Arizona football announced it will hire Jedd Fisch at its next head coach. Wildcat fans are angry, but here are the pros and cons.
If you judged the hiring of Jedd Fisch as Arizona football coach just by the immediate fan reaction, then you would think it’s a bad move.
Much of the fanbase certainly seems to think it was and that’s probably because many will feel that Fisch’s close relationship to the university president played a big role in the decision, probably as it did him finishing in the top three when Kevin Sumlin was hired.
Fisch was chosen over San Jose State’s Brent Brennan, who was also thought to be a top candidate after leading the Spartans to the Mountain West Championship and an undefeated season.
Brennan is one of the hottest names in the college football coaching world right now and he would have made a lot of sense. And building a conference champ at San Jose State is exactly the kind of momentous project it will be to get the Wildcats back in the Pac-12 title hunt.
Beyond that, Brennan has head-coaching experience and has proven he can be a winner. If you look at the resume of Fisch, it’s a lot of jumping around. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had success but there’s not a lot of other schools pounding down his door for head-coaching jobs.
Michigan fans have been desperate for him to come back as offensive coordinator. He did well under Jim Harbaugh and has been the offensive coordinator in a few other places too, as well as coaching quarterbacks for the New England Patriots the last two seasons.
It’s always tough to judge how a coaching hire will work out and in this case, here’s a look at the pros and cons of Arizona football hiring Jedd Fisch.
The argument in favor
Fisch has a strong NFL background and has spent the last few years coaching in the league under some of the brightest minds in the business.
Working with Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels has to help anyone’s coaching acumen and he showed a pretty good ability to adapt from Tom Brady to Cam Newton. Beyond that, Fisch did do well in Ann Arbor and fans have clamored for offenses as good as the ones before he left.
He did wonders with Jake Rudock in 2015 and helped him have his best season as a college football player and with all of his NFL ties, you can expect him to bring in a staff with ties to the league, which can be a positive thing for recruiting.
Even if those guys don’t have the connections or experience recruiting, guys with NFL experience as position coaches tend to do just fine. Fisch is also pretty young at 44 years old and if he turns out to be the offensive guru some think he is, Arizona football will be lucky it hired him.
A young, dynamic offensive-minded coach is something that just about everyone wants right now and even though his connections probably played a role, it doesn’t mean Fisch will fail.
The cons
One red flag to me is that since 2007, Fisch hasn’t stayed in one job or at one place for more than two seasons. I understand not holding the same position necessarily and assistant coaches obviously move around a lot, but that’s a bit too much for my taste.
Fisch did spend four seasons in Baltimore and he’s been the quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator in seven different places.
Fisch’s name has been on the rise, there’s no doubt about that but he’s coached exactly two games as a head coach and that was as the interim guy at UCLA after the head coach was fired.
Brennan’s record at San Jose State wasn’t out of this world and in his first two years, he won just three games. But over the past two seasons, he went 12-5 and won a championship. He also did it as a first-time coach but had a prior history as an assistant with the Spartans.
Fisch doesn’t have a connection to Arizona and he also doesn’t have head-coaching experience, so really the biggest reason he’s a candidate is the president knows him well. That has caused an angry response from fans which doesn’t help and he needs to build support quickly.
Not with fans necessarily, they will come around if the results follow, but within the program and those around it, Fisch has to prove he’s up to the job and building a solid staff is essential.
Brennan also proves that a first-time head coach can be successful and if Arizona football is right about hiring Fisch, it will have the young hot-shot coach it wants.
The problem is that if that happens, Arizona football likely won’t benefit a ton, because based on his history, Fisch will take the first job he sees as an upgrade.
So whether he gets fired or hired somewhere else, he’s not going to be Arizona football coach for more than a few years.