The Hardcore Husky Podcast: If Cignetti was a grand slam hire, Fisch was a fielder's choice*

To be fair, Kalen took over a pretty loaded roster from CP's last couple of recruiting classes.
Regardless, it's one game at a time and it sucks that McCree and two TEs got injured against Michigan. Hopefully Willis can come back to give the offense a chance and the coaches incorporate Zach Henning again as the 6th OL / blocking TE. DeGraaf really has no business blocking DEs like on that horrible play against Michigan.
 
To be fair, Kalen took over a pretty loaded roster from CP's last couple of recruiting classes.
Regardless, it's one game at a time and it sucks that McCree and two TEs got injured against Michigan. Hopefully Willis can come back to give the offense a chance and the coaches incorporate Zach Henning again as the 6th OL / blocking TE. DeGraaf really has no business blocking DEs like on that horrible play against Michigan.

Very fair .. I just think we should keep reasonably high expectations, and we ARE a desirable job, is what I was mainly getting at. 👍
I find Seattle has too much soft loser mentality that can show up in various sections of the fanbases in town.
 
Related topic, when Dannen fled it came out after that his wife was still living in New Orleans, and that was considered a red flag. Same shit with Fisch. This dude is so gone if he gets a chance, hopefully that at least is motivating him to finish strong.
 
Related topic, when Dannen fled it came out after that his wife was still living in New Orleans, and that was considered a red flag. Same shit with Fisch. This dude is so gone if he gets a chance, hopefully that at least is motivating him to finish strong.

Yeah, I had a discussion about this last night with someone who donates a pretty good sized chunk to NIL each year. There was some bullying of their kid at school or something — led to family heading back South and leaving Jedd to work solo.
 
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Exactly what @Bob_C said is my understanding of the Cignetti reference.
If one can do what he's done at Indiana, on the timeline he's done it on, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something in the same ballpark at Washington.
I fully reject any concepts that Fisch needs 3-5 years or anything (not saying anyone specifically has said that).
One of the benefits of this new era is the ability to turn over a roster more quickly.
I mean, look at how fast Kalen did it with a few key pieces (obv Penix was a HELL of a piece, no debate there).
You had your Cignetti.
Imagine expecting another one.
Why should we not?
We're a top 25 program, all time by wins, in a sensational market with more than adequate resources and fan engagement, and in the upper half (I would argue) of one of the 2 best conferences… and with a recent track record of great success in two spurts over the last decade.
Probability. The only teams to suddenly appear out of thin air in the CFP championship are TCU and UW, back-to-back.
Now, with 12 teams, that will be more improbable.
As someone who's been in university settings for all of my career, EVERY university is attempting to improve its academic, athletic, trans-friendly, etc, ranking.
What's silly is how each school is shocked or disappointed each year when, despite enormous resource allocation, their ranking went down or barely improved. Yeah, that tends to happen when every competitor is doing the same.
UW should be a perennial top 25 program.
But why should it be more than all of the other 25+ power 4 schools dumping money into their programs?
More to the point, who's the next Cignetti for UW? Well? Name him. Then how will uw get him when 15-20% of P4 programs are also looking for a new coach, per this year's insane tally of casualties at week 7ish.
 
Exactly what @Bob_C said is my understanding of the Cignetti reference.
If one can do what he's done at Indiana, on the timeline he's done it on, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something in the same ballpark at Washington.
I fully reject any concepts that Fisch needs 3-5 years or anything (not saying anyone specifically has said that).
One of the benefits of this new era is the ability to turn over a roster more quickly.
I mean, look at how fast Kalen did it with a few key pieces (obv Penix was a HELL of a piece, no debate there).
You had your Cignetti.
Imagine expecting another one.
Why should we not?
We're a top 25 program, all time by wins, in a sensational market with more than adequate resources and fan engagement, and in the upper half (I would argue) of one of the 2 best conferences… and with a recent track record of great success in two spurts over the last decade.
Probability. The only teams to suddenly appear out of thin air in the CFP championship are TCU and UW, back-to-back.
Now, with 12 teams, that will be more improbable.
As someone who's been in university settings for all of my career, EVERY university is attempting to improve its academic, athletic, trans-friendly, etc, ranking.
What's silly is how each school is shocked or disappointed each year when, despite enormous resource allocation, their ranking went down or barely improved. Yeah, that tends to happen when every competitor is doing the same.
UW should be a perennial top 25 program.
But why should it be more than all of the other 25+ power 4 schools dumping money into their programs?
More to the point, who's the next Cignetti for UW? Well? Name him. Then how will uw get him when 15-20% of P4 programs are also looking for a new coach, per this year's insane tally of casualties at week 7ish.

