Road to 1991 Perfection: Tommie Smith Debated No. 1 into his CFL Days
The debate went on for years.
Decades even.
It might still be going on.
Who was the better college football team in 1991?
Unbeaten Washington or unblemished Miami?
In the aftermath of the Rose Bowl, Michigan starting quarterback Elvis Grbac quickly made up his mind after coming out on the short end of a 34-14 decision to the Huskies on New Year's Day.
"I don't think Miami could ever handle them," Grbac said. "They're the No. 1 team in the nation by far. We played Notre Dame and Florida State and this team was 10 times better."
Three years later, another panel convened and addressed this subject sort of spur of the moment.
Sharing in the same pro football secondary, former Washington strong safety Tommie Smith, Miami free safety Hurlie Brown and Nebraska cornerback Kenny Wilhite were now teammates for the Canadian Football League's Sacramento Gold Miners in 1994 and with the San Antonio Texans in '95.
Sitting around, they began to re-examine their unmistakable link from the college game.
Wilhite, a recognized authority because his Cornhuskers played against and lost to both the UW and Miami in '91, told Brown unapologetically, "Dude they would have beat the dog crap out of you."
This is another in a series of vignettes about the UW's 1991 national title run, supplementing the conversation for the recently completed pandemic-influenced season. We're now in the aftermath of the Huskies' 12-0 season in this throwback replay.
Making his case, Smith said the Huskies excelled at a higher level because of the overabundance of talent they had stockpiled at the end of the Don James era.
He noted how the Huskies went from Greg Lewis to Beno Bryant to Jay Barry and Napoleon Kaufman over two seasons.
Then there was that quarterback situation: a pair of Rose Bowl MVPs in back to back seasons.
"It's like with Billy Joe [Hobert] and Mark Brunell, what poison do you want to pick?" Smith said. "Do you want a somewhat fast quarterback who will run you over or do you want a slender one that is fast and a good decision-maker. What do you want? Either way, you're screwed."
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