Connections to the past is something that has come up quite a bit since Jedd Fisch was announced as Arizona's new head coach on Wednesday. Fisch doesn't have any, so he's going to have to put effort into creating those connections.

He has continued to meet virtually with football alumni this week and Saturday he held an in-person meeting with one of the program's most recognizable faces.

Tedy Bruschi spent the entirety of his NFL career with the New England Patriots and remains in the area today as he continues to work for ESPN as a broadcaster. Fisch is leaving the Patriots after one season to lead the Wildcats, and ahead of his move to Tucson on Monday he thought it would be a good idea to invite Bruschi to his house for a chat about the position he will be stepping into.

Fisch posted a picture of the duo sitting at his table Saturday morning, and later in the day when speaking with a handful of local reporters during a media session the UA head coach shed some light on that conversation with Bruschi.

“It was great, it was awesome,” Fisch said. “Tedy came over, we had a coffee. You notice that we were six feet apart. I made that very clear in the picture. I took out the tape measure to make sure we’re good there for our social distancing plan, but we were able to speak about a lot of things.

"One of the main things was I wanted him to educate me on the program. I said, ‘just talk to me. Talk to me about what it was like when you got here. Talk to me about, you were a defensive end, you are a five-technique on the open side, you were seven-technique on a tight end side, what was that like? How did you get recruited? What was the defensive mentality? How did you guys become so tough and strong and physical? What are we missing? What do we need to do to bring it back? What’s most important to you?'

"And as we continued to share, there were plenty of other things that he and I talked about privately, but I wanna understand. The same conversations I’ve had with many other alumni over the course of a week.”

Bruschi didn't have to make a long trek to meet with Fisch as he lives just "15 minutes away" according to the UA head coach, but it presented a chance to see the legendary Wildcats linebacker in person for the first time in quite a while. Fisch said they hadn't seen one another since he was a coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars and they came across each other in an airport five years ago.

Fisch said Wednesday that Bruschi was one of the people associated with UA whom he exchanged messages with the day he was hired, but Saturday's meeting gave the pair to go into a bit more detail about what awaits the new Wildcats head coach. The message that resonated with Fisch?

"We gotta be more like them," Fisch said referencing UA's glory days in the 1990s during the Desert Swarm era of which Bruschi was a key part of the team. "We gotta find a way to get back to where they were, and if we can do that we'll have a chance."

Fisch said he doesn't plan to make any coaching decisions until he has an opportunity to meet the current UA staff. He won't do that until he arrives to Arizona on Monday.

****

> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona fans as the Wildcats continue Building The Tradition

> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel

> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattGOAZCATS)

> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)

> LIKE us on Facebook

> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)