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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — First-year Washington coach Jedd Fisch will lead the Huskies into their inaugural season in the Big Ten with what he said is a “brand-new team” from the one that advanced to the College Football Playoff last season before losing to Michigan in the national championship game.
Fisch said Washington, which had won 25 of its past 28 games, has 46 new scholarship players; has an entirely new coaching staff, training staff, strength staff and nutrition staff; and will have 21 of 22 new starters when the Huskies’ season kicks off against Weber State on Aug. 31.
“That has never been done before,” said Fisch, who spoke to the media Thursday on the final day of Big Ten media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. “And we’re excited about that challenge. We have four players on our team that recorded one start. We are now starting over and it’s a true reboot, but so is college football. It’s a whole lot of new.”
Fisch, who replaced former coach Kalen DeBoer, said he brought 12 players and 21 staff members with him from Arizona, where he led the Wildcats to one of the most impressive turnarounds in the sport during his three-year tenure there. Arizona was 1-11 in 2021 but finished last season 10-3 and ranked No. 14 in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s final poll and No. 11 in the Associated Press poll. Fisch said his current offensive assistants have coached together for four years and have been together for every game with Fisch as a head coach.
“So proud those guys were a part of 1-11 to 10-3 transition where we ended up finishing 11th in the country,” he said. ” … This group came here at the University of Washington because we believe in Husky football. We believe we have a chance at an opportunity to win championships like we have in the past. This is a program that has won two national championships. This is a program that’s won 18 conference championships. And this is a program that we believe will continue on that track.”
The question is whether the Huskies can maintain that track after such sweeping turnover. According to ESPN’s Bill Connelly, Washington returns just 36% of its production from last season. That includes just 19% of its offensive production, which is the lowest of all 134 FBS teams. The Huskies will have experience at quarterback, where Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers started 40 games over four seasons. The receiving corps, though, is one of the most depleted in the country, as 10 of the top 11 pass catchers from a year ago are gone. Receiver Giles Jackson is the lone returner, with 106 yards.
When asked what realistic expectations are for this season, Fisch said they want to be “the hardest opponent that everybody plays.”
“I want our opponents to feel like they left that game and they played two games in a row,” he said. “Our expectation is that we’re going to be the toughest team that they play every week, and then from there, we’ll let the score take care of itself. “We’re not going to count wins and losses right now and try to figure out what that looks like,” he said. “We tell our team there is no scoreboard. We just need to go out there and play our best games and see what that looks like.”