Road to 1991 Perfection: Pinkel Experienced a Painful and Emotional UW Return

Gary Pinkel accepted the University of Toledo football job in 1991, launching his college head-coaching career and leaving behind a Husky program overflowing with talent.

After 12 seasons as an assistant coach at Washington, he was ready to go out on his own and be his own boss, to build his own team.

Husky coach Don James prepared him for this moment.

Pinkel was returning to the Mid-American Conference, where he had played football at rival Kent State for James, where he was a tight end who had teamed with linebacker Jack Lambert and safety Nick Saban, two notable football figures.

Everything seemed to fall into place for Pinkel except this one little scheduling glitch.

Looking over the 1991 lineup, he was more than a little surprised to see a midseason road game ... at Washington.

"It was just really odd," Pinkel said, discussing the situation in the accompanying video.

The former Husky offensive coordinator was left to make the best out of a really bad situation. He brought his overmatched Toledo team to Seattle.

"It was just really uncomfortable," Pinkel said. "I knew all the players and all that. It was just kind of weird to me."

The game got out of hand quickly as the Huskies scored five first-half touchdowns without a Toledo response. James pulled all of his starters at halftime. The Husky leader did everything he could to limit the damage in a 48-0 victory that could have been a lot worse.

In the fourth quarter, the UW ran the clock nearly to zero on every offensive play, trying to get things over with as quickly as possible. Mark Brunell, calling the quarterback signals, even offered a subtle acknowledgement to his former coach — from the line of scrimmage.

As a play unfolded, the one-time Husky offensive coordinator remembers making eye contact with his Rose Bowl MVP quarterback from the year before.

"He looks over at me and kind of gives me a nod," Pinkel said. "Like, 'Coach, I've got your back.' "

Once the game ended, Pinkel headed for the tunnel only to be intercepted by wave after wave of Huskies. He later received overhead TV footage of the postgame interaction that left showed the moment and left him spellbound.

He saw majority of the UW players leave their exit path and crowd around him in a big way.

"Ninety-five percent of the players, as I was walking off he field, veered over to me," Pinkel said "I hugged and high-fived guys for like five minutes. I got tears."

Pinkel retired as a highly successful Missouri football coach and lives in Columbia. Yet back in 1991, he shared in that national championship with the Huskies beyond being victim No. 5. He talks about that tomorrow.

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