Inside The Huskies

VIP Section: Carroll Revisits UW Practice, Belichick Dinner Revealed

Jedd Fisch will bring the New England Patriots coach back for a fund-raiser.

Dan Raley

The Huskies have completed three fall practices so far.
The Huskies have completed three fall practices so far. / Skylar Lin Visuals

While the first two University of Washington football practices were relatively quiet affairs, with a smattering of media, family members and others watching from the stands, Friday's workout returned everything to somewhat of a circus atmosphere.

The Big Ten Network showed up with a large contingent to document the Huskies' first day as a Big Ten member, with former Ashley Adamson and Yogi Roth formerly of the Pac-12 Network doing a stand-up segment from the East practice field with former Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo before everything got started.

The TV people actually asked the Husky equipment managers to momentarily hold off on transporting practice materials onto the field to avoid having loud cart engine sounds end up as a backdrop to their broadcast.

Pete Carroll made another guest appearance at practice, with the former Seattle Seahawks coach and father of Husky offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll, spending considerable time on the field chatting up Jedd Fisch. The older Carroll, of course, also spent a lot of time signing autographs for an entire youth team approaching him.

Fisch seems to enjoy the continuous spotlight put on his program, especially when VIP visitors such as Carroll stop by, and give the atmosphere seemingly one Hollywood moment after another.

With that, Fisch was asked after Friday's practice about the UW's recent announcement that Bill Belichick would return for a fund-raising dinner this coming season, with his appearance meant to raise significant funds for UW football's name, image and likeness collective.

"We talk often and have established a really good relationship on numerous fronts, not just schemes," Fisch said of the older Belichick. "We talk about different ideas. We talk different thoughts. That was one in which we were having dinner one night in the spring and talked about opportunities that were coming up, of like, 'Yeah. we had a season coming up and we need to raise money.' "

While details haven't been fully released, the Huskies will make Bill Belichick available for a dinner that includes 1-on-1 time with the former New England Patriots coach for donors who pay a nominal fee. All of this will happen during the weekend of the Washington-Michigan football game scheduled for Oct. 5. The UW won't miss a chance to hype the rematch of the CFP national championship game opponents from last January.

The Huskies, after a slow start to their NIL fund-raising efforts, siply are getting creative in building a players' war chest of financial might.

"We need to raise money,," Fisch said. "We need to continue to provide at the highest level. How many people would dream of the opportunity to sit down and have a two- to three-hour dinner with a guy who's won eight Super Bowls, two as a coordinator and six as a head coach? We felt this was a great shot at it."

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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