Greatest Moments at Husky Stadium - "All I Saw Was Purple"

Jimmy Phelan seconds to go in mid-september of 1990 the University of Washington Husky football team was to a no on the season but it didn't quite feel like the winning start that was expected it'll be Tommy Smith in the endzone and he'll leave it right there this was a husky team that had played two games that season and and struggled against San Jose State here in Seattle and then went on the road to a very unimpressive win over Purdue and this was a pretty highly touted team and people are wondering are they really that good well what a great measuring stick this would be with Todd Marinovich and mighty USC coming to town a little bit looks like inaudible he has two wides to the right one to the left the University of Southern California longtime rival nemesis intimidating with a player pedigree that always stacked the deck against the dogs players like Todd Marinovich Robo QB everyone in the stands knew that he was dangerous shall we say the fans were tuned up and ready for that one that's his electric a crowd as I have ever experienced it husky stating that it was palpable you could just feel the buzz in the stadium if you talk about true fan base making an impact on a game you may not feel like you alone to make an impact in the game you're not running you're not catching you're not suited out but that day clearly the fans made a difference in that game and that day against Todd Marinovich coming in USC Southern California pretty boys and against here in Husky Stadium the bad boys of Washington you know I mean coach James already and he made SC a focal point I mean obviously the Cougars have been the major rivalry and now the Ducks with their rise but you know coach Jim says if we're gonna win this conference we've got to beat the best and the best has always been us see we still have with Don James we called a 48-hour rule so 48 hours before a game there's no laugh and joking around you're getting ready for business and that week he asked us to do it for the whole week he said I you know don't want you guys in your room watching The Late Show and this and that and I just just focus I'm asking to do this just for this week an outstanding play to get marked Verdell off on the right foot you got a quarterback there's trouble look struggled for a couple of weeks this was just the third game of the year and Brunel by his own admission he was this close to getting benched so the Huskies were in very tenuous shaky situation going into that game I think we've lost three or four in a row to USC so it was just this kind of release of the past the recent past which hadn't been so good and it was like the team in the building both rose up to that moment it was probably a hundred degrees on the field it was extremely hot I think USC came in they were right probably number five and they were hiding their horse and they were arrogant they were coming out the locker room kind of arrogant temperature the atmosphere the stadium that was one of those times where it was like moving like you felt like the earth was moving almost like an earthquake it was one of those days and you know sometimes we like if SC comes to town we like it to rain so we have the advantage but it didn't matter that day it was one of those days that you never forget two wide receivers one to each side Marinovich watch the troll running in the first quarter USC mounts their first drive knocked away by Chico Fraley good pressure by Chico second and 10 from the 30 they keep it on the ground Ervin's gets the call Huskies are in the backfield Steve that went number nine he was the first to get there and bottle things up in the pursuit by the rest of the Huskies if I had to pick one guy it would have to be Steve empty - that hid the best player I've ever seen and not just the most dominating player but the best football player and I think oftentimes we reserve that for offensive players and because they they handle the ball and so forth but Steve emp'd man as an athlete and a football player to me was was absolutely unparalleled nobody could block him he was the best football player I had seen then and and for my money still is the best football player I've ever seen go through here he was stopping the run and fortunate and if they're on the ball and forcing the men said what we wanted to do second down and eight for the Huskies on the road 36 sophomore Mark Brunell cranks up his left arm and gets the Husky offense rolling first it's a laser to Mario Bailey Bailey open at the 45 gets up to midfield a knock down there on the 49 of USC and a first down for the ha on this day you could see Mark Brunell as an NFL quarterback in the making right side got man open good for a first down to the 37 yard line when will McCain step on a slippery safety with the tackle down 13 there was nothing finer than sitting back and watching Brunel pick SC apart play after play straight drop back said it with the spring the Lord that will be the outside is the SC Trojan those honor leather falls down and Lewis a police they involved 35 the table the left Bailey to the right and in his Bailey one more time with an amazing catch at the one the corner got a man yes our four basic two fullbacks Lewis what's down Washington Huskies waste no time getting up on the board seven-zip in the first quarter evidently it is scores on the second possession in the first quarter this espe team all year third down and 13 from our own 17 us sees next drive stalls out got motion again lot of noise down there taking its toll on the USC offense and on their next