I can't name the next Cignetti.

A. He wasn't on anyone's radar when hired at IU, at least not that I recall.
B. Luckily it's not my job 😂
C. Not sure we'd want anyone I would come up with anyhow. If we'd listened to me, we would have gone with Matt Campbell or Dave Aranda or something instead of Kalen. 🤣
 
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Tressel, DeBoer and Cig are the poster boys for hiring lower division 90 percent winners
Not infallible of course but I like it better than the retread route
 
Cignetti was absolutely a hot coaching candidate with what he did at JMU.
 
Exactly what @Bob_C said is my understanding of the Cignetti reference.
If one can do what he's done at Indiana, on the timeline he's done it on, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something in the same ballpark at Washington.
I fully reject any concepts that Fisch needs 3-5 years or anything (not saying anyone specifically has said that).
One of the benefits of this new era is the ability to turn over a roster more quickly.
I mean, look at how fast Kalen did it with a few key pieces (obv Penix was a HELL of a piece, no debate there).
You had your Cignetti.
Imagine expecting another one.
Why should we not?
We're a top 25 program, all time by wins, in a sensational market with more than adequate resources and fan engagement, and in the upper half (I would argue) of one of the 2 best conferences… and with a recent track record of great success in two spurts over the last decade.
Probability. The only teams to suddenly appear out of thin air in the CFP championship are TCU and UW, back-to-back.
Now, with 12 teams, that will be more improbable.
As someone who's been in university settings for all of my career, EVERY university is attempting to improve its academic, athletic, trans-friendly, etc, ranking.
What's silly is how each school is shocked or disappointed each year when, despite enormous resource allocation, their ranking went down or barely improved. Yeah, that tends to happen when every competitor is doing the same.
UW should be a perennial top 25 program.
But why should it be more than all of the other 25+ power 4 schools dumping money into their programs?
More to the point, who's the next Cignetti for UW? Well? Name him. Then how will uw get him when 15-20% of P4 programs are also looking for a new coach, per this year's insane tally of casualties at week 7ish.
I wouldn't say UW came out of thin air. The program went to the CFP, the Rose Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl under CP. He retired, they took a step back under Jimmy Fake (4-8), then DeBoer went 11-2 in his first year and 14-0 in his 2nd, beating Texas (again) before playing Michigan in the NC.
Fisch is pretty savvy with his career and 2026 is the key year for everyone involved. He'll either do well and leave for the NFL (most likely), get extended (less likely), or get fired and cash out (somewhat likely). The 2026 team should be talented and deep enough to win 9 or 10 regular season games (assuming they have the funds to bring in a LT, DT, Edge, and possibly a RB & TE).
As for up and coming coaches, Spencer Danielson and Jimmy Rogers are on my list.
 
Tressel, DeBoer and Cig are the poster boys for hiring lower division 90 percent winners
Not infallible of course but I like it better than the retread route
Lance Leipold won a shitload at D3, doing ok at Kansas but yeah it is Kansas. You might be able to hire anybody out of NDSU right now and get production
 
Tressel, DeBoer and Cig are the poster boys for hiring lower division 90 percent winners
Not infallible of course but I like it better than the retread route
Lance Leipold won a shitload at D3, doing ok at Kansas but yeah it is Kansas. You might be able to hire anybody out of NDSU right now and get production
Both Leipold and Klieman are good examples.
 
Tressel, DeBoer and Cig are the poster boys for hiring lower division 90 percent winners
Not infallible of course but I like it better than the retread route
Which is why I actually have some hope for the Cougs. They did exactly what I was lobbying UW to do prior to hiring DeBoer.
 
It seemed like the top 3 candidates after DeBoer left were Fisch, Chris Klieman, and Lance Leopold. It's looking good that UW passed on Leopold. Klieman had another good year in 2024 but is struggling this year so we'll see how 2025 ends for him.
I guess we could say that Fisch was the prettiest looking girl in a room full of mids at the time. The Illinois game looms large.
 
Wonder who you could have had on the list if the budget was $12m.
 
It seemed like the top 3 candidates after DeBoer left were Fisch, Chris Klieman, and Lance Leopold. It's looking good that UW passed on Leopold. Klieman had another good year in 2024 but is struggling this year so we'll see how 2025 ends for him.
I guess we could say that Fisch was the prettiest looking girl in a room full of mids at the time. The Illinois game looms large.
kleiman seems like a pretty good coach but he has become a farm system for the sec and big.
 
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