Michigan Assistant Coach Rumors (January 9)

Tag: Jedd Fisch

9Jan 2015
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Michigan Assistant Coach Rumors (January 9)

Jim Harbaugh (left), Tyrone Wheatley (right), and some guy (middle)

Here are some updated rumors and speculation about the open coaching positions on Michigan’s staff.

1. Jim Harbaugh, Head Coach/Quarterbacks: Signed, sealed, and delivered (LINK). Next.

2. Tim Drevno, Offensive Coordinator/Offensive line: Drevno, the USC offensive line coach and run game coordinator, is coming to Michigan (LINK). He was announced on Friday as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, so it sounds as if he will be by himself with the offensive line, although he will certainly get some help from a graduate assistant or the like (LINK).

3. Quarterbacks: Former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch looks like the guy here (LINK), and he is expected to be the passing game coordinator as well.

4. Running backs: Former Buffalo Bills running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley flew into town the other night, and he left Ann Arbor with a job offer. He is expected to accept the role.
Other possibilities: Fred Jackson, Roy Manning

5. Wide receivers: Rumors appeared on New Year’s Eve that 49ers wide receiver coach John Morton was expected to join Michigan’s staff, but those rumors have disappeared in favor of San Jose State offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jimmie Dougherty. Dougherty has been the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the past two seasons, and he worked for Harbaugh at San Diego.
Other possibilities: Erik Campbell, Ronald Curry, Jeff Hecklinski, John Morton

6. Defensive coordinator/linebackers: Florida defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin is now Michigan defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin (LINK), and he has already started using his connections in the south to send out a couple offers (LINK).

7. Defensive line: Former Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison will presumably be the defensive line coach now that Durkin is officially confirmed as the linebackers coach.
Other possibility: Roy Manning

8. Cornerbacks: Michigan cornerbacks coach Roy Manning has been heavily rumored to be staying around on staff, and it was reported that he already interviewed for a job. Whether he gets that job or not remains to be seen, but he does have a year of coaching the position under his belt now.
Other possibility: Greg Jackson

9. Safeties: San Francisco 49ers defensive backs coach Greg Jackson reportedly contacted Louisiana defensive end Jalen Bates, a guy with a Michigan offer who committed to Arizona State. Bates’s cousin is former Michigan linebacker Jonas Mouton. Unless this is like Vince Marrow contacting Chris Clark for no reason at all, it looks like Jackson will be coaching some/all of the defensive backs. Meanwhile, Michigan safeties coach Curt Mallory has been hired at Wyoming (LINK), so he’s not going to return.
Other possibility: Roy Manning

10. Special teams/tight ends: It was reported last night that former Fresno State and USC special teams coach John Baxter will be the guy here (LINK). I also expect Baxter to help out with the tight ends.

11. Strength and conditioning: Stanford strength and conditioning coordinator Shannon Turley apparently agreed to come to Michigan and then reneged. The next most option seems to be Kevin Tolbert, who had been Harbaugh’s strength and conditioning coach with the 49ers and for a couple years at Stanford. Tolbert is a Navy grad and former football player, and he also spent eight years working under Mike Gittleson, Michigan’s former S&C coach prior to Rich Rodriguez’s hiring. Tolbert is all but officially confirmed, so I will have a post on him soon.
Other possibility: ???

9Jan 2015
Uncategorized 4 comments

Jedd Fisch, Wolverine

Jedd Fisch

Former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator, who was fired after the season, has taken a job as Michigan’s passing game coordinator and will work with the quarterbacks.

Fisch – whose playing career appears either non-existent or too pedestrian to mention anywhere – began his career as a high school coach before moving on to be the New Jersey Red Dogs wide receivers coach in the Arena Football League. After that he became a grad assistant at Florida under Steve Spurrier from 1999-2000. He moved on to the NFL in 2001 for the Houston Texans and coached during their inaugural season in 2002, sticking around under Dom Capers until 2003.

Fisch then moved to the Baltimore Ravens, where he worked in a few different roles on offense under head coach Brian Billick. He helped to coach quarterback Steve McNair, wide receiver Mark Clayton, and wide receiver Derrick Mason, all of whom had solid careers in Baltimore. After spending four years with the Ravens, he moved to the Denver Broncos as their wide receivers coach in 2008, the year when Brandon Marshall had 104 catches, 1265 yards, and 6 touchdowns. Rookie Eddie Royal caught 91 passes for 980 yards and 5 touchdowns. Those numbers aren’t bad when considering that Jay Cutler was the quarterback.

The next year, 2009, was his first college full-time coaching job. He spent it at Minnesota under Tim Brewster, where Fisch was the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, working with the Gophers’ all-time career passing yardage leader, Adam Weber. Then it was back to the NFL for one season as the quarterbacks coach for the Seattle Seahawks and Matt Hasselbeck.

He returned to college in 2011-2012 to be the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Miami-FL under Al Golden, and then jumped to the Jaguars with head coach Gus Bradley – whom he had worked with in Seattle – prior to the 2013 season.

Hit the jump for the other half of the profile.

Here are some career highlights from his time as a college coach, since NFL production is largely unrelated:

  • Adam Weber went 191/367 (52%) for 2583 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions in 2009. The Gophers were #110 in total offense (306.5 yards/game) and #100 in scoring offense (20.9 points/game). The team went 6-7.
  • Jacory Harris went 195/300 (65%) for 2486 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions in 2011. The Hurricanes were #47 in total offense (430.3 yards/game) and #62 in scoring offense (29.2 points/game). The team went 6-6.
  • Stephon Morris went 245/421 (58%) for 3345 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions in 2012. The Hurricanes were #36 in total offense (440.2 yards/game) and #49 in scoring offense (31.4 points/game). The team went 7-5.
I did not include rushing statistics, really, since his job as passing game coordinator will largely leave him out of that aspect of the game. However, the rushing numbers were not impressive at Minnesota, whereas the gig at Miami got some pretty good seasons out of Lamar Miller and Duke Johnson.
I am not impressed with this hire, but not every hire on a staff can be a home run. Brewster did a terrible job at Minnesota, but Weber was a multi-year starter and still put up bad numbers. Harris was a multi-year starter, and Fisch did a decent job there. Morris was a mixed bag – lots of yards, low completion percentage, decent touchdown-to-interception ratio. Fisch just got fired from the Jaguars, who are a bad team in general and have been starting lots of young guys and vagabonds. Still, former 2nd round pick Chad Henne got benched in favor of #3 overall pick Blake Bortles, and neither of them could really do much of anything. I did not watch much of Jacksonville these past two years except for highlights, but from what little I saw of them, it seemed like Fisch liked to throw the ball down the field and did not use the short passing game very well.
The bright side is that Jim Harbaugh is not a CEO type and will take a hands-on approach when it comes to play calling, coach the quarterbacks, etc. I think this hire would be cause for alarm if someone like Brady Hoke were still the head coach, but Harbaugh is a different story. With a good run game coordinator (hopefully) in Tim Drevno, some downfield passing might be a good thing once you get the play-action aspect sucking up some linebackers and defensive backs. And with Fisch rarely seeming to spend more than two years anywhere, he’ll probably be gone fairly soon.