Michigan State football: Power ranking head coaching candidates after Week 12
![Nov 18, 2023; Corvallis, Oregon, USA; Washington Huskies head Coach Kalen DeBoer (left) and Oregon State Beavers head coach Jonathan Smith meet after a game at Reser Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports Nov 18, 2023; Corvallis, Oregon, USA; Washington Huskies head Coach Kalen DeBoer (left) and Oregon State Beavers head coach Jonathan Smith meet after a game at Reser Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/caaecfc86509464a50b70ffc7a24d141fa3f1d6295f9e9fd353e3c2f0370288a.jpg)
Has anyone shot up the coaching big board faster than Jedd Fisch? Probably not. The Arizona head coach has been as impressive as anyone on this list.
Fisch is one of those rare head coaches who never played college football and he was actually a tennis star in high school. He decided to pursue football coaching during college and then worked his way into getting a job with an Arena Football League team before Steve Spurrier hired him as a grad assistant at Florida in 1999.
Since then, he’s bounced around in the NFL and then got college assistant jobs with Florida, Michigan, and UCLA before heading back to the league. He was then hired by Arizona in 2021 to turn around a dying program in the Pac-12 and he’s done just that.
While he went just 1-11 in his first season, he took over a program in a terrible place and the rebuild hasn’t taken that long. Fisch won five games in 2022 and now the Wildcats are 8-3 in 2023 and ranked No. 15 in the nation after beating down No. 22 Utah, 42-18.
Fisch can recruit, he’s a solid offensive mind, and he has an eye for talent. Hiring him would be far from a disaster.