possession the Huskies get busy that's a key block I guess that Ross now close to the first down inside the 15 that's the thing s/he was most worried about well this man can run a field goal attempt from the 16 yard line and the Huskies get a second chance crucial mistake it's good now the dogs lead 10 zip after one quarter USC is going nowhere fast he was stopping the run and unfortunately I'm in to throw on the ball and forcing them into doing what we wanted to do we really didn't let too much those first series would go out there and just establish that we you're not going on the ball unless you're gonna run the ball three times you're gonna lose four yards and that's and it's gonna hurt and then after that would start getting in their heads and start to the fakes and the up call - changes changing coverages blitzing fake take the Blitz quarterback doesn't know what to do and it often the coordinator up in the box doesn't know what to do the beginning of the second quarter now Marinovich with the pass attempt that comes the pressure law past eleven interception Washington Eric Cristo but the twenty with Washington Lee the middle of the second quarter and USC is backed up deep in their own territory chickens where they want to be right now as they go to organs and again in the back trailer to Coakley's the man he's making checks and calls on offense you're making check some calls on defense maybe actually changes something he might not you might be just trying to get in his head and you might pre position yourself and your defensive lineman in a spot just to get him to run the ball where you want them and that's a that's actually a decoy and that's and there's a lot of you know going on there I remember you all in the quarterbacks to run you know I loved it when they ran the ball so when they get behind they have to start their own and I'd bag them and scream at the quarterback to run the ball they have these elaborate blitzes elaborate points and they were cutting edge in terms of their ability to put pressure on a quarterback it's not just the blitzing it's the mental stress that quarterback those two because you think of the progression for a quarterback it comes up to live scrimmage and it's like a little sex law you got to handle the cover but you want to put that check mark in that box as quick as possible and then the next check box is to read the defense and the defense tells you to whom you're going to throw the football it was such an assortment of disguised blitzes but I'm sure that he was spending a lot more time than he would have ever wanted to trying to decipher is his protection handle Clifford and and Hoffman they were just kind of walking back and forth and there was this there was this kind of in something one sense they were kind of calm they were just like stalking their prey see the fun chico freely can't gonna clean though just to look in their eyes just kind of stunned some of us we didn't we knew we were good but we didn't know we were that good when the Huskies get the ball back Greg Lewis goes towards miss the ball machine gets rolled up to midfield now the footrace to the 44 for and that's one people always ask me what was your best asset Gregor's a running back was your speed your strength your size and I would sell know what's my offensive line the offensive line that I ran behind I think put quite a few people in the NFL starting with Ed Cunningham in the center Jeff Powell Coweta tackled Lincoln Kennedy in attack Oh soup a late-model Ambala and are tight in air Pierce all those guys played the NFL for a certain length of time so not just a skilled player we have some outstanding weapons they offensive line to the right side man it's complete tomorrow baby now after a beautiful throat of Mario Bailey on the sidelines Mark Brunell goes on the attack using his legs so first down for the when I was seven many times and that is look in December it was just a blitzkrieg it was Pearl Harbor against SC and to see the the physicality with which the Huskies played and Brunel played great running scrambling throwing making all the plays to crowd the shaken three minutes three minutes at I'm still on Washington side there he is Turner what's down Washington for his second attempt to the point after and that is good the Huskies extend their second quarter lead to 17 unanswered points and USC is in a place they rarely find themselves in they thought that this would be another easy victory and at that time we had we had to beat USC in at least three years because my first three years we had lost USC we had not beaten them during my career so I was really hoping that that day we would go out and be able to get a victory and I don't think we knew how good we were I think we had kind of played a little bit of a Vennela offense the first three games but that day we turned loose of the USC Trojans just to look in their eyes just kind of stunned some of us we didn't we knew we were good but we didn't know we were that good he just watched him and you saw that he was completely out of rhythm no confidence no sense of understanding schematically how they're gonna make an adjustment undoubtedly they were trying to make adjustments but the Huskies were one step ahead of those adjustments interception Tommy Smith down and that is the first second intersection a toddler in ODIs today Nullah restrictions Smith picks this one off 15 yards the situation for the Trojans goes from bad to really really embarrassing to games that he has suffered to over the first half the one guy that I really love to watch is Mario Bailey I would I