Steve Belichick Hired As New DC For Washington Huskies

The University of Washington announced that Steve Belichick will be the team’s new defensive coordinator. He previously worked the last 12 seasons under his father, Bill Belichick, as a defensive analyst for the New England Patriots. As the playcaller for the team the last few seasons, Steve had the opportunity to stay with the Patriots under new head coach Jerrod Mayo, but instead declined, choosing not to stay with the team after they parted ways with his father.

Belichick won three Super Bowls with for the Patriots from 2012-2023, in that time coaching safeties, defensive backs, and outside linebackers. Though New England’s many Super Bowl runs were highlighted by quarterback Tom Brady and the team’s offense, the Patriots consistently had a top-half defense in the league that was also a key in their playoff success. In his last year with New England despite only finishing 4-13, the team’s defense ended fourth in opponents yards per play at 4.7 and 15th in points allowed at 21.5 per game.

“We want to get it right in regards to having an NFL-style system on defense,” Washington head coach Jedd Fisch said before Belichick’s hiring. “Sometimes you bounce around too many different systems and you don’t necessarily have that one that is sustainable, that you want forever. We want to be able to live in the world of a four-down front with a mixture of odd principles.”

Washington lost their previous head coach, Kalen DeBoer, to the University of Alabama to fill the shoes of Nick Saban following the Huskies’ National Championship loss to Michigan. The school then hired Jedd Fisch, who was the head coach at the University of Arizona the three seasons prior. Before in Tempe, Fisch was the quarterback’s coach for the Patriots, where he met Steve Belichick,  eventually paving the way for his hiring at Washington. Fisch also brought him offensive coach Brennan Carroll, who, like Belichick, is following in his father Pete Carroll‘s footsteps in the coaching realm. The Huskies also hired former Patriots running backs coach Vinnie Sunseri to help with the defense, who, before with New England, spent time with Saban at Alabama.

A large majority of the rest of the team’s new coaching staff also joined Fisch from Arizona, who led the team to its first 10-win season in almost a decade. Under DeBoer, however, Washington went 25-3 in the past two seasons and will have high expectations for their first season in the Big 10 Conference. With a completely new coaching staff and only two returning starters, the challenge for the Huskies now is bigger than ever going forward as they look to succeed in a new environment.