Arizona Fans Weigh In on Fisch Troubles at UW

Jedd Fisch’s struggles at Washington have reopened an old wound in Tucson, where many Arizona football fans still feel betrayed by the coach’s departure. The reaction is especially sharp because the Wildcats are 5-1 under Brent Brennan, while Fisch’s Washington tenure has reached a difficult stretch. For people who followed Arizona during Fisch’s 10-3 season in 2023, his latest troubles are not simply another coaching story. They are a reminder of how quickly he left, what he took with him, and how far the Wildcats fell after he was gone.

Fisch arrived at Washington after the 2023 season, when Arizona appeared to be building toward sustained success. The Wildcats had finished 10-3, and expectations in Tucson extended beyond another winning year. A Big 12 championship run was being discussed as a possibility for the following season. Instead, Arizona went 4-8 in the fall after Fisch’s departure, turning what had looked like an upward climb into a disappointing campaign. That contrast has helped keep resentment toward Fisch alive, even as the program has moved on under Brennan.

The transition was made more painful by the number of players connected to Arizona who followed Fisch to Seattle. According to the criticism now circulating among Wildcats fans, he brought a dozen Arizona players with him to Washington. Another six athletes who had committed to Arizona also redirected their plans to join the Huskies. To supporters who believed Fisch’s repeated promises about building Arizona through continuity and loyalty, those moves looked like more than ordinary roster changes. They reinforced the feeling that the coach had treated Tucson as a temporary stop rather than a program he intended to strengthen over time.

That interpretation has become a central part of the public anger directed at Fisch. Kirk Sibley, a former Arizona mascot, recently used social media to argue that Washington chose the wrong coach. Sibley pointed to Fisch’s public emphasis on loyalty and continuity, then contrasted it with the way Fisch left for Washington. The departure was particularly striking because the contract signing was filmed inside Fisch’s Tucson kitchen, with former Washington athletic director Troy Dannen present. For Sibley and others, that image has remained a symbol of a coach leaving Arizona almost immediately after making the program’s future sound like a long-term commitment.

Sibley said he had kept the nearly three-year-old video of that signing and shared it again as Washington fans confronted Fisch’s current problems. His criticism went beyond the decision to leave. He portrayed Fisch as a coach who has repeatedly moved from one program to another after only a few years and argued that the pattern showed little loyalty beyond his own career. Sibley’s comments were not presented as an official statement from Arizona or its athletic department. They reflected the anger of a former Wildcats supporter, but the response from Tucson fans showed that the subject still carries unusual emotional weight.

The hostility is also visible in bars around the University of Arizona campus. Sibley shared an image showing Fisch’s face attached to urinals in multiple establishments near campus, presenting it as evidence of how former fans regard him. The display is crude, but it communicates the depth of the backlash more vividly than a routine complaint about a departing coach. Fisch’s face remains recognizable in Tucson not only because of his time on the sideline, but because supporters associate him with the abrupt end of a promising period and the personnel losses that followed his move to Washington.

Fisch’s difficulties in Seattle have now become significant enough to draw attention from Tucson sports media. Fox Sports 1450, the local station, scheduled a discussion of the situation on the Steve Rivera and Blake Eager program. The October 14 broadcast listing included Dan Raley, a writer who covers Washington, and Saul Bookman of PHNX Wildcats. The program’s interest illustrated how closely some Tucson listeners continue to track Fisch. Even after his departure, his performance at Washington remains connected to Arizona’s football conversation, particularly while the Wildcats are off to a 5-1 start under Brennan.

The recent criticism has come from more than one particularly outspoken fan. Kelly Riker described Fisch in deeply negative terms and suggested that his reputation in Tucson has not improved with time. Lou Nixon, who identified himself as a former Navy member and a proud father, was even more severe, saying Arizona supporters broadly regard Fisch as untrustworthy and predicting that he may not remain at Washington much longer if the school decides to pay him to leave. Those are fan opinions, not confirmed information about Fisch’s job status. The account does not identify any Washington decision to dismiss him, nor does it provide details about the specific problems behind his current rough patch.

For now, the lasting story in Tucson is less about Washington’s immediate future than about the way Fisch’s exit reshaped how Arizona fans remember him. His 10-3 season gave Wildcats supporters a reason to believe the program was headed somewhere important. His move to Washington, the players who followed, and Arizona’s 4-8 season afterward produced the opposite legacy. Brennan’s 5-1 start has given the community a new source of optimism, but it has not erased the old grievance. Every new setback for Fisch gives Tucson fans another opportunity to revisit a departure they still consider classless and disloyal.