would get up on third down there there's a good chance they're gonna go home and II wish they would've had a Jumbotron back in the day and watch the replays but he was he was something he was he was my opinion best receiver in the country and it was just the way he carried himself and the way he made plays it was a joy to watch he's a guy get off the bench to watch by the time we got to the RC game we were in their backfield as much as they were in their battlefield goodbye day by the end of the first half the Huskies lead 24 to nothing for USC that's 24 reasons why they shouldn't have gotten on the plane to Seattle in the first place the Husky team that was taking command of the field that day was the culmination of a plan put into motion by Jim Lam right the previous year a year that the defense struggled Jim just had had enough and said we need to make some changes we need to do some things differently and it was in that 89 season the next week at Oregon state that they unveiled this attacking style defense the Chicago bear defense of the day by the time we got to the RC game it was the snare to gameplay we were in their backfield as much as they were in their backfield and probably for me the number one game that I got to witness in Husky Stadium as far as dominating a team it was much more of your players had been fed an attack style and the taste of it was now accepted it was something that not only did they buy into but now we had played around with us enough so that we gave them the right to shift and change things on the field based on formations and motions and this sort of thing so that it would add to our efficiency it would with them on the coaches part to use the talents of their players you couldn't just go out there and line up and play if you couldn't think in this defense you had to think anything quick you had to understand what we were doing not just what you were doing what everybody was doing it where you fit in and if somebody did a little different assignment than they were originally planning off you had to adjust on the fly and at the end of the thing it's all got to work and so I was together and we just adjusted off each other we communicated great when he calls it first and ten USC begins the second half right where they left off here come the Huskies come again f1 is in the battle and the Huskies pick up right where they left off Mussina 3435 walking down the next field with corner to the 30 Louis on the screen 66-yard the Husky offense mounts one more good rough down the field that's a room midfield to the 40 to the 20 yard line and inside the tray Marcus Hopkins number two with a stop after the 45 yard Louis very emotion Louis nope not at all the first down that's here will be goodness sakes first and goal from the one double tide in turn that Stan Ross his second company it's 31 nothing in the fourth quarter and the Husky avalanche never stops falling on the Trojans over the a good feeling I'm going out there and taking shots on I Marinovich and the rest of those guys and yeah we did it we realized it's artfully taken and we turned by the end of the game coverboy Todd Marinovich is captured in this image I still have a picture setting in my office at home of Marinovich and with the quote from the from the press about all I saw was purple Todd Marinovich wasn't the only one who all he saw was purple I think that went for everybody in the crowd that day it was a spectacular day of Husky football all I could see was purple was exactly what we're talking about the pressure defense people up in your face and them not knowing where we were coming from they've probably never been inside before or after that the crowds been that loud the backlog is that intense the entire game and not only did we beat USC but we beat the tar out of them and to the point that by the end of the game they didn't want to play anymore and with everybody knows the famous quote by Todd Marinovich all I saw it was purple but I can guarantee you that they're defensive guys all they saw was purple and a lot of people running up and down the field on him so I don't think anything compares that game could catapulted us into three straight Rose Bowl appearances three straight pac-10 championships and almost three national championships in a row I'll never forget the feeling and you know I come off the field my mom's standing there and she's just she's you know I mean she's from back east she didn't know Husky football she's got all her purple on and you know she's been she can barely speak because she's been screaming as loud as she can because everyone else was screaming as loud as they could and for me that was the moment where it was like okay this is where I'm supposed to be I'm supposed to be here I'm supposed to be playing for this team I'm supposed to be at this building for us we had such a good team of good guys guys who liked each other and worked hard it was just confirmation that if you do things the right way and you're good people and you work hard these these are the results you can have and the building was just staggering that day next time on greatest moments at Husky Stadium the James Gang arrives and takes Husky fans on a joy ride all the way to Pasadena almost goes all the way Kyle Stephens was about a block away from a game breaker

Channel: DM Martinez

Views: 55,172

Keywords: 1990, Washington, Huskies, football, Mark, Brunell, Steve, Emtman, Mario, Bailey, Greg, Lewis, USC, Trojans, Todd, Marinovich, Robo, QB

Id: iAdatk-tG6Y

Length: 22min 41sec (1361 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 25 2011