by Gary Pinkel
That season, we gave a few snaps to Mark Brunell, our left-handed redshirt freshman from Santa Maria, California. In 1990, we turned the offense over to Brunell, now a sophomore. Mark and I became very close, but we had some rough moments together early. His first game as the starter, the home opener against San Jose State, was brutal. I was calling the plays and absolutely nothing worked. It was one of those days. The fans booed Mark at Husky Stadium. Yes, our fans. Husky fans can be hard on the quarterback, especially after a string of so many passers who ended up in the NFL. That day, he wasn’t the most popular guy in Seattle. We were lucky to win by a field goal.
Then we went on the road to Purdue. He struggled as badly if not worse there. And this wasn’t a very good Purdue team. They were in the middle of a stretch of 12 straight losing seasons. Coach James and I talked throughout the game on the headsets. Coach James’ philosophy on quarterbacks was all based on control. If he felt like the quarterback was playing under control, he’d stick with him. But as soon as you see the kid’s head isn’t in the game, and he’s hurting the team, helping the opponent, then it’s time to play someone else.
Mark was playing pretty poorly. At halftime we decided we’d give him a couple more series and then make a decision. Early in the third quarter, Mark broke the huddle and lined up under the guard, Dean Kirkland, instead of Ed Cunningham, our center. Not good. When the quarterback slaps his hand under the center, it’s routine for both players. But if you’re a guard and never had a hand slapped under there, it’s a different kind of feeling. On the film, you could see Dean nudge a little bit when Mark’s hand gets under there. But Dean showed great discipline. He didn’t pop up or make a scene. He just tried to wave Mark over to Ed at center.
At this point, a linebacker from Purdue got his attention and waved at Mark and motioned to the center. Finally, Mark shifted over, got behind Ed and took the snap. One problem. He ran the wrong way. The running back went one direction to take a handoff, and Mark went the other way. We ended up punting and Coach James decided Mark would get one more series before we’d have to decide. From there, he completed a few passes and made just enough plays to win the game.
In the press conference after the game, a reporter asked Mark about lining up behind the guard. He said, “When you’re out on the field, all those big butts just look the same.” I thought that was pretty cool. It takes some poise to make a mistake like that and then laugh about it after the game. Although at the time, I grabbed him and said, “You put me through hell out there and then you go up there and joke about it?” He had a big smile on his face.
A week later, we came home and hosted Southern Cal, coached by Larry Smith. Our goal at Washington was to have the best program among the four Pac-12 schools in the Northwest: UW, Washington State, Oregon, and Oregon State. Oregon was starting to become a serious rival in those days, but for us in Seattle, the benchmark was always the two Los Angeles teams, UCLA and USC. Coach James always reminded us that when we’re on the road recruiting, we had to find players good enough to beat UCLA and USC. Our goal wasn’t just to win some games. The goal was to beat those guys. If you want to win championships, you have to go through the Bruins and Trojans.
The 1988 recruiting class featured a few elite quarterback prospects from Southern California. USC went hard after two of the best: Todd Marinovich and Mark Brunell. Todd committed to the Trojans first, then Mark chose us, setting up a showdown in Seattle the third game of the season. USC was 3–0, ranked No. 5, and carried a 20-game Pac-10 winning streak into Husky Stadium. Marinovich already had a full year of starting experience on our guy, but it didn’t matter that day. We started using Mark’s speed on bootlegs and nakeds and his true talents came out. We not only won, we ambushed the Trojans 31–0.
I’d always tell our players, “When we’re struggling, you never know when greatness is around the corner. You just never know.” But it’s happened throughout my career. That’s why you persevere. Mark ended up being second-team All-Pac-10 and the MVP of the Rose Bowl that season. Who would have imagined that?
