Jedd Fisch, Huskies sign 29 players to open early signing period: ‘Today was our first step’

SEATTLE – The turnaround was never going to be immediate. There’s no guarantee everything will change and the Huskies will be back on top of the college football world again next season.

UW coach Jedd Fisch has stressed the importance of building something on Montlake since he arrived. Officially signing Washington’s 2025 recruiting class won’t solve all of the Huskies’ problems.

It is, Fisch said, a start.

“Today is a celebration for the program,” Fisch said. “We did our best to lay the foundation for what we want our team to look like in the future. We talked about, all year long, what we’re trying to get done and accomplish in terms of competing in the Big Ten with size, with strength, with physicality.

“Today was our first step in continuing that foundation and continuing to build up the program we’re looking for.”

Fisch and the Huskies welcomed 29 players – 17 offensive prospects, 11 defensive recruits and one special-teams player – on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period. UW’s 2025 recruiting class included eight blue-chip recruits, according to the 247Sports composite ratings, hailing from 10 states and Australia.

It’s also the first class composed solely of players pursued by Fisch and his recruiting staff, led by director of player personnel Matt Doherty.

“It’s the same approach every single year,” said Doherty, who followed Fisch to Washington after spending three seasons with the UW coach at Arizona. “We’re looking for elite players who fit the culture our head coach is trying to instill.”

Fisch, who proclaimed he wanted to recruit UW’s highest-ranked class during one of his first news conferences as Husky coach, touted the rankings this group received from recruiting services around the country.

The 247Sports composite ratings, for example, considered Washington’s 2025 class No. 22 in the country, on par with some of the best groups former UW coach Chris Petersen assembled. ESPN declared UW’s class the 18th-best class nationally.

Part of Washington’s high marks, however, was because the Huskies accepted such a large group. Until 2021, teams were only allowed to take a maximum of 25 high school players per year. The 25-player limit was temporarily suspended in 2021 and eventually eliminated in October 2023, allowing Fisch and Doherty to bring in 29 new players this season.

Washington’s average 247Sports composite rating per recruit ranks them 28th in the country, below programs like Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Colorado and one place better than Rutgers.

In comparison, Petersen’s vaunted 2019 class – which included Troy Fautanu, Bralen Trice, Kamren Fabiculanan, Alphonzo Tuputala, Puka Nacua, Trent McDuffie and Laiatu Latu – only had 23 recruits but ranked 15th in average rating per recruit.

The large class also means the Huskies will have to do some maneuvering to get below 85 scholarships. The House v. NCAA settlement technically does away with scholarship limits starting in 2025, but Fisch reiterated that going over 85 scholarships cuts into the amount of revenue sharing a program can give its players.

“I’d prefer to put dollars in players’ pockets and not be wrapped up in one more scholarship,” Fisch said. “You always have the flexibility. … I see it as 85 is the right number right now.”

Washington has 93 scholarship players when the new arrivals are added to the incumbent players. The transfer portal opens Monday, and while it’s an opportunity for the Huskies to get below 85 scholarships again, they’ll also want to add some talent from the portal.

Fisch noted that with two transfer portals before them and an estimated 16 of the 29 new recruits enrolling early, there’s some flexibility to the scholarship count. He said Washington just has to be under the 85-scholarship limit by the start of 2025 training camp in August.

Rankings and scholarship counts aside, Fisch and Doherty put together a fairly strong group with some important recruiting wins.

They kept local composite four-star linebackers Zaydrius Rainey-Sale – who Doherty called “priority No. 1” – and Jonathan Epperson Jr. home. They added six offensive linemen with an average weight of 308 pounds, including composite four-star prospect Champ Taulealea and former Texas commit John Mills. They found Australian punter Dusty Zimmer.

Fisch and Doherty even pulled off a signing-day surprise by landing composite four-star receiver Marcus Harris.

A standout at Southern California powerhouse Mater Dei High School, Harris had been committed to Oklahoma since June 17. Fisch said he saw Harris while visiting UW commit and composite three-star Mater Dei quarterback Dash Beierly, and felt like Harris had all the traits he wanted in a wide receiver.

Harris was still solid in his commitment to the Sooners at the time, Fisch said. But after Harris announced he was backing off his pledge to Oklahoma on Monday – and with Washington searching aggressively for a fifth wide receiver – Fisch got in contact with Harris. The UW coach said Beierly’s commitment also helped sway Harris to join them at Washington.

“Last night, at about 11:45 p.m., I got a text from members of our coaching staff saying Marcus has decided Washington is where he always wanted to go from the very beginning,” Fisch said. “Just took him about a year to figure it out.”

Of course, the recruiting cycle wasn’t exclusively wins. Washington lost a pair of composite four-star recruits, offensive tackle Zac Stascausky and tight end Vander Ploog, to Oregon during the final month of the process.

Fisch, however, said he was generally pleased UW signed the vast majority of the players it planned to and praised his staff for seeing the recruiting cycle through to the end.

“I felt like the kids that committed to us, the 29 that signed with us, have all stayed pretty strong,” Fisch said. “We’ve had some long commitments, guys that have been committed since June. Since May. That stayed with us. And as their season was getting better and their rankings got higher, they still stayed with us.

“We’re really fortunate and happy with the loyalty our staff has built with them.”