The recruitment of local 4-star defensive end, David Schwerzel has taken an interesting twist–a subplot if you will.

Schwerzel, who attends O’Dea in Seattle appears to be down to UCLA and Washington.  In trimming his listed 15 offers to those two schools he’d pitted former  UW foe, Marcus Griffin against former UW friend, Ikaika Malloe.

Malloe is a former defender who played his college ball at Washington, as a walk-on linebacker/defensive back.  He’s worked his way up the coaching ranks, returning to Washington twice as a coach.  After graduation he became a graduate assistant from 1997 until 2001 when he left for stops from Yale in Connecticut to the University of Hawaii and many stops in between, including UW in 2016-2021.  He is also highly respected in recruiting and coaching circles around the country.

Griffin is a former defender who played his college ball at Arizona then served as Cal’s recruiting coordinator in 2024.  He’s highly respected in  recruiting circles on the West Coast, as well.  In fact, in his one-year stint with the Golden Bears he was able to flip 5-star QB from Oregon to Cal.

Griffin is also deploying perhaps a secret weapon former O’Dea defender, former three-time All-American safety and NFL veteran Taylor Mays, who dipped out of town for the USC Trojans.

The stakes are high for Schwerzel.  Washington is sitting on the edge of a Top 15 class and his commitment would push them over that threshold.  Adding him to a defensive front that includes 4-star Derek Coleman-Brusa, along with recent 4-star commits Gavin Day, safety and cornerback Jeron Jones, would give the Huskies a ton of momentum in landing 5-star edge Tristian Givens who is down to Washington, Texas A&M and Tennessee.

Now it’s Griffin and Mays job to keep Schwerzel from taking his talents out of the Evergreen State while Malloe tries to steer Schwerzel away from the place that helped get him started in college football in the first place.