We slipped up the next week on the road against eventual national champion Colorado—a week later the Buffs used five downs to win at Missouri—but finished strong with six wins over the final seven weeks. We finished with 10 wins, smashed Washington State in the Apple Cup by 45 points, and beat Iowa in Pasadena. Washington finished the season Pac-10 champions and ranked No. 5. For the season, Mark threw for more than 1,700 yards and ran for another 400. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t find his center in his first road game. And to think the home fans booed him in his first start of the season. Husky fans are awesome but can get a little spoiled sometimes.
Everyone’s favorite player is the backup quarterback. Years later, our Mizzou coaches wanted Brad Smith to play his freshman year. They’d seen him in practice, so halfway through the season they wanted to play him. I just said, “We’re not going to do this. We’re not going to waste all this talent on half a season.” I wasn’t worried that he’d be so good that he’d come out early to enter the NFL draft. But I just knew the personnel issues we had at the time, and it wasn’t worth playing him. I learned how to make those tough decisions under Coach James. And when it comes to quarterbacks, those decisions are magnified so much more. It’s a gut feeling.
Rock bottom for Mark was when he lined up under the guard, but I think it was a turning point. Somehow he worked through that mistake—and the rest is history. That kind of patience served us well over time, at Washington, at Toledo, and certainly at Missouri. You see a lot of coaches get rid of a quarterback at the first sign of struggles. We stuck with Mark that day at Purdue, because you never know when greatness is around the corner.
• • •
I coached some great quarterbacks at Washington, but the Huskies’ best player in that era was a defensive lineman, a player I recruited to play for Coach James. Steve Emtman was from Cheney, Washington, a small town on the Eastern side of the state near Spokane. Steve was heavily recruited, but he really wasn’t interested in a lot of places. He was just a real grounded guy who never got caught up in the recruiting process.
It came down to us and Washington State. He didn’t want to visit other places. The more I got to know Steve, the more I realized he was wired differently than most kids. He was unusually intense. He had a great passion to be a great player, even as a high school recruit. When he came on his recruiting trip, he’d already had his official visit to Washington State. Pullman, Washington, was closer to his hometown. We had to have a unique sales pitch. He came to Seattle on a Sunday morning and spent all day with us. I wanted him to feel the enormity of Husky Stadium because it was so different than what he’d experience at Washington State. We had just had the stadium renovated with a new big deck. I walked him all the way to the top of the stadium and told him, “Imagine 73,000 people in here. This is why we’ve been to Rose Bowls. This is why we win championships.”
The magnitude of that stadium is impressive. I never did that with any other recruit. I wanted to separate our program from the other guys. We couldn’t let him look at Washington in the same light as our rivals. I thought he had a great visit. I took him to the airport and kidded around and said, “If at any time you want to be a Husky, even if you decide at three in the morning, you call me.”
He kept his thoughts very private. We couldn’t tell where he stood. At 2:00 am, I got a phone call. I assumed it’s one of my quarterbacks and it’s something serious. I grabbed the phone. “Coach, it’s Steve Emtman.” I tried my best to sound awake, but years later he told me I sounded like I was half asleep, which of course I was. “I just want you to be the first to know I’m going to be a Washington Husky.” Well, that woke me up. I started yelling and screaming in the middle of the night. I just thought this guy had something special. He was really good on film, but the more time you spent around him, you got a sense for his passion to be great. That’s why he chose us over Washingt
on State. He felt we were the program that could get him to where he wanted to go. I told him, “I would call Coach James right now, but it might be best we wait until about six in the morning if that’s okay with you. But this is the best 2 am call I’ve ever gotten.”
We recruited Steve to play along the defensive line, but there was a push on the staff to play him on offense. We never told Steve that, but Coach James said we’d settle on a position once we got to preseason camp. Obviously we never made that move. I put Steve at the highest level of competitor of players I’ve coached or played with, right there with Jack Lambert, my teammate at Kent State, and Shane Ray, our All-American defensive end at Mizzou. There are other people in that conversation, but those three were at the top. In 1991, Steve went on to win the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award. He finished fourth in the Heisman voting and became the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick in 1992. Injuries cut his career short, but that couldn’t erase everything he did for the Huskies.
