Ex-UA football coach Jedd Fisch on podcast: 'Our commitment at Arizona was 100% truthful'

Former Arizona football coach Jedd Fisch addressed his controversial departure from the Wildcats on a podcast episode while explaining why he left his post for Washington after three seasons at the helm.

During an interview with The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman on an episode of the “Until Saturday” podcast released Tuesday Fisch said the interest from UW ramped up once former Huskies head coach Kalen DeBoer, who led Washington to the College Football Playoff this past season, accepted the same job at Alabama to succeed legendary coach Nick Saban.

Washington athletic director Troy Dannen contacted Fisch, who led the Wildcats to a 10-3 record and Alamo Bowl win this past season, on Jan. 13 about the “intriguing job,” as Fisch called it.

“Talking about their plans entering into the Big Ten, coming off of a national championship game (appearance), the resources they were referring to regarding assistant coaches and player welfare and what they wanted to do with the players was all pretty intriguing,” Fisch told the Athletic. “Obviously, their commitment to the head coach was very intriguing, as well.

“Altogether, it just seemed like one of those opportunities you had to listen to. So we did that,” he said. “And then I got a call that night from Washington, and they offered me the head coaching job. Sunday morning, they sent over the documents, and it was one of those situations that it was one of those opportunities it was impossible to say no to.”

A little more than 24 hours later, on Jan. 14, Dannen and other UW staffers flew to Tucson and signed Fisch to a seven-year contract that will pay him $7.75 million per season; Arizona was prepared to extend Fisch to a five-year deal that would’ve paid him an average of $5.1 million per season, following approval from the Arizona Board of Regents.

Arizona hired former San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan two days later.

Fisch and Washington received criticism for posting a video on the team social media accounts of them signing the contract in Fisch’s Tucson home.

“So what happens is you have a very irate fan base because they don’t understand necessarily why you would do it. Why would you sign a contract in your home? Or why would you have a three-minute (team) meeting? Well, there was no other place to sign the contract,” Fisch said. “I wasn’t going to have a team meeting and let the team know that I was leaving without signing something that says, ‘You have a job and you’re leaving to go take a job.’ Now, you know, the University of Washington has a responsibility to their fan base as well. And they have a responsibility to their recruiting class as well.”

A week before signing with Washington, Fisch told “The Jim Rome Show” that the former Arizona coach and the UA were “working through semantics to get this deal done” to keep him in Tucson and lead the Wildcats in the early stages of the Big 12 era — and potentially compete in the College Football Playoff, which expands to 12 teams in 2024.

“We wanna be done here very soon and we wanna be a part of this program for a long time,” Fisch said.

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Fisch’s public comments followed by his departure soured a plethora of UA fans. Gentle Ben’s, a popular university bar, even placed printouts of Fisch wearing a UW visor inside its urinals in the men’s bathroom.

Fisch said Washington and Texas A&M, which fired Jimbo Fisher and went on to hire Duke’s Mike Elko to head its program, were the only two schools to contact him about their head coaching vacancies. Texas A&M spoke with Fisch via Zoom in December, per the former UA coach. Fisch reportedly received interest from Michigan State’s opening in November but told the Star it was “false.” Fisch denied any interest for UCLA’s opening and told The Athletic, “I have absolutely zero interest in the UCLA job then or now.”

The Bruins hired DeShaun Foster on Monday.

“And there was no other job that reached out that I had any interest in or I spoke with,” he said. “And there was really no thought in my mind about going anywhere. There was nowhere to go, there was nowhere that was interesting to me that was available. We loved Arizona. We felt like we were gonna have a great team coming back, although I was concerned about some of the missing pieces from the year before, (leaving) really didn’t cross my mind.”

Added Fisch: “I just think it’s time that everyone understands our commitment at Arizona was 100 percent truthful. And we were committed to making this program great. We made our players better than they’ve ever thought they could be and we were better than anyone thought we could.”

Other topics Fisch touched on in the interview:

Whether NFL jobs might have come calling

His view of the “three-minute team meeting” with UA players and why it went down the way it did

How he felt he “had to say yes” to Washington

Read more from Fisch’s interview via The Athletic or listen via the “Until Saturday” podcast.(tncms-asset)9c83d8c0-b4bf-11ee-92aa-6777896a48ad[0](/tncms-asset)