Yahoo Finance Arizona hires Patriots assistant Jedd Fisch to replace Kevin Sumlin
Arizona has found its next head coach.
The university announced Wednesday that it has hired New England Patriots quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch as its new coach. Fisch replaces Kevin Sumlin after Sumlin was fired following the team’s 70-7 loss to Arizona State.
Fisch, 44, has recent college football coaching experience. He was the passing game coordinator at Michigan in 2015 and 2016 and served as the offensive coordinator at UCLA in 2017. He was an assistant with the Los Angeles Rams in 2018 and 2019, including the year when the Rams went to the Super Bowl, before joining the Patriots’ staff in 2020.
Overall, Fisch has eight years of college coaching experience and another 13 in the NFL.
"We are tremendously excited to have Jedd Fisch come to Tucson to reinvigorate our football program and lead us to championships," Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke said. “Jedd has a unique ability to teach the game of football effectively to his players and to inspire them with his passion. We conducted a comprehensive national search with an impressive array of candidates but in the end, Jedd is exactly what our program needs right now and I cannot wait to partner with him to move us forward."
Fisch will be tasked with rebuilding an Arizona program that hasn’t won more than seven games in a season since 2014. The Wildcats went just 9-20 in Sumlin’s three years as coach and haven’t been to a bowl game since going to the Foster Farms Bowl at the end of the 2017 season.
"I am honored and humbled to lead the University of Arizona football program," Fisch said. "I am 100% committed to building a program that all Wildcat fans will be proud to support. We will study hard, compete hard, recruit hard and be relentless in all aspects of our program. I want to thank President Robbins and Dave Heeke for their belief in me and in my vision for Arizona Football and my family and I cannot wait to immerse ourselves in the UA and Tucson communities.”
If Fisch is Arizona’s coach for more than two seasons, the job will immediately become his longest-tenured position since he was an offensive assistant for four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens from 2004-07.
Since his time with the Ravens, Fisch spent a year with the Denver Broncos, a year with the Minnesota Vikings, a year with the Seattle Seahawks, two years as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes and two years as the offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars before he went to Michigan.
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