• • •
After we finished the 1990 season with the Rose Bowl victory, I interviewed for the head coaching job at Bowling Green. I had been an assistant coach there for two years. I was from Ohio, won a Mid-American Conference championship as a player at Kent State, and coached for 12 years under Don James, someone with a great legacy in that state and the conference. It must not have helped. The Bowling Green job went to Gary Blackney, a defensive assistant at Ohio State.
It wasn’t the only vacant job in the MAC. I also interviewed at Kent State, my alma mater. The AD asked me what I planned to do differently. I said, “Well, my personality is different than Coach James, but what he did here works. What he’s doing at Washington works. I’d build the same program here at Kent State.” That wasn’t the answer he was looking for. They wanted to get away from the Don James approach. I didn’t understand why. All Coach James had done was deliver the school’s first conference championship. They’d gone through six coaches since Don left for Washington. I didn’t get the job. They turned down Nick Saban, too. They hired Pete Cordelli, one of Lou Holtz’s assistant coaches at Notre Dame. Holtz had played at Kent State.
At the time, I remember my wife told some of her friends in Seattle, “Well, if you’re worried about us moving away, the place where he went to school wouldn’t hire him and the place he used to work wouldn’t hire him. We’re probably going to be here for a long time.” Maybe she was right. But I always believed I’d end up at the right place at the right time, eventually.
Most of Coach James’ assistants would get their chance to be a head coach somewhere. If any of them struggled or got fired in another job, I made the habit of asking them what didn’t work. Most of them had tried to run their program their own way, not the way they learned under Coach James. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Most of them changed their recruiting evaluation system. That was okay, too. But I always told myself I’d stick to the program that proved to be a success…if I’d ever get that chance.
I loved Seattle. I loved the environment. It’s a beautiful part of the country. In 1983, Coach James, myself, and some of the staff climbed Mt. Rainier, the highest mountain in the state, 14,409 feet above sea level. The climb was a great experience that taught us about perseverance, commitment, and the fragility of the future.
We were so connected to the area. It was such a special place for our family. Both of our sons were born in Seattle. First it was Geoff on September 9, 1979. It was really exciting to have a boy. We had just moved back to Washington, and to this day, Geoff still has a group of lifelong friends from our time in Seattle. Geoff played sports when he was young and became an exceptional golfer. Then Blake came along on February 26, 1983. Both boys have grown up to become devoted husbands and fathers. I’m so proud of all three of my kids.
My schedule was so consumed with coaching and recruiting that when it came to family, my time with the kids was about the quality of the moment not the quantity of moments. We spent a lot of time visiting the parks around Seattle. When Erin and Geoff were old enough I’d wake them up early and take them to parks in Bellevue or around Lake Washington. I’d jog while they rode their bikes. We’d usually sneak in a Slurpee or Dairy Queen Blizzard before heading back home. On days off we’d take the ferry to Whidbey Island for the day.
During the season I was usually out of the house before the kids got up for school and rarely home before they went to bed, but any chance I could steal some time away from work I’d cross the Evergreen Point Bridge and zip home. We lived close to the team facility for that very purpose. We could have had a nicer house farther away, but I wanted a quick drive home. The kids would come by the office on Monday nights when we’d have 90 minutes to get away for dinner. In the summers we’d go back to Ohio to visit family, but in the winter we were fortunate to have free family vacations 11 of our 12 years in Seattle: bowl games. Whether it was Los Angeles or Honolulu or El Paso, we could count on a December vacation almost every season.
I thought I was ready to run my own program, but I swung twice and missed both times that offseason. Another year at Washington wouldn’t be the worst alternative. Brunell and Emtman would be back for another season, and the quarterback pipeline was stacked with Billy Joe Hobert and Damon Huard, both from Puyallup, Washington. I went into the offseason fully expecting to be back for another year with the Huskies.
