buelow (Ole Miss), Asa Turner (Florida), Mishael Powell (Miami), Jabbar Muhammad (Oregon) and Geirean Hatchett (Oklahoma) not left, everyone very well would be talking about a Husky reload right now, no matter who is the coach.

Maybe it won't take long for the new Husky leader to put things in place and be successful, but rebuild more accurately sums up the Huskies right now than reboot.

Ironically, Fisch has made the rebuild or reboot sound tougher than it is by suggesting multiple times that the UW returns just one starter from last year's national championship runner-up for the coming season.

It's two, because we checked. Linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala and cornerback Elijah Jackson are still in the fold, still holding onto the jobs they filled in 2023 for 15 and 14 starts, respectively, still holding down Montlake addresses.

Fisch appears to have recruited one of the UW's better classes, with eight of 24 players considered a coveted 4-star prospect, making for a consensus top 20 class among the recruiting sites, with future football fortunes in Montlake looking extremely positive.

Now if Fisch doesn't use any immediate success he might have and relocate elsewhere, the Washington football program could be duly rewarded and won't have to reboot or rebuild any time soon. That would be a just reward.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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.

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