The Huskies headman was named to the preseason watchlist for the Bobby Dodd Trophy.
The Washington Huskies football team entered the offseason following their loss in the College Football Playoff national championship game to the Michigan Wolverines in 2024 with the anticipation of a rebuild.
Following the departure of head coach Kalen DeBoer to the Alabama Crimson Tide, former Arizona Wildcats coach Jedd Fisch was tasked with overseeing the said rebuild.
The Huskies have seen steady improvements on and off the field under Fisch, improving from 6-7 in his first year as coach to 9-4 last season.
Now, Fisch is on a watchlist for a Coach of the Year honor.
Fisch was named as one of 20 head coaches on the preseason watchlist for the Bobby Dodd Trophy.
The other 19 coaches on the list included: Bret Bielema (Illinois), Jeff Brohm (Louisville), Curt Cignetti (Indiana), Mario Cristobal (Miami), Spencer Danielson (Boise State), Ryan Day (Ohio State), DeBoer (Alabama), Sonny Dykes (TCU), Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame), Willie Fritz (Houston), Josh Heupel (Tennessee), Brent Key (Georgia Tech), Dan Lanning (Oregon), Lincoln Riley (USC), Steve Sarkisan (Texas), Kirby Smart (Georgia) and Brent Venables (Oklahoma).
The award "celebrates the head coach of a team who enjoys success on the gridiron, while also stressing the importance of scholarship, leadership and integrity – the three pillars of legendary coach Bobby Dodd's coaching philosophy," per a news release from Huskies athletics.
Fisch and the rest of Washington have heightened expectations going into this season compared to the first two in the coach's tenure.
The Huskies are featured in several preseason top 25 polls from various publications, often falling in the mid-teens.
This would have Washington competing for a College Football Playoff spot – the third in the program's history and the first under the new 12-team format.
If the Huskies do return to the CFP, it would mark the second successful rebuild for Fisch as a head coach.
The Florida graduate took over as the head coach at Arizona ahead of the 2021 season after years across NCAA and NFL ranks as a positional coach for quarterbacks and wide receivers.
After a 1-11 record his first year as head coach, Fisch improved the Wildcats' mark to 5-7 in his second season and 10-3 in his third and final year at the helm of the program. Arizona ended Fisch's final year as head coach with an Alamo Bowl win and ranked 11th in the final Associated Press (AP) Top 25 poll of the year.
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