Road to 1991 Perfection: Erickson on Facing UW, 'Of Course, We Thought We'd Win'

Dennis Erickson and Keith Gilbertson grew up together as Husky football fans.

Three decades before they put their respective college teams in position to claim the same 1991 national championship, they were ambitious teenagers, coaches' sons, close friends, talented high school players and interested University of Washington football followers.

"We used to go to those games," Erickson said. "I remember George Fleming and those guys and the Rose Bowls."

Fast forward to their '91 coaching horserace, when Erickson was the head coach for the Miami Hurricanes and Gilbertson served as the University of Washington's offensive coordinator.

Their teams went 12-0. Each one finished atop one of the major polls and shared the national championship. Without an on-field resolution, they could only daydream about what might have happened, with college football still seven years from a playoff system.

"If we'd played it would have been one of the greatest games in playoff history," Erickson said. "Yeah, we talked about it."

This is another in a series of vignettes about the UW's 1991 national title run, supplementing the conversation for the current pandemic-influenced season. We're now in the aftermath of the Huskies' 12-0 season capped by the Rose Bowl in this throwback replay.

Erickson would never coach the Huskies, though early in his career, as a Montana State assistant, he came over to learn the intricacies of the UW passing attack crafted for Sonny Sixkiller from its author, Jerry Cheek.

Later he would coach against the Huskies as the coach for Washington State, Oregon State and Arizona State.

Gilbertson would coach at Washington three separate times as a graduate assistant, offensive-line coach, the OC and the Husky head coach in 2003-04.

During that 1991 season, they called each other as friends along the way, just to check in. For years, they've been asked how it would have turned out.

"I've been asked that question a hundred times," Erickson said. "Of course I thought we'd win, just like they thought they'd win. But it didn't happen. We tied. That's just the story."

Gilbertson's counterpunch was meant to miss. No bravado. No protecting any turf. Just friends respecting friends.

"I would have been a heckuva game, a tough ticket to get," he said. "I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the game, but I would have enjoyed planning for that game."

Said Erickson, "I don't know if I would have wanted to coach in it. I would have wanted to watch it."

Really, no advantage for anyone here?

OK, both of these guys acknowledged there would have been a lot of eventual NFL players on the field, confident guys, most of them running super fast, in the make-believe game.

Thinking long and hard, Gilbertson came up with something. He didn't say it, but he was probably thinking the Emtman factor.

"Both teams were athletically really gifted and both teams would run really fast," Gilbertson said. "Sometimes I think we may have been the more powerful team, the bigger and stronger team."

Other than that, everyone's on their own to make something up.

We don't have a meeting every year of guys who have won national championships," Gilbertson said. "They don't have a country club. It's not like the Heisman house."

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