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We See Similarities in 1990 and 2022 UW Football, Let Us Count the Ways

Originally posted on FanNation Husky Maven | By Dan Raley | Last updated 1/13/23

The emboldened University of Washington football team had just graduated an all-conference player named Kirkland from the offensive line, lost a tough game on the road and was left with a mind-boggling upset at the hands of a sub-.500 opponent.

Everyone came away talking national championship going forward. Unfinished business. Running the table.

This was 1990, with a 10-2 near-miss before a direct hit.

And this was 2022, with everybody from an 11-2 team trying to build up momentum to do something extra special.

The parallels run deep in these two football situations, with a couple variations or alterations.

The old Huskies were built around the best player in the country who didn't win the Heisman Trophy in monstrous defensive tackle Steve Emtman, who was so ferocious and scary he used to swallow helpless and intimidated opposing offensive lineman whole like someone gulping down goldfish.

These current UW players will rally around an offensive player who very well might win the next Heisman Trophy in polished and unflappable quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who has a solid chance to become the greatest Husky player ever at his position.

More than three decades ago, the Huskies won everything except two stumbles in a dozen games, falling 20-14 to eventual national-champion and Orange Bowl winner Colorado in Boulder, and 25-22 shockingly at home to a UCLA team that would finish 5-6.

While great expectations for 1991 were a given, the legendary UW coach Don James still had to find 11 new starters going forward, which included replacing tailback Greg Lewis, the then Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and Doak Walker Award winner, and a lineman named Dean Kirkland.

The current Huskies have 14 regulars coming back, now that wide receiver Rome Odunze has agreed to another college season. There will be no Jaxson Kirkland in the lineup, now headed off to the NFL, but plenty of talent, and the UW will press on like it did without his dad.

Odunze, in pledging another season of his services, referenced both the previous 1991 national championship and deferred to the UW's unofficial 1960 title run by saying, "We're coming for a third."

Penix has the ability to be the UW's 2023 Emtman; in other words, take over a game and make it impossible for an opponent to respond. The left-handed quarterback could be as unstoppable standing in the pocket as Emtman was in collapsing one.

Emtman, of course, demanded that everyone around him step it up in a big way from the season before and accept nothing less than perfection — which is what the 1991 UW team made happen in going 12-0 by beating Nebraska, Michigan, USC and every other challenger that season.

Penix has held similar sway over his Huskies, impressive winners this past season over Michigan State, Oregon and Texas, simply by announcing he was returning for 2023 rather than turn to the NFL draft as a possible first-rounder and imploring everyone to join him.

Seven other teammates have publicly proclaimed similar intentions, with Odunze the last to make up his mind.

Now people might say that UW talk of "a natty" is really a stretch while modern-day Georgia remains well-stocked with elite talent. Yet 32 years ago, Miami was supposedly the same unbeatable presence down South. Of course, those Huskies and Hurricanes, without a College Football Playoff in place, had to share and be co-champions, and to this day still argue who was better.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.

This article first appeared on FanNation Husky Maven and was syndicated with permission.

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