On the heels of former UCLA head coach Jim Mora giving his thoughts on quarterback Josh Rosen on Monday, former UCLA offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch weighed in with his experiences coaching the top prospect in an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio.
Mora called Rosen the top quarterback in the draft before veering into a critique in which he referred to Rosen as a “millennial” and noting that whichever coach ends up with him will need to find a way to hold his focus and concentration. Rosen seemingly responded to Mora’s comments with a pair of tweets not directed at anything specifically.
Fisch served as UCLA’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach last season and spoke highly of his time with Rosen.
“Some people are referring to his intellect or the background that he started as a tennis player and became a football player, but in terms of coaching him he was great to coach,” Fisch said. “I enjoyed the meeting room every single day. He makes coaches better and he makes the players around him better based on his knowledge and how you’ve really got to work to make sure you’re stimulating his brain as well.”
The last comment seemed to at least give credence to Mora’s observation that Rosen’s attention can wander. So a follow up was asked as to whether there was any concern about whether Rosen truly loved the game.
“If you don’t love it, I don’t think you want to do it,” Fisch said. And I think what Josh would tell you and I think what we’ve seen from Josh, anyone that’s ever coached him is he’s never been late to a workout. Never didn’t want to play. Never took himself out of a practice. Never pulled himself out of a game and I think if you don’t love it you’d find a way to pull yourself out or be late to something. So I think every indication I’ve ever seen is that he must love the game or he wouldn’t work as hard as he does and he wouldn’t lift as hard as he does and he wouldn’t do everything he possibly needed to do to make sure that he was on top of his game.”
Fisch took over as interim head coach of the Bruins after Mora was fired in November. He’s now a senior offensive assistant with the Los Angeles Rams.