The Washington Huskies went from being a national championship contender in 2023 to a bowl-losing program in 2024. Kalen DeBoer’s departure made things unstable for the Huskies, and new HC Jedd Fisch couldn’t quite hold steady in his debut season in the Big 10. A 6-7 finish, with wins over USC, Michigan, and UCLA, made Fisch’s debut season a rather average one compared to the heights of 2023. Rookie mistakes can be forgiven, but not forgotten. Fisch now has had time to settle in and take stock of the program’s rights and wrongs. Here’s what an analyst thinks Fisch’s 2 season as Huskies HC should look like.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly placed the Huskies in the 39 position in the network’s updated SP+ rankings post-spring. Last season was a mixed bag for Washington. The offense had flashes of both brilliance and poor play, while the defense held its ground. Special teams faltered terribly. People were quick to point fingers at Jedd Fisch while lamenting the loss of Kalen DeBoer. The latter didn’t have an overwhelmingly good season with Alabama either. But Fisch now has no reason to escape blame for flaws, should they appear in his 2025 run. It will still take some time for the Huskies to go back to their 2023 level, with Fisch at the helm. But here’s what Connelly thinks the HC should be wary of to still make the most out of his 2 year.

He said in a May 29 video of the Dirt & Sprague show, “The passing game was well, actually run and pass, the big plays kind of vanished from two years ago. And that was kind of, that ended up being kind of a major issue.” Also, Connelly thinks Fisch will need more time to publish double-digit wins. “It took him a year at Arizona to really kind of click into place. But once he had what he needed everything obviously clicked pretty well.” Fisch’s first season with the Arizona Wildcats was worse than his Huskies debut. He went 1-11 that year, rose to 5-7 the next, and then 10-3 in his last. He already has an okay start at Washington; will 2025 be the year he makes a splash as the Huskies’ HC?

Connelly nonetheless has good expectations out of Fisch’s 2 run at Washington. He has made quite a few changes to the team, chief among them being the inclusion of Omari Evans in the receiver corps. The Huskies will also see returning RB Jonah Coleman, who seems confident for his next season with the team. Personnel changes include Jimmie Dougherty and Ryan Walters, who will take on the offense and defense, respectively. With all these things and more in play, Connelly thinks Fisch can make a bigger leap in 2025.

“If the big play capabilities come back a little bit, whether it’s because of [Omari] Evans or just better familiarity among all the, all the personnel, then you know, it’s kind of like Oregon State. They’re like two or three games on the schedule that are, you’re going to be pretty solid underdogs in. But everything else is on the table outside of what, Ohio state, Michigan, and Oregon, you know, is going to be projected favorites and all the other games, maybe,” he said.

Fisch’s 1 season could have been better; there’s no doubt about it. However, according to Josh Pate, DeBoer sought an opportunity when a huge crisis developed in the team.

Josh Pate pins blame for Jedd Fisch’s 2024 problems on Kalen DeBoer

Jedd Fisch arrived in Washington and a team that was literally a skeleton. Josh Pate argued after the season that not all the blame be placed on the HC. “It’s because they lost 20 of their 22 starters,” the analyst highlighted. He also noted that if DeBoer hadn’t left his job and gone into the season with this crisis, he would’ve also met a similar fate. “DeBoer would have taken a big step back record-wise, in my opinion, had he stayed at Washington,” he added.

Fisch took charge of the Huskies in January last year and hurriedly put together a roster in such a short time. Then, he had to put all of those new guys in practice with little window as the season approached. “Jedd Fisch is the poster child for the fall off from national championship game to 6-7,” Pate added. But he now has had enough time to set things into stone for his 2025 campaign. With a quality WR like Omari Evans—who came to Washington with hopes of a bigger role—and a better roster than his 2024 one, Fisch can attempt to move out of the Kalen DeBoer shadow.

What Fisch lacked desperately in 2024 was time. He could only take Arizona to a double-digit finish with 2 years at the helm. And at Washington, he had none of it to carry on the team from a crisis into the 2024 season. But in his second year as the Huskies HC, Jedd Fisch has had all the time. Will he be able to take the program to better heights this season?