Road to 1991 Perfection: Shehee Was Swayed by UW National Championship

Rashaan Shehee wanted to play his college football for Michigan. His dad wanted him to go to Stanford. He committed to Oregon. The running back ended up at Washington.

A national championship will do that for you — deliver top-rated recruits against stiff competition.

A highly touted runner from Bakersfield, California, Shehee could have joined any college football program he wanted, but he'd watched the 1991 Huskies dominate over and over on TV, and it left a lasting impression on him.

"They had Beno Bryant and so many guys who were phenomenal players," Shehee said. "Their defense was No. 1 in the nation. It was a great time to be a Husky."

Shehee had played against Napoleon Kaufman, who ran a kickoff back for a touchdown against his high school team. It was time to join him.

At Washington, he got in line behind Beno Bryant, Jay Barry and Kaufman, preceded the arrival Corey Dillon, and shared time with Lee Neal, with nearly all of them playing in the NFL.

"USC had it, but we literally took over the name Tailback U if you really look at the talent that we had," said Shehee, who played two seasons in the pros for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Shehee remembers giving in to a persuasive visit to Oregon and orally committing to coach Mike Bellotti and the Ducks on the spot. The very next weekend, he flipped to the Huskies while on his official recruiting trip to the UW.

They just had that little something extra to sell — that national championship.

"I was drawn to that team," Shehee said. "I kept hearing about all these phenomenal players I had played with or seen."

This is another in a series of articles and videos that will replay the UW's 1991 national championship season, which is the apex of Husky football. We don't have a 2020 season, so we'll use '91 as a conversation piece.

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