An old teammate had another idea.
Mizzou vs. Nebraska
October 11, 2003 Columbia, Missouri
Nebraska had dominated this series for more than two decades and came into the zou ranked No. 10 in the national polls.
Team Meting Thursday, October 9, 3:30 pm
“I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time, to beat Nebraska on national TV. What a great opportunity! How exciting is this? This game is very important to our program.
1.It’s on national TV.
2.We’re playing at the ZOU. Play great on offense, defense, and the kicking game, and the fans will go wild!
3.Show people around the country that Mizzou can beat the best.
4.Give back to Mizzou fans. There are a lot of doubters. That’s okay. We will change that.
5.Earn respect! Nebraska has no respect for you. We can change that. They’ll respect us kicking their ass!
6.Now I’m going to tell you how we are going to win this game. This is what I want from you—know the plan. I want instinctive play. No thinking, only reacting. I want you the most enthusiastic you have ever played as an individual and as a unit. Every play for four quarters! I want you to outcompete Nebraska for every play for four quarters. Play harder every play for four quarters. Hit harder every play for four quarters. Outfight them every play for four quarters. Finally, I want you to have fun and turn it loose!”
Final: Mizzou 41, Nebraska 24
Brad Smith and a timely defense led us to our first breakthrough win as a program and snapped a losing streak of 24 games to the Huskers. Smith was electric and accounted for 350 yards of offense, including a 47-yard touchdown catch on a trick play. We were aggressive all night and also threw a touchdown on a fake field goal as we outscored Nebraska 27–0 in the fourth quarter.
4. Toledo: Head Coach, Day One
Throughout my football life a pattern seemed to develop. Kenmore High School wasn’t supposed to be a place where you could win championships. But we won a championship. Kent State wasn’t supposed to be a place where you could win championships. We won a championship. Coach James turned Washington into the class of the Pac-10 and won championships year after year.
Back in the Mid-American Conference, the University of Toledo won MAC championships in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, including three straight undefeated seasons from 1969 to ’71. The program won the MAC six times from 1967 to ’84. But in the mid-1980s, the rest of the league began to catch up. Toledo hadn’t upgraded its facilities for decades until a renovation began in 1989. In
1990, Toledo looked to the NFL to hire its next head coach and chose my old teammate, Nick Saban, who had been working under Jerry Glanville with the Houston Oilers. Saban bounced around several college programs after leaving Kent State but landed his first head-coaching job at Toledo. He was an instant hit and guided the Rockets to nine wins and a share of the conference title.
Meanwhile, back in Seattle, after coming off our Rose Bowl victory over Iowa, we knew we’d have another great team in 1991. It was the middle of February. National signing day had passed. Spring practices were still weeks away. After a day out skiing with Jeff Woodruff, our receivers coach, I stopped by the office to check my messages. Saban had called. That was a little unusual.
I called him back and he said, “Gary, don’t tell anyone, but I’m going to work for Bill Belichick with the Cleveland Browns. I can’t promise you the Toledo job; if you’re interested, I can get you an interview. It’s a good job.” Saban and Belichick had coached together years earlier at the Naval Academy. Belichick wanted Nick to become his defensive coordinator in Cleveland. Nick couldn’t resist that kind of offer.
It was well past the time of year when college head coaches moved around accepting new jobs. The timing was unique.
I had already lost out on the head-coaching jobs at Bowling Green and Kent State. Why not try for another? I flew to Ohio for the interview with athletic director Al Bohl. At the time, Nick’s assistant coaches were already planning for the 1991 season. If I got the job, I didn’t have to keep Nick’s staff, but it was strongly implied that it would be a good idea. I figured if I agreed to keep the staff for one year the transition would be a lot easier for everyone involved. From there, I’d see where things led. The job was mine if I wanted it. And I did.