Jedd Fisch brushes off Michigan talk, focuses on Washington's showdown with Boise State in LA Bowl

“We haven’t spent any time focused in on what people are saying in the outside noise regarding me or other coaches on our staff,” Fisch said Friday. “We know that’s the world we’re in right now. We know our players are being talked about or talked to from other teams, and we really just have to stay focused on the task at hand, which is a great game tomorrow. ... It’s not a distraction that I’m talking about (with the team).”

Fisch spent two seasons at Michigan as Jim Harbaugh's quarterbacks coach and receivers coach from 2015-16, and he is well-regarded in Ann Arbor. Fisch was also listed last month as a potential candidate at Florida, the alma mater of this Steve Spurrier disciple.

Fisch stuck with the Huskies, and he flatly stated Friday that he expects to remain in Seattle past the LA Bowl.

Fisch isn't the only one with a perceived murkiness about his future: The bowl that began in 2021 as the namesake of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has made no public comment about reports earlier this week that the game will be scrapped after this edition, becoming the latest casualty of the disappearing pre-Christmas bowl calendar.

Rob Gronkowski, the tight end-turned-media personality who has served as the bowl's host for the past three years, acknowledged the uncertainty when asked.

“Yeah, this might be the last year of this game,” Gronkowski said. “But it might be extended. We don’t know.”

Big-time matchup

There's nothing minor about this meeting between the sturdy Huskies program and the three-time Mountain West champion Broncos, who have remained a small-market powerhouse under coach Spencer Danielson. Both offenses were particularly potent down the stretch, suggesting a possible bowl shootout.

Demond Williams Jr. passed for 2,850 yards and 21 touchdowns in his second season at Washington, while Maddux Madsen threw for 2,283 yards and 18 touchdowns in another solid year for the Broncos, who redefined themselves offensively after Ashton Jeanty's departure.

Recent successes

Both schools are looking for a win at SoFi to act as a springboard to send them back to their recent heights.

Michael Penix Jr.'s Washington reached the College Football Playoff championship game two seasons ago by winning the Pac-12 title and the Sugar Bowl before Fisch took over from Kalen DeBoer. Jeanty's Boise State won the Mountain West and reached the Playoff last season, losing the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal.

Back in Inglewood

Danielson's first official game as Boise State's head coach was the 2023 LA Bowl. He got the job on an interim basis a month earlier when Andy Avalos was fired, and he received the full-time appointment a week before the Broncos lost to UCLA.

“Walking into SoFi today, you were flooded with a lot of emotions from two years ago,” said Danielson, a Southern California native. "(I was) just figuring a lot of stuff out, but I think even here, two years later, I'm learning and growing every single day. ...

Everybody in

Both schools will have almost their full rosters available, a rarity in the modern age of mid-tier bowl ambivalence from NFL prospects.

Boise State left tackle Kage Casey, a three-year starter and all-conference lineman, is skipping the game to stay healthy for the draft, but nobody else on either roster is reported to be out by the coaches.

Showcase bowl

Both of these teams rely heavily on Southern California players to fill out their rosters, with Danielson estimating nearly 50% of his group is from the sunnier end of the Golden State. The coaching staffs can't talk to potential recruits at this game, but both head coaches expressed hope that young players will converge on the game to check out these programs in an NFL stadium.

“It'll be really cool for recruits to come watch and see us play a big-time game on the West Coast,” Danielson said.

AP college football: https://apnews.com/college-football