Jedd Fisch hasn’t been a head coach in the college ranks for all that long (only marginally longer than the length of time that Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning has been leading a program of his own) and he’s looking for an opportunity to take down a team that has already handed him a couple of frustrating losses in his head coaching career.
Granted, Fisch didn’t suffer those losses to the Oregon Ducks while he was the head coach on Montlake. Instead, the head coach of the Washington Huskies hasn’t even faced Oregon yet since he’s arrived in Seattle.
That’s set to happen for the first time Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale between these two Pacific Northwest programs.
No, instead, the last time that Lanning and Fisch met on opposing sidelines was in Fisch’s previous stop during Lanning’s first season as the head coach of the Ducks. Let’s take things back to 2022 for a moment, shall we?
Storylines to watch in Washington Huskies vs. Oregon Ducks: Jedd Fisch looking for first win vs. Dan Lanning and also Oregon
When Fisch and Lanning first faced off, it was in the 2022 edition of the series between the Arizona Wildcats and the Oregon Ducks. And it happened to be in Fisch’s second season of his Arizona Wildcats rebuild project. While Fisch was able to get the Wildcats moving in the right direction in a hurry, he simply wasn’t able to beat Oregon in his second season of trying to build.
And instead, the Wildcats lost that game by 27 points. Not fun, you know? Unfortunately for Fisch, that didn’t happen to be his first loss against Oregon. Instead, that happened in 2021 in Eugene when the Ducks beat Arizona 41-19. Also, you know, not fun.
So, this game has a bit of intrigue as it is a chance for Fisch to finally get a win against a team and a coach he has yet to be victorious against.
On top of that, these two coaches have had very different careers which have led to this particular moment of them coaching notable Pacific Northwest rivals in the Big Ten.
Lanning is young, one of the youngest head coaches in all of college football, at just 38. Again, this is his first head coach gig and prior to this, he was a defensive coordinator for the Georgia Bulldogs, helping Kirby Smart win a national title.
Meanwhile, Fisch worked throughout the NFL and has spent much of his career learning by coaching in the pro ranks.
While Lanning ended up at a program with ample resources and in need of a quick boost, Fisch took over an Arizona Wildcats team that went winless the season before he arrived. He went from 1-11 in his first season in Tucson to 10-3 in his third, which showcased how good he is at building programs.
This matchup features two brilliant coaches who took very different roads to get here. And now we’re going to see how they match up in this particular matchup at their current schools with their current rosters.